According to the 2001 Census, there are about 40,620 Yazidis in Armenia. According to a 2007 U.S. Department of State human rights report, "As in previous years, Yezidi leaders did not complain that police and local authorities subjected their community to discrimination". A high percentage of Yezidi children do not attend school, both due to poverty and a lack of teachers who speak their native language. However, the first-ever Yezidi school opened in Armenia in 1920. Due to the ethnic tension created by the war with Azerbaijan, the Yazidi community has renounced its ties with the mostly Muslim Kurds that fled the country and tried to establish itself as a distinct ethnic group. The Yezidis showed great patriotism fighting together with Armenians during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, when many died in service.