Recently, a specific political dynamic has re-emerged in Armenia that deserves serious attention.
In the late 1980s, during the escalation of the Armenia–Azerbaijan war, the majority of Kurds (also known as “bruk(s)”) left Armenia to avoid military participation, their argument was “we won’t go to war against our muslim brothers”. After leaving, these individuals settled in Kazakhstan, where they remained for decades, developing political networks and ideological positions far removed from the realities inside Armenia. Today, those same actors are re-entering Armenia life in an organised and confrontational manner.
Do these people deserve to be allowed back into Armenia? The same country they declined to defend and instead chose to abandon in its most critical moment?
They Abandoned Armenian In Its Most Critical Moment
Why have they decided to re-emerge in Armenia, a country that went to war with their Muslim brothers? What changed? Their convictions, or their calculations? People who refuse to defend the country of which they are citizens, and instead interpret loyalty through religion, pose a serious risk to that country. If they do not see Armenia as their homeland, but rather as a Christian state standing opposite Muslim states, then their loyalty is conditional. And conditional loyalty is a national security threat. If tomorrow Armenia faces conflict with a Muslim-majority country, where will these people stand? With Armenia — or with religious solidarity? A citizen who does not respect the nationality of the state, but filters everything through religion, does not see Armenia as his own country. He sees it as religiously opposed to him.
This is not paranoia. This is a question of political realism.
These Kurds are not as peaceful as they present themselves. Beyond the issue of state loyalty, they pose a direct risk to Ezidis. Their long-standing efforts to diminish the Ezidi ethnicity and absorb Ezidis into a Kurdish identity are well documented. Ezidis are an ancient people with their own religion, Sharfadin, and a distinct history. Attempts to erase that distinction are not cultural dialogue; they are political aggression.
It was only recently that we witnessed coordinated social media attacks carried out by these Kazakhstan-based Kurds against Ezidi activists. Those who speak publicly for Ezidi rights were targeted through harassment campaigns, comment flooding, deepfakes, smear tactics, and manipulated media. This is not peaceful engagement. It is intimidation.
Have You Forgotten the Past?
History will be repeated if it is forgotten. During the First World War, Kurdish tribal forces participated alongside Ottoman authorities in the killing, rape, and looting (genocide) of Armenians, Assyrians, Ezidis, Greeks, and others. This is historical fact. The regions of Van, Mush, Erzurum and many other ancestral lands, where Armenians, Assyrians and Ezidis lived for thousands of years, are today populated largely by Kurds. The houses built over the ruins, the looted churches, the disturbed graves. The earth in those regions is still marked by the blood of our ancestors.
Who lives there now? It is not Turks alone. It is Kurds. The same Kurdish populations that now seek influence in Armenia.
So the question must be asked clearly: why return to Armenia? Why not remain in Kazakhstan? Why not move to Turkey? Why not relocate to another Muslim-majority country? Why return to the country they once refused to defend — the country that fought against their “Muslim brothers”?
To allow back individuals who demonstrated abandonment in wartime, who frame politics through religion, and who actively target Ezidis today, is not tolerance. It is naivety. It is historical amnesia. It is disregard for the sacrifices of our ancestors.
Is the memory of Armenia and Armenians this short?
Why invite back individuals whose past and present behaviour raise legitimate concerns about loyalty, stability, and respect for the dignity of the Armenian state?
