Armenians in the Kurdistan Region mark Christmas with celebrations muted by virus

DUHOK, Kurdistan Region — Armenians in the Kurdistan Region marked Christmas with celebrations more muted than in previous years, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike the majority of the Christian community, Armenian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 6. In the Armenian village of Hawreske in Duhok province’s Simele district, community members have had to take a different approach to festivities.

"We’re knocking on doors one by one, wishing them a merry Christmas,” said young villager Marina Watanika. “Last year, [Christmas] was more exciting because there was no coronavirus.”

Almost two million people worldwide have died after contracting the coronavirus – over 3,400 of them in the Kurdistan Region. The pandemic has brought life, including celebrations like Christmas, to a near standstill.

Over 2,000 Armenians currently live in the Kurdistan Region, Yerwant Nisan, an Armenian community leader and a former MP in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament told Rudaw on Wednesday.

The vast majority, around 2,000, are in Duhok province, and 200 live in Erbil. Another 800 live in Kirkuk, a province whose control is disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, Nisan said.

The Constitution of the Kurdistan Region recognizes Armenians as an ethnic component, provides the right to mother-tongue education in the Armenian language, and reserves one seat in parliament for Armenians.

There are six Armenian churches in the Kurdistan Region – four in Duhok province, and one each in Erbil and Kirkuk.

Armenian churches in the Region house memorial statues placed to honor those massacred during the Armenian Genocide – the systematic killing and deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, in which approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

“When the Armenians fled here [to the Kurdistan Region] 105 years ago, the people of Kurdistan accepted Armenians and let us celebrate our feasts – especially in Zakho, because we entered [the Kurdistan Region] through Zakho,” Nisan told Rudaw.

“We have never considered ourselves foreigners here because we are from this country,” he said.

Elsewhere in the world , Armenians said in the run-up to Christmas that they would not be celebrating in solidarity with those affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh war, in which over 2,500 Armenians, mostly soldiers, were killed in six weeks of conflict with Azerbaijan. The countries signed a Moscow-brokered peace deal in November.

“Some families are celebrating it at home for the sake of their small kids, but generally speaking, no one is in a festive mood,” Irina Safaryan, a 28-year-old Armenian social activist living in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital of Stepanakert told Rudaw English. “There are families who have no idea where their men are, or even if they are alive – the whole country is mourning… I myself have lost lots of friends”.

Murad Wartaniya, Hawreske’s chieftain, expressed hope for a better 2021.

“The year 2020 was unpleasant to all people as a whole,” he said. “God willing, 2021 will bring safety and prosperity to all."

Reporting by Nasir Ali, translation by Khazan Jangiz