“When our grandparents die, they take hundreds of stories with them”

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The Mesopotamya Foundation, which was established in 2013 in Diyarbakır, has been working on documenting Kurdish folklore since that year.

The teachers of the foundation started training students in 2017 and the trained students are now in the villages and cities following the Kurdish language.

Botan Times talked about the importance of Kurdish folklore and its collection with officials, teachers, students and the coordinator of the foundation.

Mikail Bulbul: Folkloric works face extinction

Mesopotamian Foundation Coordinator Mikail Bulbul says, “Folklore works and especially works of oral literature are valuable resources for languages ​​like Kurdish that do not have official status.”

He states that folkloric works have faced extinction and that is why they give special importance to these fields.

“We support the students to collect “

According to the coordinator of the Kurdish folklore department, Mem Mukriyani, collecting works should be a basic job for everyone.

Mukriyani states that they are creating courses for the number of people doing this work and there is a lot of interest in those courses.

He says, for those who want to collect in the field, they support in technical terms and provide them with recording tools.

“If we don’t do this today..”

Linguist and Editor of Wardoz Publishing House Bahoz Baran also says about documenting folkloric works, “If we don’t do this today, after 15-20 years we won’t see these things in the villages.”

Bahoz states that the folklore of the Kurds is their wealth and says , “The stories are not remembered by our grandfathers like before.” When they die, they take their 100 stories with them.

Seyid: Regular work should be done

Rêdi Seîd, who has been working on archiving Kurdish folklore for 15 years, is one of the teachers who teaches at the foundation.

According to Seyidi, many people don’t know the work of folklore and for this, proper work should be done.

Seidi says; Person who are in her/his sixties knows more about Kurdish folklore. If we don’t go out and make use of them, after a few years they won’t be there either.”

 “I want to start this work in my village”

At the Mesopotamian Foundation, courses are opened for students twice a year. People who want to work on folklore participate in these courses.

Dicle is one of those people who joined the course with curiosity.

She says, “I am from Van, after I read some foundation books and thought why the night owls of our village should not be included in these books as well?” I learned many ways and methods, I want to start this work in my village.”

This news was translated by Yonca Sarsılmaz