Based on field-work and participant observation carried out in the city of Tbilisi since August 2014, this conference will present the way the local ethno-religious Yezidi community received a small diaspora of Iraqi Yezidi who escaped from the Sinjar Mountain region following the last Isil massacres, as a by-product of the ongoing Iraqi and Syrian wars.
Their coming to Tbilisi intersected an attempted religious revival of the Yezidi community in Georgia. This was however linked to the controversial building of a Yezidi religious structure already facing opposition and criticism related to identity issues from within the same community.
By connecting these two events, the presentation will bring out important insights that should help develop a broader understanding of ethno-religious minorities, both within and without the wider Caucasus region. Those minorities are at present facing growing incomprehension and increasingly perceive themselves as victims of segregation attempts coming from both exogenous and endogenous forces.