Armenian and Kurdish Musician Aram Tigran Dies

[Alexandros]

Armenian and Kurdish Musician Aram Tigran Dies

By Liana Aghajanian on August 8th, 2009

Armenian singer Aram Tigran, who was considered one of the best contemporary Kurdish singers and musicians died today in Athens, Greece in Evangelismos General Hospital. The 75-year-old celebrated singer’s two children traveled from Belgium to be with him and his wife, according to ANF News Agency. Tigran had lost consciousness two days before his death and doctors did not seem hopeful.

Tigran wanted to be buried in Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeastern Turkey. The son of an Armenian Genocide survivor, Tigran was born in 1934 in Qamishlu, a Kurdish city in Syria and had been involved in music from an early age. By the time he was 20, Tigran was singing in Kurdish, Arabic and Armenian.

Kurdish President Remzi Kartal released a message of condolence for Tigran and his family, stating “Great poet and friend of the Kurdish people Aram Tigran has died. Our pain is too big…his place cannot be filled in any way.” (rough translation)

In addition to ANF reporting that fans have flocked to the Greek hospital to pay their condolences, many have expressed their sadness and regret through social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.

“The Kurds and Armenians should arrange something in memory of Aram Tigran, so that they can complete his mission,” wrote freedom4kurds , who poignantly added “All Aram Tigran wanted was peace. Peace between people and the people’s freedom” and “Aram Tigran LOVED his people, he belonged to the proud Armenian and the proud Kurdish people, even if he was not Kurdish. RIP.”

Others who might not have been too familiar with Tigran and his music, also chimed in.

“Aram Tigran is the symbol of love, peace and reconciliation between the Kurdish and the Armenian people,” wrote FreeCyprus, who added “The Kurds and Armenians are my brothers, love each other.”

Strangely, Armenpedia, “The Armenian Encyclopedia” does not have an entry on Aram Tigran.

Listen to two of Aram Tigran’s songs below, “Hey Le Le Waye” and “Sev Cu”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF_gmfKxXrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBhP_A3EAcU

The relationship between Armenians and Kurds spans more than a 100 years, with certain hostile events occurring between the two groups, including the Hammidan Massacres and the Armenian Genocide. Kurdish culture received support during Soviet Armenia, with a Kurdish radio broadcast from Yerevan and Riya Teze, the Kurdish newspaper published in Yerevan. In the late 60s and 70s, The Armenian Academy of Sciences founded a Kurdish Studies Department.

According to the 2004 U.S Department of State human rights report, the Yazidi Kurds,the largest ethnic and religious minority in the country were subjected to harassment in Armenia, including the hazing of Yazidi army conscripts and poor police responses to crimes committed against the Yazidis. The Union of Armenian Aryans, an ultra-nationalist group, has called for the cleansing of Yazidis from Armenia. A high percentage of Yezidi children do not attend school, both due to poverty and a lack of teachers who speak their native language.

The situation improved however, and the 2007 U.S Department of State Human Rights Report noted that “As in previous years, Yezidi leaders did not complain that police and local authorities subjected their community to discrimination.” The 2008 report noted that attendance rates among children in the Yezidi ethnic minority continued to be lower than average, partially due to economic reasons, a lack of Yezidi teachers and textbooks, and the early removal of teenage girls from schools for marriage.

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[Alexandros]

Re: Armenian and Kurdish Musician Aram Tigran Dies




Musician's final journey faces obstacles

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

ISTANBUL – Daily News with wires

Bureaucratic obstacles are preventing the burial of respected musician Aram Tigran in Diyarbakır.

The Diyarbakır burial of multilingual singer-songwriter Aram Tigran, who died Saturday in Athens from a brain hemorrhage, is facing bureaucratic obstacles, with the transfer and interment of the body awaiting approval from three ministries.

Tigran, who is of Armenian origin, is seen as one of the key figures in Kurdish music, but he also sang and wrote songs in Armenian, Arabic, Syriac, Greek and Turkish.

The singer was born in 1934 in the village of Bianda, in the southeastern province of Batman, before his family moved to the Syrian town of Qaliseli. He started playing the ud, a stringed instrument, at the age of 9. Over his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 songs in Kurdish and Armenian and had a repertoire of 435 songs in various regional languages.

Despite singing in Kurdish for most of his life, Tigran only saw Diyarbakır for the first time in May 2008, when he attended the Diyarbakır Culture and Art Festival and spent two months in the region. He was taken to the hospital for a heart operation during his stay.

Tigran’s wish was to be buried in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality has mobilized its resources to try and fulfill that request.

Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, Diyarbakır deputy Selahattin Demirtaş, who is leading the efforts to get the necessary approvals for Tigran’s burial in the city, told the Doğan news agency he was still working to obtain permission from the Foreign, Interior and Culture ministries, as well as from the Police Department. The burial of Tigran, who was not a Turkish citizen, necessitates such a process, he said. Tigran was a Greek citizen.

Speaking to the news agency, Demirtaş said his efforts had been fruitless as of late Monday, but that he remained hopeful. “I can’t exactly say the transfer of the body is not permitted,” he said. “Discussions are continuing. I had meetings that filled me with hope. I am hoping to get results when I return to Diyarbakır.”

Family approves

Tigran’s widow, Sirvant, told Yorgo Kirbaki from daily Hürriyet that she expected the Turkish government to approve her husband’s last wish. “If the Turkish government agrees, we, as a family, will be in its debt,” she said.

Sirvant said Tigran never discriminated between the region’s peoples, constantly arguing that Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Armenians are all brothers.

Tigran’s son and daughter, Agop and Aycemik, said they would be very appreciative if Turkey agreed to their father’s burial in Diyarbakır.

His nephew, Avram Kayas, said such a gesture would have an incredible effect on Kurds in Turkey.

The municipality has completed its preparations in anticipation of Tigran’s burial in the city. If the body arrives, a ceremony will take place at the Urfakapı Surp Giragos Church before it is buried in the Armenian cemetery.

When the municipality learned of Tigran’s death, it formed a commission to organize a funeral for him, even before his family had consented to the burial in Diyarbakır. The head of the municipality’s cultural bureau, Cevahir Sadak, went to Athens to complete the paperwork as cleaning crews started to tidy up the Armenian cemetery, which was in a decrepit state.

Mourning the loss

Kurdish singer Rojin described Tigran as the best writer of Kurdish love songs. “I used to call him ‘Ape Aram,’ which means Uncle Aram in Kurdish,” she said.

Another Kurdish singer, Vedat Yıldırım, told Hürriyet that “Aram Tigran was a wonderful human being who served Kurdish music.”

Yıldırım described the singer as the “uncle of Kurdish music,” and said he was very happy to be able to say he had met Tigran.

Nizaettin Arıç, a Kurdish musician, said Tigran had contributed to Kurdish music for more than 40 years. “He was an Armenian, but he was also a Kurd at heart,” he said. “He was a modest and kind-hearted man.”

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DTP Diyarbakır deputy Demirtaş says it is a shame that Tigran's body was kept waiting for five days in Athens.


Ethnicity, Kurdish songs prevent Tigran's burial, says DTP deputy

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

Famous singer-songwriter Aram Tigran’s background as a Greek citizen of Armenian origin who sang in Kurdish has created the problems in fulfilling his final wish to be buried in Diyarbakır, a pro-Kurdish deputy said Wednesday.

Tigran, who died in Athens on Saturday from a brain hemorrhage, is seen as one of the key figures in Kurdish music, but he also sang and wrote songs in Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Syriac and Turkish. The singer was born in 1934 in Bianda village, in the southeastern province of Batman, before his family moved to the Syrian town of Qaliseli. He started playing the ud, a stringed instrument, at the age of 9. Over his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 songs in Kurdish and Armenian and had a repertoire of 435 songs in various regional languages.

Despite singing in Kurdish for most of his life, Tigran only saw Diyarbakır for the first time in May 2008, when he attended the Diyarbakır Culture and Art Festival and spent two months in the region. Tigran’s wish was to be buried in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, and the city’s metropolitan municipality has mobilized its resources to try and fulfill that request.

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP’s, Diyarbakır deputy Selahattin Demirtaş said it was a shame that Tigran’s body was kept waiting for five days in Athens. Demirtaş made his remarks at a press conference in Diyarbakır with DTP deputy Aysel Tuğluk and Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir, He said senior officials’ constant praising of the land’s rich cultural heritage while creating bureaucratic obstacles preventing Tigran’s burial in Diyarbakır was a thought-provoking contradiction.

Approval from the interior, foreign and culture ministries are necessary for the burial of a foreign citizen in Turkey.

People expected that the government would be more supportive, said Demirtaş, adding that if Tigran was not buried in Diyarbakır, the DTP would hold commemorative ceremonies and the family would bury the singer in Brussels.

Baydemir said Tigran had many fans in the city and that the municipality had prepared for the burial. “We want to bid our final farewell to Aram Tigran the way he deserved,” he said

The mayor said they still hoped the obstacles would be overcome to Tigran being buried in Diyarbakır, but added, “It is impossible to keep a body waiting for an undetermined amount of time.”

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[Gavur]

Re: Armenian and Kurdish Musician Aram Tigran Dies

RIP courages hero, may foreign soil be light upon your body, until...