Diyarbakır holds service for Tigran in absentia

Thursday, August 13, 2009
DÄ°YARBAKIR ` DoÄ?an News Agency

Dİyarbakır Mayor Baydemir lays carnations during the
service in absentia for singer Aram Tigran, who died on Aug. 8.

A service in absentia was held at the Diyarbakır Armenian
Cemetery late Wednesday for singer-songwriter Aram Tigran, whose
burial in Turkey faced a bureaucratic halt.

Tigran, a Greek citizen of Armenian origin, was famous for his songs
in Kurdish and was seen as one of the key figures in Kurdish music. He
died last Saturday in Athens from a brain hemorrhage.

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 oud, 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.

His last wish was to be buried in Diyarbakır, but a foreign
national’s burial in Turkey necessitates approval from the Foreign
Affairs, Interior Affairs and Culture ministries.

In the absence of a body, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality,
which is governed by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP,
held a service at the Armenian cemetery.

DTP Diyarbakır deputy Aysel TuÄ?luk said she still
believed Tigran would be buried in Diyarbakır as he wished. `I
am sure those who prevented Tigran’s body from coming here will
eventually realize their mistake,’ she said.

DTP Diyarbakır branch chief Fırat Anlı said the
ceremony was an acknowledgement of loss. `We have no doubt that Tigran
will eventually be buried here,’ he said.

Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir, also speaking at the ceremony,
said, `The failure to bring Tigran’s body to Diyarbakır showed
the fact that nothing is changing.’

Baydemir said Tigran would be buried in Brussels, but a DTP delegation
would go there and sprinkle some of Diyarbakır’s earth on his
grave.