Master of Kurdish dengbêjs Karapetê Xaço passes away

17/01/2005
KurdishMedia.com
By Brusk Chiwir Reshvan

Ottawa - Canada (KurdishMedia.com) 17 January 2004: Kurdish people lost their influential living Dengbêj Karapetê Xaço on January 15, 2005 in his village Yerevan, Armenia.

Karapetê Xaço was born in Bileyder (Beshiri) in the city of Batman in northern Kurdistan [now part of Turkey], in 1902. He lost his entire family in the Armenian Genocide in 1915 but was luckily rescued and raised by a Kurdish family.

In his funeral, his son Seyrosh Karapet said “although my father was of Armenian origin, he felt closer to the Kurds, and for this reason he served Kurdish music as a dengbêj. He always felt deeply the grief and sorrow of the Kurdish people who have long suffered at least as much as the Armenian people and wanted to express this pain with Kurdish kilams”.

Karapetê Xaço worked for Yerevan radio for many years. During these years his voice reached the hearts of each and every Kurd all over Kurdistan. It is hard to imagine a single Kurd who hasn’t been captivated by his “kilams”.

Karapetê Xaço was not only a great dengbêj but also a bridge of brotherhood between the Kurdish and Armenia peoples.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.