Aslîke Qadir

Aslîke Qadir was born in 1945 in Elegez (Alagyaz), Armenia. From 1963 to 1968, she studied at the University of Yerevan, where she became part of a community of intellectuals. During the 1960s she worked at Radio Yerevan, where her singing made her known as “the voice of Radio Yerevan.” She hosted programs about literature and poetry.

For fifteen years after graduation, she taught Armenian language and literature at preparatory schools in Yerevan. She also worked for five years at Armenia’s Ministry of Education and became a teaching specialist. In addition to Kurdish, she knows Russian, Armenian, Farsi, Dari, and German. She is an expert in Farsi language and literature.

She was elected to the Armenian Parliament from the Congress of the Communist Party of Armenia. That parliament lasted for 2 years and was dissolved in 1990, as the Soviet Union ended.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, racists in Armenia tried to foment division in the country on the basis of religious differences and to drive out Kurdish intellectuals. In the 1990s, Aslika Qadir left Armenia for Europe.

She is best known for the song “Welatê me Kurdistan,” here.

Her album Qasimo was published by Kom Müzik. 

In 2023 Avesta Publishing House published her memoir: