With Syria’s Kurdish music in danger of dying, UNESCO steps in to help

BARCELONA, Spain – The mass migration of Kurds from war-torn Syria has dealt an especially severe blow to Kurdish music there, with the situation so grave that UNESCO has stepped in to stop the disappearance of Syria’s traditional and folk music.

Gani Mirzo, an international Syrian-Kurdish musician who attended a UNESCO meeting in Paris last week where the preservation of Syria’s traditional music was in focus, noted that a blow to Kurdish music was a blow to the Kurdish cause.

“Music is important to enhance the Kurdish cause for rights and independence,” he told Rudaw English in Barcelona, where he has lived for several years.

He warned that Kurdish musicians in Syria have been among the large exodus of refugees who have sought shelter across the world, from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region to points in Europe and beyond.

“Half of the Syrian population has become refugees abroad and among them there are musicians, as well as artists from other disciplines,” Mirzo said. “Regarding Kurdish Syrian musicians, I know that between 60 to 70 percent have left the country.”

Mirzo attended a gathering of Syrian musicians at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Friday to discuss how the traditional music of Syria can be saved before it disappears forever, including the music of the Kurds.

“Last Friday we gathered with other Syrian musicians under a UNESCO first aid support meeting on Syrian traditional music to discuss how to preserve it,” Mirzo said.

He explained that the most important decision taken at the Paris meeting was a plan to create a bank of contacts with the names of Syrian musicians still remaining in the country, and those who have left.

Other Syrian musicians who attended the Paris meeting were Khaled Al Jaramani, Nouri Askndar, Abed Azrie, Fawaz Baker, Lena Chamamyan and Ibrahim Keifo. Hassan Abbas, a Syrian academic who leads several cultural associations and projects, also attended.

“We must store the classical Syrian music in archives and teach this tradition to younger generations,” said Mirzo.

He appealed to authorities in the Kurdistan Region -- where he said there is greater economic power and government structure than in other parts of Kurdistan -- to enhance their voice at UNESCO in an effort to help preserve traditional Kurdish music in Syria.

“I make a call to the Kurdish Iraqi authorities to make their voice in UNESCO stronger and to be more active to help recover and preserve the musical and cultural inheritance of Syrian Kurdistan,” said Mirzo.

He added that another three-day meeting is planned in Berlin on June 1 to further discuss the preservation of Syrian music.

For now, what Mirzo would like to do with the help of UNESCO is to open more music schools in Syrian Kurdish cities and finance luthiers to work on recovering Kurdish original instruments.

“Despite all the chaos in our country, music gives us a hope for our culture. The Kurdish people are very musical. There are still three schools of music open in Amude, Kobani and Qamishlo,” he noted.

“Music was preserved as a way of expression in a country like Syria where, for the longest time, our language was forbidden. A lot of our history has been passed on through music,” Mirzo explained.

The UNESCO meeting also discussed the music of the Syrian Yezidi Kurds, the community Mirzo said had been most hard hit culturally. Even before the war, Syria’s Yezidi Kurds were unable to fully practice their religious rites, a big part of which includes music.

“I would like to create a school of Yezidi Kurdish music and create music activities for Kurdish refugees in Shingal and in Hanover, in Germany,” said Mirzo.

This is the first time on such a scale that UNESCO is working on preserving the cultural heritage of a country, including its music. This is especially needed in the face of the onslaught of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, where the group has been bent on erasing the country’s cultural heritage, including its music.

“The Yezidis, who have suffered especially hard under ISIS, represent the beauty of the Middle East. It is the only religion where, when they enter their temples they kiss the hands of the musicians at the entrance,” Mirzo explained. “Musicians are held in very high regard in Yezidi culture.”

Syria’s traditional music includes the music of Christians from different denominations and the music of the Muslim Sufis, according to UNESCO.

There is also a diversity of music from other traditions and ethnicities, including Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, Circassian, Armenian and Assyrian.