Songwriters used to be poets!

Yunus Reuf and Mikael Nalbandian

The kurdish and the armenian national anthems does not have the same structure but the context is the same; nationalistic, loud and proud!
The authors of the anthems is both poets, Mikael Nalbandian (1829-1866) was a writer that was largely self-educated wrote the the armenian national anthem Mer Hayrenik (Our fatherland) and Dildar (real name was Yunis Reuf) was a poet studiyng law in Kirkuk that wrote the kurdish national anthem in 1938 in a prison in west Kurdistan (iranian).

Sivan Perwer singing Ey Reqib

Ey Reqib (Hey Enemy!)
(LISTEN, CLICK HERE)

Hey enemy, the Kurdish nation is alive with its language
Can not be defeated by the weapons of any time
Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living

Kurds are living, their flag will never fall
We are the children of Medya and Keyhusrew
Both our faith and religion are our homeland
Both our faith and religion are Kurd and Kurdistan

Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living
Kurds are living, their flag will never fall
We, the youth are the red colour of the revolution

Watch our blood that we shed on this way
Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living
Kurds are living, their flag will never fall

Elder people singing their national anthem Mer Hayrenik

Mer Hayrenik (Our fatherland!)
(LISTEN, CLICK HERE)

Our fatherland, free and independent,
That has lived for centuries
Calls on its children now,
Free independent Armenia.

Here brother, for you a flag,
That I made with my hands
At nights I did not sleep,
I washed it with tears.

Look at it, in three colours
It is our gifted symbol.
Let it shine against the enemy.
Let Armenia always be glorious.
Everywhere death is the same
A man will only die once
But fortunate is he
who dies for the freedom of his nation.

Calouste Gulbenkian - Armenian oil driller in Kurdistan

A big man in the history of oil drilling internationally is the armenian man Calouste Gulbenkian that played a major role in the oil drilling in the middle east, he was a famous philanthropist and businessman (1869-1955)

Four books is written about Calouste, but only one of them was published before he oil drilled in south Kurdistan, in the oil drillers paradise, the heart of Kurdistan... Kirkuk!
A large oil reserve was discovered in the Baba Gurgur region wich was provided the impetus to conclude negotiations and in July 1928 an agreement was signed which determined which oil companies could invest in TPC and reserved 5% of the shares for Gulbenkian.


He discovered that Kirkuk floated on black goald and that the city had one of the richest oil fields in the world in 1927, black crude and gas gushed violently to the surface with a thunderous sound. Then the government of Iraq started to taking control over Kirkuk, moving out kurds and movin regime royal arabs.
Kirkuk soon became a major oil town.

Gulbenkian was worth between 500 million $ - 850 million $ in his time.

Monte Melkonian

Monte Melkonian was born in California where he also studied, and was killed in 1993 by the by Azerbaijani troops in the village of Merzuli in Nagorno Karabakh, he was a famed Armenian military commander in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
He had several contact with Kurds and personally said:

"we need to build a mass-based guerrilla force closely aligned with Turkish and Kurdish revolutionaries"

Monte Melkonian, a third-generation Central Californian, was a trained archaeologist who spoke eight languages.
He found his way to Iranian Kurdistan, where Kurdish partisans made a deep impression on him. Years later, in southern Lebanon, he occasionally wore the uniform of the Kurdish peshmerga which he was given in Iranian Kurdistan.
In Iranian Kurdistan he witnessed the disciplined Kurdish peshmerga rebels, there in Kurdistan, he participated in the guerrilla resistance in mountainous Kurdistan, this was why he could speak some Kurdish.

The inmate on the left wearing dark glasses is Mehmet, a Kurd from Turkey together with Monte Melkonian to the rigth in a prison in France.

His friends at different times included Communist intelligence agencies, Palestinian terrorists, Kurdish Marxists and dithering Western intellectuals

Taner Akçam

The most famous scholar that stands up for the armenian and kurdish population with turkish extraction is the historian, author and sociologist, Taner Akçam.

Professor Taner Akçam was arrested for his involvment in a journal on the turkish treatment of the kurdish minority and recieved a sentence for 10 years in prison for this.
Mr Akçam was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in 1976, he fled Turkey and was eventually granted asylum in Germany.


Taner Akçam is today one of the first turkish academics to acknowledge and openly discuss the armenian genocide. Taner´s interest for the denial is his reason for working in th
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Kurdistan and Hayastan has edited a video with selected clips on Professor Taner Akçam

Carl Von Linné - honoured by the Armenian culture

Gayane is a four act ballet and with music composed originally from 1942.
Gayane is also the name of an Armenian dancing group in Uppsala, a city close to Swedens capital Stockholm in Scandinavia.
The members of the dance group Gayane is
This dansgroup danced (on 3th juny) in tribute to the Swedish zoologist, physician and world famous botanist Carl Von Linné on his 300th birthday.
Carl was going to be a priest but did not do so well in school so his interest in botany got him to study, he is thought of as one of the fathers of modern ecology.

The Uppsala Armenian Cultural Union's Gayane dancing group headed by Armine Zakinian and also choreographed the play including ballet and other genres, the play was called (translated from Swedish) "An fragrance from Armenia to the garden of Linné".

Linnéträdgården / The Garden of Linné

In the first part of this play, crane´s fly from Armenia to Sweden in to Mr Linné´s garden where they dance. Later on in the play, the Gayane dancegroup displays traditional folkdance, modern and classic dances from Armenia.

Little Kurdistan - Little Armenia

The name "Little Kurdistan" comes from the large number of Kurds that lives there in Nashville Tennessee where the Kurds is estimated to be 10 000 of the population with more than 5 000 families. The Kurdish population in Nashville is mainly from southern Kurdistan and is very aware of their herritage

The Kurds appreciate the citys Bible belt they live in because they find the traditional christian family values similar to the traditional Kurdish family values.

There are also smaller communities in Texas, Virginia and Maryland. Canada is also the home of Kurdish communities located in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Hamilton.


"Little Kurdistan" is the largest Kurdish community in the US wich became appreciated by the government when they recruited Kurdish immigrants to work as translators for the army troops during the war in Iraq.
One of Little Kurdistan´s institutes and organisations is the Kurdish Youth Club, Salahadeen Center and the Kurdistan Cultural Institute of Nashville.



The name "Little Armenia" comes from the large number of Armenian population that lives there in Glendale, California. many Armenians run their stores and businesses here and they opened up in 1990.
We can find the Armenian church St. Garabed (Armenian Apostolic) Church here, builted in 1978 (!) and the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian school wich is an Armenian-American school with a large number of Armenians from Kurdistan, this school was first known as the Hollywood Armenian School and the Armenian history, religion and language classes is taugth in Armenian.


The biggest event in Armenia is also the biggest event in Little Armenia, crossing the Black sea, Mediterranean sea and the North Atlantic ocean from Armenia to USA and the major event is still the protest for a recognition of the Armenian genocide on April 24th.


In Fresno, Californa there is a region called The Old Armenian Town wich is a former enclave of Armenian immigrants and is currently beeing redeveloped.

Kurdish and Armenian Genocide

This is a Speech given by Ara Alan, Secretary General of Kurdish Youth Club in Atlanta (USA) in remembrance of th 92nd anniversary of Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turks.

This speech was given in Georgia State Capitol building addressing Armenian Americans, Senators, Congressmen, sheriffs, Judges and representatives of Mayor of Atlanta, and Georgia State Governor.