A Farewell to Mehmed Emîn Bozarslan

In his memoirs, the blogger Zinarê Xamo writes with profound affection and respect for Mehmed Emîn Bozarslan.

Mr. Xamo notes that by the early 1970s, Mr. Bozarslan’s name was already spoken of with reverence due to his extensive work and books on the Kurds. Every young person at the time aspired to one day meet him and sit in his company.

In the summer of 1974, the young Mr. Xamo, then a bookseller in Wêranşar, traveled to Istanbul to purchase stock from the Koral Publishing House. While he was there, a man dressed in black, carrying a briefcase, entered with a polite greeting. Mr. Xamo did not recognize him at the time.

Mr. Bozarslan did not stay long. Shortly after he left, Mr. Xamo was told, “Do you know who that was? That was Mehmed Emîn Bozarslan.”

“When I heard it was him,” Mr. Xamo recalls, “I ran outside. I ran here and there, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, to show my devotion and take his hand, but I couldn’t find him. I was deeply saddened.”

Due to the threat of imprisonment and other dangers, Mr. Bozarslan left Turkey and sought asylum in Sweden in 1979. A year later, in 1980, Mr. Xamo also moved to Sweden, where he finally met the man in the black suit and briefcase and sat down to talk with him.

In a 1985 diary entry, Mr. Xamo wrote of Mr. Bozarslan: “Truly, no one sees him; he never attends meetings or Kurdish wakes and celebrations. He remains at home, working like an ant.”

Interviews published in journals such as Deng and Dengê Komkar show that after beginning his life in Sweden, Mr. Bozarslan established a 20-year work program in 1980—running through the year 2000—and adhered strictly to it.

In 2013, the journal Nûbihar, under the editorship of Ayhan Geverî, prepared a special dossier on Mr. Bozarslan. In the introduction, Mr. Geverî wrote: “Mehmed Emîn Bozarslan represents a vital milestone for Kurdish literature, language, and folklore. Thanks to his efforts, many issues were identified more clearly and much sooner.”

In the same dossier, Rohat Alakom highlighted the significance of the 1968 edition of Ehmedê Xanî’s Mem û Zîn, which Mr. Bozarslan published alongside a Turkish translation. Mr. Alakom argued that this book dealt a major blow to those forces seeking to deny the existence of Kurdish literature.

An anecdote from the writings of Martin van Bruinessen vividly captures the atmosphere of those years. Mr. van Bruinessen recalls being gifted a copy of Mr. Bozarslan’s Mem û Zîn in a village in Mardin in 1975. The copy was damp, having been hidden underground for several years to protect it.

The media professional Mutlu Çiviroğlu spoke with Mr. Bozarslan for Voice of America toward the end of 2010. When Mr. Çiviroğlu mentioned, “We don’t see you on radio or television,” Mr. Bozarslan replied that it was not his habit to appear on screen or talk about himself. He remarked that those who wished to know him could simply read his books.

Mehmed Emîn Bozarslan—the master who touched hearts and whose voice resonated deeply within them—passed away on February 9, 2026, in Uppsala, Sweden. He was over 90 years old, passing far from his birthplace of Diyarbakır.

By Omer Faruk Baran

This article draws from the archives of Zinarê Xamo’s blog, Voice of America, and the journals Nûbihar, Deng, and Dengê Komkar. The photographs in the original piece are from the archive of Rohat Alakom.