A generation was burnt to death in Amûdê
A generation was burnt to death in Amûdê
Fire of Amûdê cinema in which 283 Kurdish children burnt to death is one of the tragedies of the recent Kurdish history, like a ‘small’ Halabja, a small raise of hell… At the 50th anniversary of the fire the Kurdish poet Ehmedê Huseynî explained how his brother Ebdulsemed whom he lost in the fire appears in his poetry. Author Helim Yusiv has also talked about his stories and novels in which fire of Amûdê finds its place.
The director of the controversial film Midnight Express which was banned in Turkey has another unforgettable film called “Mississippi Burning”. The creator of the political films at Hollywood Alan Perker gives voice to the Afro-Americans who burnt to dead in southern state of USA, Mississippi in 1964. The great fire at the beginning of the film gives an idea to the audience what will come up during the film.
What about the words of the young black boy who rescued his father from the fire: “Everything is OK dad. My mother and the girls are fine. Keep breathing, don’t die now”… Not long before the burning of Mississippi, fours years before that in a far away country in a small town of Kurdistan people suffered greater pains.
It was a Sunday… On 13 November 1960 the only cinema in Amûdê, in South West Kurdistan was filled with 400 Kurdish children. The population of the town was not more than 15 thousand at the time. There was an important reason for the cinema to be packed with children. The director of the school had forced the children to go to film in order to show solidarity to the Algerians who were fighting against French occupation.
MISSISSIPI-ALGERIA-AMÛDÊ…
The film was called “The Midnight Ghost”. It was the subject of the day for the elementary school children to watch a film on the Algerians who were abducted by the French from their homes in the middle of the night. The children who even could not show Algeria in the map would learn about the Arab resistance. And the income from the film would be sent to Algeria.
The doors had been closed and the children were waiting for the film to start with complete attention. The fire which was alleged to have been caused by the engine sprung the curtains and the cinema turned into a fireball soon. The children who headed to the exits were perishing in the fire. The doors had been locked. Just like the black children who were thrown into the fire in Mississippi, or like the Algerians whose houses are set to fire in the film they would watch…
The fire which the security forces and the fire-fighters intervened hours later cost the lives of 283 Kurdish children. In other words it caused a ‘small’ Halabja… A boy called Ebdulsemed has also lost his life in that fire. The brother of Ebdulsemed, poet Ehmed Huseynî talks about that day: “I remember that day very well. I was only 5 and because I was not going to school they did not let me in the cinema. However, my elder brother and our next door neighbour’s son Reshad went to the cinema. I was playing with my peers in the yard, who were also not allowed to go to cinema. It was sunset time and the house was full of with visitors. All of a sudden I heard screaming, hawar (yelling) coming from our house. Everybody started running towards the cinema. I still hear my mother’s yelling “Ebdêêê” [short form for Ebdulsemed]
Huseynî had to witness his brother’s burnt body together with Reshad’s while they were brought to the yard. Maybe it was why he started writing poetry and wrote his ‘crying’ lines. He said that he “filtered his pen through his dreams”.
THE FIRE EMBLAZED THE KURDISH FLAME
Another Kurdish Author Helim Yusiv was luckier than Huseynî. He says he was still too young at the day of the incident and because they were living far from down town his father did let his elder brother to go to the cinema.
Yusiv, whose work contains fire scars says by good fortune his mother did not become a “fire mother”. However, Yusiv lost several relative sons and neighbourhood friends in the fire and grove up with their stories. “The escaped ones are still living with burnt bodies. They grove up, they have children now but the fire inside them has never been extinguished.” says Yusiv.
Reminding that Amûdê has become a centre for the Kurdish movement at the time Yusiv says “The population in the town was one hundred percent Kurdish. There was no Arab in the city. The city was the centre for Kurdish identity.” Yusiv however believes that the fire could not extinguish the Kurdish flame in contrast it has emblazed the flame. “Those children reduced to ash and if they lived today there would be more writers and artists from Amûdê” adds Yusiv.
There were historical reasons why the Kurdish identity was strong in Amûdê. The leaders of the rebellions in 1900’s in the north Kurdistan came to the region, or exiled to there. Hawar magazine, the first Kurdish Latin alphabet magazine was published very close to them and it could reach the readers in the heat of the moment. In other words Amûdê and its vicinity has always been the back yard of the Kurds.
Helim Yusiv points out the fact that in the middle of the 1950’s the literacy rate in Amûdê was much higher than the average. “The youth was not only reading Arabic but also Kurdish. There was a great interest in education and literacy was high in the town. Unlike the region all the children were going to school. Of course the pressure on the Kurds was also remarkable.” adds Yusiv.
Yusiv however sees the fire as a milestone and says: “Our history has been divided into two. Before the fire and after the fire…”
The fire finds its place in Yusiv’s works. His novel Sobarto starts with a fire and the crucial parts of his story Mem without Zin are full of the traces of fire.
The theatre play Komara Dînan (Republic of Mad) written by Yusiv and put on the stage by Teatra Jiyana Nû is on the mad who are the victim of a fire. The most remarkable character in the play is a mother who found her son’s bones among the ashes.
The fire in Amûdê like many other incidents in the Kurdish history remains unsolved. Some thinks that it was a part of the Arab Belt project which was aiming at creating an Arab corridor between Turkey and Syria. According to the Kurdish politicians as the Damascus government did not investigate the incident and tried to cover it up the possibility of sabotage remains high.
The director of the controversial film Midnight Express which was banned in Turkey has another unforgettable film called “Mississippi Burning”. The creator of the political films at Hollywood Alan Perker gives voice to the Afro-Americans who burnt to dead in southern state of USA, Mississippi in 1964. The great fire at the beginning of the film gives an idea to the audience what will come up during the film.
What about the words of the young black boy who rescued his father from the fire: “Everything is OK dad. My mother and the girls are fine. Keep breathing, don’t die now”… Not long before the burning of Mississippi, fours years before that in a far away country in a small town of Kurdistan people suffered greater pains.
It was a Sunday… On 13 November 1960 the only cinema in Amûdê, in South West Kurdistan was filled with 400 Kurdish children. The population of the town was not more than 15 thousand at the time. There was an important reason for the cinema to be packed with children. The director of the school had forced the children to go to film in order to show solidarity to the Algerians who were fighting against French occupation.
MISSISSIPI-ALGERIA-AMÛDÊ…
The film was called “The Midnight Ghost”. It was the subject of the day for the elementary school children to watch a film on the Algerians who were abducted by the French from their homes in the middle of the night. The children who even could not show Algeria in the map would learn about the Arab resistance. And the income from the film would be sent to Algeria.
The doors had been closed and the children were waiting for the film to start with complete attention. The fire which was alleged to have been caused by the engine sprung the curtains and the cinema turned into a fireball soon. The children who headed to the exits were perishing in the fire. The doors had been locked. Just like the black children who were thrown into the fire in Mississippi, or like the Algerians whose houses are set to fire in the film they would watch…
The fire which the security forces and the fire-fighters intervened hours later cost the lives of 283 Kurdish children. In other words it caused a ‘small’ Halabja… A boy called Ebdulsemed has also lost his life in that fire. The brother of Ebdulsemed, poet Ehmed Huseynî talks about that day: “I remember that day very well. I was only 5 and because I was not going to school they did not let me in the cinema. However, my elder brother and our next door neighbour’s son Reshad went to the cinema. I was playing with my peers in the yard, who were also not allowed to go to cinema. It was sunset time and the house was full of with visitors. All of a sudden I heard screaming, hawar (yelling) coming from our house. Everybody started running towards the cinema. I still hear my mother’s yelling “Ebdêêê” [short form for Ebdulsemed]
Huseynî had to witness his brother’s burnt body together with Reshad’s while they were brought to the yard. Maybe it was why he started writing poetry and wrote his ‘crying’ lines. He said that he “filtered his pen through his dreams”.
THE FIRE EMBLAZED THE KURDISH FLAME
Another Kurdish Author Helim Yusiv was luckier than Huseynî. He says he was still too young at the day of the incident and because they were living far from down town his father did let his elder brother to go to the cinema.
Yusiv, whose work contains fire scars says by good fortune his mother did not become a “fire mother”. However, Yusiv lost several relative sons and neighbourhood friends in the fire and grove up with their stories. “The escaped ones are still living with burnt bodies. They grove up, they have children now but the fire inside them has never been extinguished.” says Yusiv.
Reminding that Amûdê has become a centre for the Kurdish movement at the time Yusiv says “The population in the town was one hundred percent Kurdish. There was no Arab in the city. The city was the centre for Kurdish identity.” Yusiv however believes that the fire could not extinguish the Kurdish flame in contrast it has emblazed the flame. “Those children reduced to ash and if they lived today there would be more writers and artists from Amûdê” adds Yusiv.
There were historical reasons why the Kurdish identity was strong in Amûdê. The leaders of the rebellions in 1900’s in the north Kurdistan came to the region, or exiled to there. Hawar magazine, the first Kurdish Latin alphabet magazine was published very close to them and it could reach the readers in the heat of the moment. In other words Amûdê and its vicinity has always been the back yard of the Kurds.
Helim Yusiv points out the fact that in the middle of the 1950’s the literacy rate in Amûdê was much higher than the average. “The youth was not only reading Arabic but also Kurdish. There was a great interest in education and literacy was high in the town. Unlike the region all the children were going to school. Of course the pressure on the Kurds was also remarkable.” adds Yusiv.
Yusiv however sees the fire as a milestone and says: “Our history has been divided into two. Before the fire and after the fire…”
The fire finds its place in Yusiv’s works. His novel Sobarto starts with a fire and the crucial parts of his story Mem without Zin are full of the traces of fire.
The theatre play Komara Dînan (Republic of Mad) written by Yusiv and put on the stage by Teatra Jiyana Nû is on the mad who are the victim of a fire. The most remarkable character in the play is a mother who found her son’s bones among the ashes.
The fire in Amûdê like many other incidents in the Kurdish history remains unsolved. Some thinks that it was a part of the Arab Belt project which was aiming at creating an Arab corridor between Turkey and Syria. According to the Kurdish politicians as the Damascus government did not investigate the incident and tried to cover it up the possibility of sabotage remains high.
