I start this commentary with some words that have been said about Piramerd in 1925. “On a cold morning of February 1925, a chilly breeze came from Goizha and touched people’s faces, however, those who were used to read “Jiyanawa” newspaper had a copy of it and were rushing to go to work so that they could take a look at the newspaper. One of the news that attracted people’s attention that day was this; Mr. Tofiq Bagi Mahmud Agha who has been away from his homeland for about 23 years has come back on January 30th, 1925. We welcome him on behalf of all the people and we are very pleased that this great man has come back to his home”.
He returned to his motherland with a heart full of love and affection and the newspapers welcomed him sincerely.
We put that welcoming of Suleimani people and the papers aside for now. We know that Piramerd was known as a great author and intellectual figure among Kurds. The papers of “Zhin” and “Zhiyan” and many other papers of that time are among Piramerd’s heritage. His poems and writings are still very popular and influenced a generation in the southern part of Kurdistan. His work turned into a foundation of language and thinking style. Furthermore, I would like to point out one of the most significant social, cultural, and political acts of Piramerd in this commentary.
Haji Tofiq Bagi Piramerd educated himself among the intellectual centers more than 120 years ago in a vast land during Ottoman Empire. Apart from general education he went to “Law School” to become an expert and was able to achieve a high rank in that bureaucratic system. He stayed updated on the events and intellectual, political, and social movements that happened in the region and the world through the newspapers of Istanbul. He paid attention to journalism on the one hand and building identity factors on the other. In those newspapers that he founded himself and those who thought in the same way as him, he had emphasized a great deal on reestablishing the mother tongue and Kurdish customs and cultures on the one hand and regaining a new knowledge and intellectualism on the other so that he could run an “international regional” movement. In other words, he wished his readers to reconnect with their Kurdish origins by using the Kurdish language in his writings and also be aware of the international way of thinking and get familiar with foreign languages and literature. Generally, he wanted to help the people to know the modern world while they were conscious of their origins and try to protect it, too.
As we know, Istanbul at that time was a place for different cultures to find one another and get familiar with. There were all sorts of thinking styles, languages, and social customs of the Middle Eastern countries from Kurds, Turks, and Arabs to Syriac, Turkmans, Armenians, Charkas, and others in this city since it was known to be the “mother of cities” in the Islamic world. There were a large number of Europeans in this big city, too; thus, it was an aperture for western ideology to come in. In such a city the prominent identities would get more eminent and the unknown ones would stay hidden among other identities. In such circumstances, Piramerd thought about pioneering a new foundation for Kurdish identity.
Not only Piramerd attempted to present and reestablish the origins of identity like language, culture, history, customs and, … in his newspapers but he also thought about a much bigger project that was encouraging the scattered people of Kurdistan to take part in these issues together. Because he knew that his papers’ readers were a particular group of people but in order to recreate and encourage the identity it took public effort. Thus, he thought about a foundation that not only could attract a particular group of faraway Kurds from long distances but also attract all the Kurds with every dialect or ideology. What could be more important than the start of a new year and a new time? Obviously, Newroz has been a holy and significant ceremony among the Kurds historically, however, Piramerd tried to make this holy and significant ceremony more popular. If only a small number of young girls and boys took part in Newroz ceremonies up to that time, he began to fade this illusion away that Newroz was only for a small number of people. So, he started to write some poems about spring and Newroz first and by doing so he began a new tradition. He later wrote the powerful anthem of “Newroz” due to some political events that happened back then. This anthem has been popular for more than a hundred years now and there aren’t any Kurds who have not heard it or repeated it. He used language to put this deep thought in people’s minds and then he appointed some special places in Suleimani to celebrate Newroz publicly in “Karezi Wasta Sharif” and “Grdi Mama Yara” so that people could take part in this celebration and obtain the Kurdish essence of Newroz by rehearsing the anthem and dancing to Kurdish music. He, himself, who was a role model among the intellectuals and educated people, paved the way for everyone to gather around the Newroz fire and see this act as a national tradition forever.
Although nowadays Newroz is sacred for some other nations in the region too, it is only for the Kurdish nation to celebrate Newroz as a social opportunity in large groups of hundreds of thousands of people in the big cities regardless of their religion, ideology, or political viewpoints. These Kurds assemble around one another as a symbol of solidarity and national unity. Among other nations who have started to celebrate Newroz recently like Turks, since they don’t know the roots and origins of this holiday, they only look at it as an opportunity for a day or two days of celebration and they don’t have any traditional customs originally. Newroz doesn’t have any roots in Arabic cultures, either. The Persians have mixed this day with religion and by doing so they have changed its true nature of it.
On the other hand, what Piramerd did about a century ago in Suleimani, is impossible for other nations to do even nowadays. He could make thousands of people gather around each other in hundreds of cities to rehearse the Newroz anthem in solidarity and dance together. It is crucial for us as Piramerd’s followers to enhance and empower this point, as an identity builder factor, and rehearse this anthem every year while we dance around Newroz fire:
Today is a new year, Newroz, coming back
It’s an ancient Kurdish celebration, coming back happily
Our hope blossom was wilting until last year
The red of spring blossoms was our youth’s blood
It was this red color that in the high horizons of Kurds
Sent the message of a new day for people in the near or far
It was Newroz that started such a fire in our hearts
That made the youth to welcome death
The sun rises now from our land’s east
It is because of our martyr’s blood the twilight is bright
It has never happened in our nation’s history
Our girls’ chests to be bullet shields while they defend the land
We don’t need to cry for our martyrs
Those who die for their nation will live in our hearts
