INTERVIEW
Kurdish Rock SuperStar
BY: AZAD KRIMI
.I started my musical journey at the age of 12. The foundation of professional music was laid in 1997 or when I joined the band.
Interview
Kurdish Rock SuperStar
Harun Elkî
By Azad Karimi
Woman, life, freedom! This slogan was raised an hour ago in the Commission on the Status of Women affiliated with the United Nations by the countries of the free and democratic world that are members of this commission for four years. The vote to expel the Mullah-Pasdar regime of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women was held on Wednesday, December 14 (December 23) at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, ECOSOC in New York. 29 countries out of 52 members present in this meeting of the commission voted in favor of expelling Iran and only 8 countries voted against. 16 countries also abstained.
This meeting was held at the request of The United States of America and its European allies along with Israel, Canada and several other countries of the world.
A request which is known as Resolution L-4 was sent to the head of this commission, due to the killing of Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl from Kurdistan-Iran in Tehran by the forces of the Islamic Hijab Protection Guard in the middle of last September and the second reason was the condemnation of the killing of protesting people in Iranian cities because of this government murder... because the Iranian Mullah-Pasdar government treats the angry people of Iran harshly and kills them in the streets or steals them and kills them or disappears them. or gives them a death sentence. Finally, all these behaviors lead to the death of the defenseless people of Iran.
Therefore, I congratulate women on their freedom, democracy, and dignity of women. Special thanks to the efforts of Canadian-Israeli lawyer and international lawyer Hillel Neuer for his continuous efforts to collect documents and criminal documents of the Iranian regime in the story of the revolution of woman, life, freedom in the fall of 2022 in Iran.
Jina's death is a loss for her parents and family, but her name became a symbol of the women, life, and freedom revolution. I congratulate the people of Saqez who raised this great and history-making slogan after the burial of Jina and now it is resonating all over the world and the United Nations. Thank you to my dear fellow citizens because they are the source of my pride.
This city is always inspiring, the city is known as Orient or Aruna, Auranam, Khawaran, and Kharuna in the history of world mythology. The city where the first sunrise in the history of creation began from this place... May God bless the Orient and its residents and all the countries of the free world. I also warn those Jashes and traitors to the country and the people, who hand over protesting youths to the agents of repression, their fate is destruction and complete annihilation.
I am grateful to the representative of The United States of America, I am grateful to the representative of Great Britain-The UK, Canada, Israel, France, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Libya, Liberia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Portugal, and South Korea for their positive vote for this resolution. Big thanks to the representative of Israel for introducing the Kurds as victims of the satanic regime of Iranian mullahs.
The unfortunate event today is the delivery of an unfair sentence to the Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele by the Islamic regime of Iran. It is not yet clear why he has been arrested... but today he was sentenced to 28 years in prison...
A few days ago, the regime started issuing death sentences and harsh prison sentences for Iranian protesters. In this regard, he executed two unfortunate young people in Tehran and Mashhad... Mohsen Shekari and Majid-Reza Rahnaward(A young Kurd)... Their government killings were also done for illusory reasons and only to scare the people of Iran and the world.
Death sentences have been issued for two Kurdish brothers from Shno(Oshnawya) named Farhad and Farzad Tahazadah, a doctor couple named Dr. Hamid and Farzaneh Qara-Hasanlou and many others, and only one prisoner named Mahan Sadrat has been sentenced to death.
Sonja Sharifi Kurdish girl-child and Mohamad Borughani, Mohamad-Mahdi Karami two child-boy have been sentenced to war with Allah and are at risk of execution.
Hosein Mohamadi, a theater actor, was sentenced to Moharebeh(war with Allah). Toumaj Salehi is facing the risk of receiving this sentence.
A movement called Political Bail bondsman for of those sentenced to death in the parliaments of Germany and Sweden by some Kurdish, Iranian, German, and Swedish parliamentarians has started a few days ago, which in my opinion has no practical benefit for these people, and you know that The terrorist Mullah-Pasdar regime of Iran never pays attention to these political maneuvers. Iran's regime should be destroyed with only one heavy iron fist so that the people of Iran and the people of the world can be relieved.
In the scandalous story of Ukraine Gate, the report of which has been published in international newspapers since a few weeks ago, the sending of suicide drones by the Iranian regime to Russia was revealed. These drones hit civilian targets in different cities in Ukraine and cause material and human losses. I hope that the terrorist regime of Iran will be expelled from the United Nations because of its domestic and foreign terrorist acts.
I once again ask the big and powerful countries of the world to give me equipment and weapons to finish the work of this regime and bring peace to the world. Nothing will stop this regime short of destruction through a crushing, short-term, and decisive war.
But I will go back to issuing death sentences to innocent young people on the charge of the war against Allah.
Saman Yasin! I think I wrote about him twice more. He is a young rapper artist from Kermanshah, Kurdistan-Iran, and now he has been sentenced to death in the criminal court of the Iranian regime. His charge is enmity with Allah!!!!!!
With this situation, it is clear that what is meant by God in Iran is Ali Khamenei! And I am proud to say that I, as the Shurida i Sakastani, am the enemy of this crippled god who could not defend himself against a small needle and became paralyzed.
This fake and cowardly god was even condemned by his sister and his sister's daughter, and they announced that they had broken up their relationship with him for many years and that they know him as an executioner and a murderer.
Ali Khamenei's sister, Mrs. Badri Khamenei, is the wife of A-Sheikh Ali Tehrani, who was in conflict and enmity with the Islamic regime of Iran for many years and lived in self-imposed exile in Iraq, and in the early 1990s, she returned to Iran, but until the end of her life He was under surveillance and was not allowed to engage in political and social activities.
It is interesting to say that two years ago I wrote a note and published it on my Facebook, and in this note, I mentioned Mr. Tehrani and referred the readers of my article to a link about him that was published on Wikipedia... I was very surprised to learn that a few hours later, the news of Wikipedia's ban in Iran was published through the media. At that moment, I realized more about the power of my pen and the government's fear of Mr. Tehrani.
I request Kurdish artists in all four parts of Kurdistan and all over the world to prevent the execution of Saman Yassin, this good and innocent Kurdish artist, by holding protest demonstrations and informing other people.
In the upcoming interview, you will get to know the artist and rock superstar Mr. Harun Elakî. He is known in Kurdistan and he is the one who brought rock music into the culture of Kurdistan people. The first song I saw and heard from him was Zagros... a powerful song... I was very interested in him and became his fan for the first time... Now after twenty years I am honored to interview him.
The emergence of Harun Elkî promised that Kurdish music is alive, dynamic, and innovative, because it is trying to find a place for itself in world music, and this music is not Kurdish folk music, but modern Kurdish music that seeks to recognize its talent and capacity in different styles of the global avant-garde and define itself as a member, as well as find its proper place. There is a very sensitive and important point that I will mention for the first time. People like Harun Elkî define their starting point as Kurdish identity, then political citizenship, and then cosmopolitanism... This subject is his point of contrast with some Kurdish artists in cosmopolitanism, folklorism, or citizenship activities fields in the four countries Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria see themselves in this, while you see he is Kurdish, he is from Turkey, he is from the world and he is a part of the universe.
I also think like him, and this type of thinking invalidates all the extensive propaganda that the governments of these four countries did in the 20th century and the years of the 21st century to make identity ideas look dangerous.
You know me at least through these 340 interviews, what dangerous message have I given to people? What does my Kurdishness negate except fascism and terrorism?
I declare once again that I am a Kurd-Iranian, not an Iranian Kurd. In this second definition, I see the domination and coercive power... the same domination that still insists on introducing the name of Jina Amini as her citizenship name, not her identity name... Therefore, as long as this coercive language is used by the Iranian regime and the opponents of his Persian language and Kurds like Bahman Ghobadi, I show them the steel hammer of my will, my pen, and my reasoning and I do not hesitate to strike them with deadly blows.
Bahman Ghobadi is a delusional and opportunistic person who does not hesitate to insult Kurdish patriotism, and he tries to show himself as a justified and acceptable person among Iranians by condemning people like me. Recently, he commented on the Kurds of Iran and Turkey, which caused severe criticism against him, especially among the Kurds of Turkey... It is really hard for me to write notes about the painful news related to Kurdistan-Iran every day. You can read the news of the miseries of the Kurdish people in Iran on this website.
Anyway, his thoughts and people like him have no value as long as they are at the level of personal obscenity, but when he wants to take action, it will be accompanied by a serious treatment of him and his thoughts... ... But what was more pathetic was that he recommended a solution to the people of Kurdistan, and that was to turn to secret efforts to realize the Kurdish ideal. Of course, he does not believe in the independent government for the Kurdistan people, so what should be hidden?
The question here is whether trying to establish a Kurdish state is a political phenomenon or an inherent and historical right. Why should we be afraid to openly comment on the establishment of the Kurdish government? But the most interesting point is that he says that those who are seeking the establishment of a Kurdish government in Iran and Turkey are lying! Very well, he is a truthful person, why does he advise the supporters of the Kurdish government to follow this issue secretly?
He encourages everyone to lie and pretend. In any case, I intend to say that we are openly active and if we deem it necessary, we will say that we should form a Kurdish government. There is no need to hide and lie.
He should spend more time studying and searching and not be concerned with how the people of Iran judge the people of Kurdistan. If the people of Kurdistan were trying to please others, they would not be called Kurds, but they would be called Persians, Turks, or Arabs.
I will skip this topic and move on to a piece of very good news... a few days ago, Germany and France jointly presented their annual human rights award to Jina Amini and the Iranian protesting women. Warm thanks to these two progressive countries.
But a very interesting event that happened tonight is the writing of the slogan of woman, life, freedom in Kurdish on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Thank you again to Germany and other countries of the free world who support the woman, life, freedom revolution.
Finally, I present this introduction to Linda Thomas-Greenfield (this highly respected woman) and Gilad Erdan (this gentleman diplomat), Kamala Harris and Analena Berbock, and the representatives of The UK, French, Canada, and all the countries that stand by the Iranian revolutionaries, including the representative of New Zealand in the United Nations. Special thanks to dear Mr. Javaid Rehman.
In the end, I would like to thank my dear friend Harun Elkî for participating in this interview. I wish him and his family success and happiness.
Thank you!
Østland-Norway
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Please present yourself: Name, education, Civil status, and...
.I am Harun Elkî, I live in Istanbul with my daughter and my wife. I graduated from high school. I have been doing music for 25 years.
?What is your artistic specialty
.I sing, arrange and produce.
? When and how did you become interested in these fields of art
.I started my musical journey at the age of 12. The foundation of professional music was laid in 1997 or when I joined the band.
? Who was your motivator
.At the age of 16, I started playing music in the Elki district with the support, morale, and motivation of Nihat Elki and Faruk Yüzer.
? What was your parent’s reaction
.Although my family is religious, it was also a social family. They were happy with my interest in music.
? When did you become such a professional Musician and Rock Singer
. In my 20s, I wanted to form a Kurdish rock-protect group. In 1997, under the shelter of the Mesopotamian Culture Center (which was a Kurdish center), I joined the group of Rewshen. The group lasted for a year and in 1998 it disbanded. The adults of the group left and we were left with 4 young people this was an opportunity for me to fulfill my dream. In a short time, I created Kurdish rock songs and we started concerts. In 2002, we released the Ase album, and in 2005 we released the Pola Nu album, and in Kurdistan and many countries, we entered into a strong relationship with the Kurdish people. The Rewshen group disbanded in 2011 and I started my solo process as an individual and released 4 singles in a row. In 2019, we released my REV album as a solo album and we made 3 video clips of 3 songs from our album.
? Are you thankful and happy because of your activities as Artist/ Singer
. I am happy that I chose such a different and colorful plan map and created it on artistic values. At the same time, I am very happy that from Kobane to Hawraman, from Kirkuk to Duhok and Ilam, we entered into a warm relationship with the Kurdish people. We are generations of builders, so we should have created without interruption. I am sorry that we did not play the role we needed.
? How do you see the view about art, music, singing, and culture? What is your prediction for the future of art, song, and culture
. Art and especially music has a great place even in the weakest societies. every society builds its art according to the potential of its understanding. the Kurdish society is the largest mass socio-economic in the fight for life. Their economic societies express themselves only under their original colors... different colors have different flavors.
In the 90s, the Kurdish community in the north of Kurdistan went on a big looking for and brought many new things with it, and it affected the community to some extent. But the measure of constructive encounters and positive interactions are the real determinant. Our society is developing very hard because it is still in the midst of its defense. When this process goes into the battle of self-building, great steps will be seen. Art elevates every society.
? You introduced rock into Kurdish music... with songs like Zagros and Kar-Ghazaal(Gazelle)... You started with the nature of Kurdistan, then you introduced other elements into your songs. Why?
. My soul was always in search since childhood. I always saw myself in an internal struggle for the development and elevation of Kurdish society. I understood that the pressures on our people were not destiny, we can change and make life more beautiful.
This situation of mine created a protest style of life in me. A Kurdish person who was connected to his own identity, also a new and dignified life with philosophy and sociological research was a part of my search. I am both a Kurd and a person from the world, as well as a molecular part of the universe. My songs were also based on this point of view. I am both a Kurdish attempter, a youth against global oppression, and a part of the non-borders sky...
Why is the natural geography of Kurdistan a popular subject for Kurdish artists? Does this cause us to neglect the concept of political geography?
.We are connected to all human and molecular values, both scientifically and emotionally. Our geography creates many emotions in us, but this depends on the limits of our understanding, or will it make us a geographic racist or a person who has both his geography and all global values... Don't separate each other. My struggle is with the second possibility. that is a true universal love. The issue of political boundaries is the issue of politicians and political organizations. If we say for Kurdistan, now the culprits of the oppression of our people are all political organizations.
Our disunity always makes us enemies' dinner. This sin is completely committed by organizations. I don't want to say that they don't want unity. But the result of the current situation is not unified and the official culprits are all organizations and agencies. We artists are different.
I have been on the art front for 25 years. I have friends from every part of the country. Almost 90 percent of them are artists. Unfortunately, I do not influence politicians. We are also trying to unite society through artistic methods so that we don't become a dinner party food.
How important is the surrounding world to you as a rock artist? What is the position of the Kurdish world in this surrounding world? Of course, we all know that rock music is not native Kurdish music, nor does it belong to the Middle East. Please explain to your interview readers.
. According to me, rock is the home of the world like any other form of music. I interpret the home of the world in my spirit and I play my rock music differently than American performance. You know that I said that I am Kurdish, I live and I have a molecular structure... Of course, rock music is not of the original Kurdish fabric.
But we also have the spirit of world rockers. We become angry, protesting, and shouting. If Mohamad Shekho did not create his artistic works, he would not have reached that position in our people. If I do not create my art works based on the social values of the people of Kurdistan, I will not exist.
But no matter what the style of music is, if you create in Kurdish and build yourself according to the sociology of Kurdistan, you will never look like an English rocker. My songs are also like that...not like Guns N' Roses.
Then I will know whether or not I belong to society and the world. Yes, I'm not Mohamad Shekho, but I'm not Chris Martin either. I am not about to become a hero of Kurdistan or the world... I am also not the only Kurdish person!
But as long as the soul of Kurdistan suffers, I am more of a Kurdish element (than a cosmopolitan)... We entered the path of art with the same pain.
Recently, I have seen that some Kurds who make music in Iran and have had a devastating impact on Kurdish music in Kurdistan-Iran have made efforts to influence Kurdish music in Kurdistan-Iraq and Kurdistan-Turkey. The main elements of this kind of fusion music are the Santur, Zarb, and Tar. By doing this, they try to influence the identity of Kurdish music and tell the world that Kurdish music is the same as Iranian Persian music(which they could not do with the Kurdish language). Of course, it is no secret that the Iranian regime spends a lot of money on this issue, and of course, many people easily surrender to money and sell themselves. To what extent do you think these illegitimate efforts will yield results?
. Art flows naturally. It comes from deep and it is also related to language. To be Kurd becomes a threat to a Turk, Arab and Iranian after a while. Because all four parts of Kurdistan are divided between Turks, Arabs, and Iranians, it is always a nightmare for them the possibility of Kurds uniting with each other.
This question you have asked is very clearly followed in Turkey, but at the same time, some honorable people do not have the opportunity to offer wide and are hungry and poor, but they are honorable people who create their music as free Kurds and they are real honorable Kurds.
In other words, art related to conscience and morality (Committed) does not belong to the authorities. Those who are left with no spirit will surrender. If Kurdistan was free and our society is not under the control of negative authority, I would like to make many songs in Turkish. It depends on my love, and as I said at the beginning, I am Kurdish, I am alive and have a molecular structure, but I say this in a free, happy, and blessed Kurdistan.
?What are the characteristics of a good song? Why do some songs become immortal
. The song becomes permanent with a high feeling and understanding. but we must say that during construction, sometimes it does not last, and sometimes after a century, a song fills society. It is linked to the height of understanding and the spirit of the song. some songs are timeless and in society take hold quickly and become permanent. Some songs are not of their time. It needs to know that our society spends 80% of its life fighting for life, it does not have much time to think but to search and see and follow different colors. For this period, many songs do not belong to their time. They belong to the past.
? Can you become one part of the cultural movement for motivation in youth or new generations in your country and so on
. Our existence and our struggle are for a bright future. The more educated our society is, the higher and better it will be. Everything is for the understanding and goodness of the human heart. I'm not just talking about academic education. Emotional education through music, cinema, theater, and literature is useful. If we do not create meaningful motivation and inspiration in the youth of our country, they will become the blackness of the army of consumers who will only think about capital and eat from their own pockets. Giving meaning to emotions plays a very important role so that the country stays on its feet with spirit and love.
? How can you help our world become a better place to live
. Every span of the soil of the earth is also my soil. Our responsibility is to protect all the earth and living beings (including animals) of the world. Because only we humans can make things bad or good in this world.
That's why I'm a Kurd, I live and I'm responsible for everything. Our role is to improve the world in every way.
? Have you more words to say or suggest for our readers
. We Kurds have fought for survival and existence in every historical stage. Sometimes we won and sometimes we lost. But I don't believe in being released. The release in life is possible through death.
There is no way to escape and be released. life is a chain with many links and in each link, we have built humanity with our blood and soul. but after every open link, there will be a subjugated link and sometimes you need to struggle to free yourself.
For this reason, resistance is more valid for me. ji ber wê berxwedan zêdetir ji minre rast tê.Because life is resistance. Even if we win as Kurds, it is not clear who will be oppressed by our government.
Resistance is the best solution and continues until the present human being. We have to live the beauty of the world. Let's love and enjoy all the good things in life but in the meantime, we will resist the bad flavors and solve them by adding good flavors. It is enough to have justice in one pocket and conscience in one pocket, we will exist everywhere in the world and life will improve.
It is enough to have justice in one pocket and conscience in one pocket, we will exist everywhere in the world and life will improve.
