Cindî was born into a Yazidi Kurdish family in the village of Emençayîr near Karsin modern Turkey. During World War I and Turkish and Soviet invasions, his family fled to Armenia and settled in the village of Elegez. Later on, he lost all his family (except for one brother) to disease and massacre. In 1919, he stayed in the American orphanage in Alexandropol, and in 1926 was transferred to the orphanage in Leninakan, Armenia.