Mîr Perwer, Kurdish singer
Mîr Perwer was one of the three Kurds murdered on December 23 in Paris outside Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center. He was twenty-nine years old.
Born in Mus, in eastern Anatolia, the youngest of seven, his birth name was Sirin Aydin. From a young age, he sang Kurdish songs for the enjoyment of his family and friends.
During the broad arrest wave of 2015-16, he was arrested. He spent from two to five years in prison (depending on the source). Upon his release, he resumed singing, but he was sentenced to 28 years in prison for belonging to the PKK.
In 2021 he left Turkey for France, leaving behind a wife and a six-year-old child. He settled in Bordeaux, then in Noisy-le-Sec (Seine-Saint-Denis). He studied French and earned a living doing construction. He sang at weddings, funerals, and parties. He had recently obtained refugee status.
“He was an extraordinary young man,” according to Victoria Tsamboucas, a friend, “who wore his heart on his sleeve, someone secular and generous.”
You can listen to his music on Spotify, here.
Source: Christophe Ayad, “Emine Kara, Mir Perwer et Abdurrahman Kizil, trois nouveaux « martyrs » de la cause kurde,” Le Monde, December 26, 2022, online.