Read Part 4 of this article here
On April 21, 2016, I interviewed Mr. Ahmad Tashtan about the Zilan Valley massacre in Hasan Avdal village of Karamursal district of Izmit. Then I contacted several people in the Zilan Valley area to get more information. Ahmad Tashtan is the second witness to the Zilan Valley massacre, having heard about it dozens of times from his father-in-law. His father-in-law was Haji Mihe, son of Miro and brother of Qulikhan Agha.
Haji Mihe
Ahmad Tashtan, the second witness to the Zilan Valley massacre, introduced himself as follows: “I am Ahmad Tashtan, from Hasan Avdal village region in Erdish district of Wan. I was born in Hasan Avdal in 1953, three months after my father's death. I have two brothers and a sister, and our mother passed away in 1999. My father is Shukri, son of Mullah Yousef, Mullah Yousef son of Bro, Bro the son of Baro, Baro the son of Hussein, and Hussein is the son of Mullah Obeidi son of Haman. My mother was originally from the eastern part of Kurdistan, the Jalali tribe, and the Khalid Agha family. Our father started working as a mullah in Jazir, so we are called "Malla Mala (Mullah family). Also, our family is called the Qulikhan Haso family.
Ahmad Tashtan
“Our family came from Jazir because there was a conflict between our family and the emirs of Botan, and our family moved from Jazir to the East part of Kurdistan. But after a short time, the Iranian authorities forced them to migrate to the Zilan Valley and settled in the village of Hassan Avdal. I spent my childhood in Hasan Avdal village until I was 32-33. The state had banned Kurds from going to the Zilan Valley until 1953 and no one could go there. But after the ban was removed, the government opened a school in our village that year. I started studying in a Turkish school and continued until 1960. Because my grandfather was a religious man, he taught me the Qur'an and I finished my studies in a Turkish school. In our region, everyone first teaches their children to read and finish the Qur'an. There was also a Kurdish school in Hassan Avdal. Our teacher, Mullah Karam, was an educated and intelligent man who taught the jurist and most of the children in the village learned from him. Unfortunately, I did not finish my education, in neither Kurdish nor Turkish school. The first reason was financial support. In 1999, when a major earthquake struck the 'Marmar' area, the area was fully destroyed. We left Hasan Avdal and settled in the Karamursal area.”
Mr. Ahmad has eight children and 17 grandchildren. We wish him, his children, and his grandchildren a long life, good health, and safety.
Part of the book "Ten Massacres of Three Tribes in the Zilan Region", Zainal Abedin Zinar, Kurmanji Kurdish, Farhangi Kurdi Publishing House, Sweden/ Stockholm, 2023
To be continued...
