The aim of this article is to examine the failure of the Yezidi-Kurdish minority to attain a high
level of ethnic mobilization in order to protect its political and cultural interests after the fall of
the USSR and the creation of an independent Georgia in 1991. This inability has intensified the
threat of the complete cultural, religious, and linguistic assimilation of the Yezidi-Kurds into the
wider Georgian society, instead of allowing the minority to achieve healthy integration into
society and the preservation of its ethnic identity. I argue that the convergence of three sets of
factors best explains the present tenuous position of the minority. First, structural changes
affected the ability of minority leaders to gather sufficient human and financial resources
necessary for mobilization. Secondly, problems in determining a unified identity as well as
conflicts between minority elites prevented the consolidation of the ethnic group and limited its
organizational capacity. Lastly, Georgian state policies and larger societal trends have subtly
contributed to the dismantling of certain core components of the Yezidi-Kurdish ethnic identity,
thereby accelerating the process of assimilation. This article concludes with a discussion of the
prospects of the Yezidi-Kurdish community in Georgia, arguing that only efforts to reunite the
minority and cooperate with existing minority civil society structures will prevent the effective
disappearance of the group in this country.