Hurriyet |Daily News, Turkey
Sept 28 2012

Writer welcomes back ‘soul mate’ to Diyarbakýr

DÝYARBAKIR – Hürriyet Daily News
by Ýpek Yezdani

Diyarbakýr author Þeyhmus Diken is preparing to release his latest
work, honoring fellow son of Diyarbakýr, master saz player Yervant
Bostancý, nearly three decades after the Armenian musician left the
southeastern city for a career abroad

In a story bearing resemblance to the tale of the prodigal son, a
leading Diyarbakýr writer has welcomed back his long-lost “soul mate”
to the ancient city on the Tigris not with a fatted calf, but with a
book celebrating the accomplishments of his spiritual brother.

Þeyhmus Diken, a Kurdish writer with a number of titles to his name,
has honored Diyarbakýr-born musician Yervant Bostancý with a new book,
almost three decades after the Armenian musician left the southeastern
province on a journey that sent him as far as Los Angeles.

Bostancý was born in the Hançepek neighborhood of Diyarbakýr, which
was also known as the “Gavur (Infidel) Neighborhood” of Diyarbakýr,
the home of most of the Diyarbakýr Armenians who survived the events
of 1915. Bostancý started to play drums when he was 4 years old, and
took saz (a Turkish stringed instrument) classes from famous saz
player Aþýk Zülfi when he was 10.

Bostancý spent 19 years in the neighborhood before moving to Istanbul,
where he became a member of the Üsküdar Musical Community, one of the
most prominent classical Turkish music schools during that period.

“I started to play with the most prominent classic Turkish music
singers after 1982, such as Alaattin Þensoy and Zeki Müren. By that
time, my name started to spread, especially among the Armenian
community in Istanbul,” Bostancý said.

Bostancý started to appear on the stage solo at a tavern called
Mandýra in 1991, singing songs in both Armenian and Turkish.

His sojourn in Istanbul’s taverns did not last long, however. “In
1992, all the Armenian community in Istanbul was coming to the Mandýra
tavern to listen me. One night, after I finished the program, a man
came up and asked me why I was singing in Armenian. I replied,
“Because I am Armenian,” and then he started to swear and curse at me.
I was terrified and I decided to leave Turkey that night,” the
musician said.

Bostancý went to Los Angeles and started singing songs from both
classical Turkish and Armenian music at taverns that were frequented
by Armenians and Turks alike.

“I practically worked as a peace ambassador there. Turks, Kurds,
Armenians and Syriacs living in Los Angeles danced the halay
altogether while I was playing,” said Bostancý, who released 12 music
albums in total and gave dozens of concerts in big cities of both the
United States and Europe.

Diken, who has written 14 oral history books on the local history and
local identity of Diyarbakýr, discovered the music of Bostancý while
he was listening to an album prepared by Armenian musicians eight
years ago. “I invited him to come and sing at the Diyarbakýr Festival
in 2004; he came back to Diyarbakýr after 28 years. Then we realized
that we were from the same neighborhood; I took him back to the
Hançepek neighborhood and he gave a concert in his neighborhood for
the first time after 28 years,” Diken said.

Bostancý started to visit Diyarbakýr at least six times a year after
2004, becoming close friends with Diken, who recently wrote a book on
Bostancý’s life story called “Ula Fýlle, Welcome” (“Fýlle” is a
Kurdish word for Christian) that will be published next week.

Eight years after they became friends, Bostancý and Diken recently
discovered another secret about their lives: Diken’s mother, Ayten,
and Bostancý’s mother, Hatun, had been very close friends before they
were born, and Hatun had been like a godmother to Diken.

“Five of my siblings were dead before I was born. And my mother told
me that after I was born, our Armenian neighbor, Hatun, came to our
house, prayed for me and passed me through her clothes three times.
She said to my mother, ‘God protect him, your son is also my son now.’
After 50 years, we discovered that that Armenian lady was Yervant’s
mother,” Diken said.

Bostancý now wants to move back to Diyarbakýr from Los Angeles, and
Diken, whom he terms “my soul mate,” has been working hard to make the
return a reality.

“The identity of belonging to Diyarbakýr comes first and foremost for
me. I am first a resident of Diyarbakýr, and then I am an Armenian and
a Christian,” Bostancý said, crying and hugging his “soul mate” Diken
at the same time.
September/28/2012