Back from the Motherland

[heval]

Just wanted to say silav u rez. I am back from Kurdistan and I have to say the month I was there was the greatest. I really feel homesick now and if I could have, I would have stayed in Kurdistan for several more months. Back to this life though...

- Heval

[Diri]

Hey - Good to have you back Heval - My brother- tell us about what you did and how it was... Did you experience anything unpleasant?? Anything surprising? Tell us

[sorgul]

Just wanted to say silav u rez. I am back from Kurdistan and I have to say the month I was there was the greatest. I really feel homesick now and if I could have, I would have stayed in Kurdistan for several more months. Back to this life though...

- Heval

welcome back heval : )

[heval]

Thanks Diri and Sorgul for the warm welcomes. Well, I just finished writing my first blog since I returned, you can check that out if you'd like http://hevalo.blogspot.com/

[Diri]

Woooooooow....

I envy you SO much... I really wanna go to Kurdistan... And when I go - I ain't commin' back no time soon...

[dyaoko]

-Wash Amay -:wink:
Hey my Hewrami Brother... Welcome Back , I really missed you
whernever I talked about Hewraman I remembered you...

so did you visi Hewraman ?

i have take some photos of Hewraman in my photo blog you can see it ... (visit my own site)

[heval]

-Wash Amay -:wink:
Hey my Hewrami Brother... Welcome Back , I really missed you
whernever I talked about Hewraman I remembered you...

so did you visi Hewraman ?

i have take some photos of Hewraman in my photo blog you can see it ... (visit my own site)

Dase washi bi, yanil awe. YaXwa har wash bi Dyaoko Medya.

Thank you birakem. It's great to be back to be in touch with you all again but it's not great to be back in America because I miss Kurdistan already. The pictures you took look beautiful. I really wish I could have went to the Rojhilat side of Hewraman. Of course I visited Hewraman on the Bashuri side and it was beautiful also. We spent some good time in Tewella and Ahmad Awe and all the little places in between.

I have some nice pictures, I should post them!

[Diri]

I have some nice pictures, I should post them!

NATURALLY! I would be insulted if you didn't share Kurdistan's beauty with us shout when you have posted them!

And by the way - It is SO cool to see Hewramî written here.... Wash amay - What does that mean??? Amay is that "brother" or something and Wash is perhaps "Hello"?? I have not idea.. just guessing...

[dyaoko]

Wash = Khwash
Amay = Hati

Wash Amay in farsi is Khosh Amadi. so it means "Welcome"

Hewrami contains most of Ancient Persian Words.
in hewrami language , eveyr "KH" (X) is converted to H or Y.

like Har isntead of Khar.
or Yana instead of Khana.
so Khwash is Wash.

[Diri]

Cool - thanks - I learnt a few new words today!

But please DON'T say "Old Persian" - Pehlevî is Kurdish - those damn people who say Pehlavî is Persian are stealing from us again... Before the Kurmancî people mixed with Kurds - ALL Kurds spoke Pehlevî - which is a descendant of the Hurrian language...

The Kurmancî were mainly nomads that came and mixed with Kurds and they came in such large numbers that Pehlevî began to mix with Kurmancî - and we got the two dialects called North and South Kurmancî - Kurmancî and Soranî - respectively... That explaines why the Pehlevî speaking Kurds live on the "EDGES" of Kurdistan - The Zazakî/Kurmanckî/Dimilî in North Kurdistan and the Hewramî/Lakî/Goranî/Kermanshahî etc in South and East Kurdistan... The Kurmancî people entered Kurdish lands around Lake Urmiye - it is believed that they then spread all over the Kurdish mountainous land and found a nichè in Kurdistan as Kurdish culture was not nomadic but a sedentary civilizations which farmed and did agricultural work... Arts and crafts can be found througout Kurdistan - Especially from the Helef Culture which left behind it's distinct style of pottery... ALL over Kurdistan... The Kurmancî were a people that lived as one of the many tribes under the Median empire and they had close ties to the rest of Kurds (So you can call them Kurds too- even at that time - Their language was arinized (although to very little extent) by the Arian tribes that came from Hindustan(India) but their culture remained the same - nomadic lifstyle as sheepherders with natural bonds to the mountains as that was the best herding places for their sheep...

The Norwegian/Danish/Swedish Vikings came with their boats all the way to Kurdistan to buy honney and butter from the Kurmancî - which by this time had become assimilated into the rest of Kurds - the only thing they left behind was their language - which became the lingua franca for all of Kurdistan... And slowly Pehlevî Kurdish (Which was the official language of the Median Empire and the Sasanian Dynasty - which were Kurds...) Then when the Arabs came and brouht Islam with them to conquer the world they brought down the Sasanian Dynasty- That was the last time the Pehlevî language was ever an official language in Kurdistan/Iran... With this Arabic roamed Iran for a while but Kurdistan was not harmed as the Arabs didn't venture too far into Kurdistan... And finally when Arabic seized to be the official languge Persian emerged as the "national language" of Persia... But it was heavily Arabized...

The Kurmancî influence might have grown considerably at this time because Pehlvî was a sub language under Arabic at te time - so when the nomad Kurmancî came into Kurdistan proper they settled in all of it's four corners and slowly started the process of becoming sedentary settlers...

Did that make any sense to you? So anyway - Pehlevî is what we call "Goranî/Lakî/Hewramî/Dimilî/Zazakî/Kurmanckî etc... These have all descended from Pehlevî... And the Persian claim that Persian came from Pehlevî... But in reality Persian as a pure and untouched language was lost when the Arabs came...

[heval]

Thanks for that Diri, there was insights in there I was not aware of...
Here is some pictures of Diyarbakir and Merdin... I'll add more later, it just takes too long to upload....



View of Diyarbakir from the Castle walls


Inside of Diyarbakir's castle walls. Unlike the ancient buildings in Western Turkey, this castle is worn and torn and filled with poverty - the government neglects to address these problems.


View of Diyarbakir from Dedeman Hotel


Outside walls of Mayor's Office - "Asiti Azadi" ("Peace Freedom")



Big Mosque by University in Diyarbakir


Former trading rest stop for merchants and their camels thousands of years ago - now a bazaar - Diyarbakir




The Grande Mosque - Diyarbakir


Inside Grande Mosque - Diyarbakir


Youngsters inside Grande Mosque - Diyarbakir


Outside old Kaldani church over 1000 years old - Diyarbakir


Kurdish festival - Diyarbakir


Kurdish Sasani Coin


Beautiful Merdin, Kurdistan




The RACIST Turkish Propaganda forcefully written on the Kurdish mountains: "Ne Mutlu Turkum Diyene" ("He who can say he is Turkish is proud")

Merdin, Kurdistan at night

Merdin, Kurdistan (camera sucks )

Kebabistan, Kurdistan

[dyaoko]

Heval i think you better give us the link to your Filcker photo blog
or put them in your blog

because these photos worth to have a place on for their own.
thanks for sharing them with us.

[Diri]

Beautiful pictures and yet - However wonderfull and capturing the pictures - they could never touch the Kurdish landscape, atmosphere and air... Axx axx axx... KURDISTAN!!! I wanna be where you are! Everyday is a torment when not walking on your surface - when not breathing the air from your lungs - when not singing in the shadows of your trees...

[heval]

How do I get the link from flickr?...because I only know how to view them by logging into my account.

I am definitely not going to be able to upload all my photos (I have about 800 if you count my friend's cameras!! ) but I will share some

[Delal]

Oh the photos from Diyarbakir have made me homesick! They were wonderful! Thank you for sharing.