Sep 18, 2014

Yezidis In Tbilisi Demonstrate Against ISIS

#SaveYezidis demonstration, Tbilisi, Georgia © Onnik James Krikorian 2014

Now I’ve finished some outstanding work I can finally post some of the material I’ve shot over the past a month and a half. First up, Yezidis in Georgia protesting the latest onslaught and wave of atrocities in Iraq by the Islamic State in two separate demonstrations held in Tbilisi in the first and second week of August.

Democracy and Freedom Watch covered the second demonstration held outside the former parliament building on the city’s central Rustaveli Avenue.

’Stop ISIS’ was the slogan of a rally organized by the Yazidi community in Tbilisi as a show of solidarity with their besieged countrymen in Iraq, who suffer from ruthless savagery by the terrorists from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

 

There is an almost 20,000 strong Yazidi community in Georgia, 90 percent of them have lived in Tbilisi during the last two centuries.

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“We must show Georgia and the international community the brutality against Yezidis in Iraq. The world is in danger,” organizers of the rally say.

 

Another solidarity rally was held by the Yezidi community on August 6 outside the UN office in Tbilisi, and was joined by youth organizations and representatives of different religious groups.

 

Yazidis are a Kurdish speaking people whose belief is different from the belief of other Kurds. They are followers of a pre-Islamic religion related to the old Persian Zoroastrism and Mithraism – sun worship

#SaveYezidis demonstration, Tbilisi, Georgia © Onnik James Krikorian 2014

Beyond Borders: Parajanov Centennial Marked in Yerevan and Tbilisi

Beyond Borders: Parajanov Centennial Marked in Yerevan and Tbilisi

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of legendary ethnic Armenian film director Sergei Parajanov. Very much a child of the South Caucasus, Parajanov’s work encompassed Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgian, Moldova, and Ukrainian influences, with his legacy living on today.