A “Revolutionary” Kurdish Mullah from Turkey: Mehmed Emin Bozarslan and His Intellectual Evolution¹

The Sung Home. Narrative, Morality, and the Kurdish Nation

“…Since the coming to office of the Islamist AKP Party, which gains many of its votes in the Kurdish provinces, this party organized numerous projects in order to contest the Kurdish movement. In response to the Ahmedê Xanî Festival in Doğubeyazıt, the AKP Party organized an alternative Ahmedê Xanî festival in the same town (Yüksel 2011). As a reaction to the popularization of the Mem û Zîn folktale as a Kurdish national epic, the AKP Party published a Turkish translation of the story, and turned it into a film and theatre play.…”

“…The basis for this chapter are hundred and twenty kilams of my own recordings (see appendix); 114 three books 115 written by Kurdish folklore collectors; the three kilams presented in the dissertation of Metin Yüksel (2011), and a number of CDs with transcribed song lyrics. Although I did not study all these kilams in detail, and can only present a small part of them, I did use the here mentioned 112 As far as I have been able to look through individual compositions of them and others, often released on CD, they show a tendency to follow the developments of the modern Kurdish music scene by focusing on protest songs related to current events, and connecting to current political narratives.…”

“…Radio Yerevan was by far the most mentioned in the interviews. Although I initially thought that radio Yerevan began its broadcast in the 1930s, since there are sources that mention this date, Yüksel (2011) Kreyenbroek andAllison 1996, Hassanpour 1992 43 For example, Zana Farqînî writes about his childhood memories of radio Yerevan: "Especially Radio…”

“…Women felt they were only accepted as PKK members if they disregarded their female identity (Yüksel 2006). They founded alternative organizations in which they felt better represented.…”

“…It is necessary to let the dengbêj art live'. Yüksel (2011) writes that the famous dengbêj Şakîro related the poverty of the dengbêjs also to the lack of institutional support by the Turkish state. Şakîro compared the poor situation of the Kurdish dengbêj Reso to that of the Turkish aşık Veysel who was celebrated as an important national figure.…”