IN MEMORY OF ARAM TIGRAN… YOU WILL BE MISSED
by Jeff Allan and Mehmet Fidan

Kurdish Herald
4, August 2009

It was with great sadness that we heard the news of the passing of
Aram Tigran, one of the most gifted contemporary Kurdish singers and
musicians. Mr. Tigran, age 75, died on August 8, 2009 in Evangelismos
General Hospital in Athens, Greece. His life story is indeed the story
of a refugee and was dedicated to the preservation and promotion of
the Kurdish identity and, more specifically, culture and language.

Mr. Tigran was an ethnic Armenian and son of an Armenian Genocide
survivor and native of Diyarbakir. He was born in Qamishlo,
a predominantly Kurdish city in Syria, in 1934, and showed a
great love and gift for music by the age of 9. By the age of 20,
he was singing in Kurdish, Arabic, and Armenian. In 1966, he moved
to Yerevan, Armenia, and worked for Yerevan Radio for 18 years. In
1995, he moved to Athens, Greece. During his 53 years music career,
he composed hundreds of songs, including 230 Kurdish songs (in various
dialects) and many in Arabic, Armenian, Turkish , Syriac, and Greek,
and released has twelve albums. He was loved and respected by millions
of Kurds and many of Kurdistan’s most well known artists, and he took
a keen interest in helping young, promising musicians.

The late Armenian singer, Aram Tigran – Photo Courtesy Jeff Allan
Kurdish Herald 2009

Such was his influence on Kurdish music that, in 2005, a number of
artists collaborated to produce an album dedicated to Mr. Tigran
entitled Evina Aram (Love for Aram), in which they recorded their
own versions of many of his most popular songs. Among the artists
participating in this project were Gulistan, Rotinda, Xelil Xemgin,
Xero Abbas and Diyar.

After obtaining Greek citizenship two years ago, he visited his
ancestral homeland, seeing his parents’ home city for the first time
and later performing in both the Kurdish region for an audience of
tens of thousands and later in Istanbul at a DTP-sponsored event. This
year, he took part in Diyarbakir’s 9th Culture and Arts Festival,
but because of ill health, he was only able perform three Kurdish
songs. He was the final performer at this year’s Newroz celebration
in Diyarbakir, where he sang in Kurdish and Turkish.

Rather than close this humble eulogy with our own additional words
of tribute, we believe it is more fitting to end it with those of
Mr. Tigran from a verse that he wrote after seeing Diyarbakir for
the first time: Di xewnen sevan de min bawer nedikir Bi cavan bibînim
bajare Diyarbekir Rojbas Diyarbekir me pir beriya te kir Te derî li
me vekir Te me sa kir

If I had dreamed it, I would not have believed it Being able to see
the city of Diyarbakir with my own eyes Good day Diyarbakir, I missed
you very much You opened your gates to us You made us very happy

Jeff Allan is co-founder of Kurdish Herald and a member of the
editorial board. Mehmet Fidan holds a masters degree in Political
Science from Brooklyn College and is currently a Ph.D. candidate
in the History Department of the City University of New York. His
primary focus is the Kurdish Question in Turkey. He was previously
a history teacher at Istanbul University for 7 years.