Yazidi refugees are ready to move to Armenia, which could be made possible only through the government’s goodwill, the head of the Union of Sinjar Yazidis told Zhamanak daily.

“The 30,000 refugees who fled from northern Iraq to Turkey fear persecutions in the country,” Boris Murazi said. “If put in a corner, Turkey will defend the interests of radical Islamists as it did back in 1974 during Batman pogroms against Yazidis.”

Earlier, Yazidi activist Khdr Khajoyan said that Armenian and Karabakh authorities are ready to accommodate the refugees, however, Turkey is unwilling to cooperate on the issue.

In early September, the government of Armenia allocated $100,000 in aid to violence-stricken Iraqi Yazidis.

Hundreds and possibly thousands of Yazidis are believed to have been killed by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) since the fall of Sinjar, the main Yazidi-populated town in the country’s north. Tens of thousands of Sinjar residents fled the town after being told to convert to Islam or face death. Most of them still remain trapped on a nearby barren mountain, facing starvation.

Iraq is home to at least 600,000 Yazidis. Most of them live in the northern province of Shangal, which has seen a major ISIS onslaught. About half a million Yazidis became refugees, fleeing their homes and moving to neighboring countries.

Some 50,000 Yazidis live in Armenia at present, making them the country’s single largest ethnic and religious minority. Scores of them staged protests in front of the main government building in Yerevan, as well as foreign diplomatic missions, including the Iraqi and the U.S. embassies, in late August.