Documenting Kurdish heritage in Turkey: Seyda Goyan's quest to preserve a cultural legacy

Seyda Goyan is head of the North Kurdistan Branch of the Kurdish Heritage Institute, which is headquartered in the Kurdistan Region city of Sulaimani. Mr. Goyan is based in Turkey. The aim of the institute is to preserve and pass on the rich legacy of Kurdish heritage, including folklore, songs, artifacts, famous quotes by Kurdish public figures and ancestors, Kurdish traditional games, dances, and clothing.

Goyan says he started this profession in 1993 when the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish state started to engage in heavy clashes in mountainous and rural areas, forcing the majority of the villagers to flee to urban areas. He considers this migration detrimental to the preservation of Kurdish heritage and culture.

He has produced 20 documentaries on the Kurdish heritage, and vows to continue what has become his life’s work.

Below is the full translation of Seyda Goyan’s interview with Rudaw's Aydin Bayram.

 Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali

How would you describe the role the Kurdish Heritage Institute has played in introducing and preserving Kurdish culture and art?

The Kurdish Heritage Institute was established to preserve the traditional Kurdish heritage, carrying out its works on a scientific and academic basis. It also acts as a social institute, supervised by Mr. Mazhar Khaleghi, which is headquartered in Sulaimani. At the institute's headquarters in Sulaimani, multiple art and cultural research initiatives are regularly conducted. The institute aims to protect melodies that are on the verge of disappearance. We work to renew them once again. Part of our works are designed to preserve artifacts that had been used in the past during happy and sad events. We archive Kurdish traditional dishes and clothing and rewrite various Kurdish maqams and shaiy [Kurdish dance] texts. Our objective is to preserve the heritage across the four parts of Kurdistan. One more thing which is of high importance for the institute is the art of Dengbêji, [the professional reciters of epics in song]. The only thing that has not been tampered with is Dengbêji [epic singing]. It has been passed on from one generation to another.

You were a state civil servant, but later chose to become a Dengbêj. What made you choose art?

The majority of villagers migrated from rural to urban areas from 1993 onwards, mixing with a quite different culture. This move negatively affected Kurdish culture. After the villages were emptied [in the wake of PKK-Turkey clashes], the traditional Kurdish culture and art were damaged and less attention was paid to them. Out of my sympathy to the Kurdish heritage, I embarked on collecting pieces of Kurdish heritage and works of art in order to prevent them from disappearing. It has now become my profession. Embarking on Dengbêji is part of the new profession.

What is Dengbêji? How did it start and how many types of Dengbêji singing do we have?

Dengbêji is history, the history of a nation passed on from one generation to another. Dengbêji is a storytelling song telling our history. Dengbêji tells the tales of the past including the bravery, struggle, and bravery of women in the society. There are three types of Dengbêji; the first one is about love, the second one is the bravery of the nation and the third one is sung for mourning.


What do your archives include?

They include stories, ancestors’ quotes, Kurdish games, traditional clothing from various places of Kurdistan, Dengbêji, poems and artifacts. I have 20 documentaries on the Kurdish art, culture and heritage. In 2008, I did a documentary on crop harvesting, wheat grains and bulgur in Sirnak. This documentary received the best documentary award at the Documentary Festival in Batman. The award was not because of me, but the richness of Kurdish heritage. In 2018, five photographs of me were used for the Apec calendar in Sweden. It was a great achievement for the Kurdish heritage.

As a researcher, how would you envision the future of Dengbêji art?

Unfortunately, I do not see any glimmer of hope thanks to technology and internet that have negatively affected efforts to preserve Dengbêji. This is the [Turkish] state's responsibility through its relevant sides to exert efforts to protect culture and heritage. Besides, the current generation pays no attention to their heritage. This is a big danger.

What should be done to protect the traditional Kurdish Dengbêji art?

The only remedy to this issue is that the Kurdish politicians and authorities must value their language and heritage and take care of our culture and traditions. A college across universities must be opened in the name of Dengbêji and heritage. We should also pay attention to the Dengbêj singers who are still alive.

What is the style or the rules of performing the Kurdish dance of shaiy in Goyan [a Kurdish tribe populated around Uludere district in Sirnak southeast Turkey] area? Is there any difference between shaiy rules in your area compared to other places of Kurdistan?

What distinguishes our shaiy performance form other places of Kurdistan is that women are allowed to hold hands with any man they want when entering a shaiy line, but  men are not allowed to choose any woman they like to hold hands with. They are only allowed to hold hands with their relatives when entering a shaiy. Shaiy at villages is usually performed until dusk falls and the men cannot tell them women to end it, but rather they can only ask them to slow it down.

What have you produced from collecting all these heritage products across all these years?

The result of collecting all the Kurdish heritage was that I have so far published five books on the heritage of Kurds, three of which were designed as Kurdish folklore songs. The remaining two books were dedicated for Dengbêji epic singers and the last one to Kurdish legendary stories. The last book consists of three chapters; religious legendary, bravery and love.... All of my artwork is an achievement to the archive of Kurdish art.