The awards of the Evdirehîm Rehmî Hekarî Kurdish Theatre Playwriting Competition were announced at a ceremony held at the Çand Amed Culture and Congress Centre.
The awards ceremony for the 7th Evdirehîm Rehmî Hekarî Kurdish Theatre Playwriting Competition—last held in 2016 in its sixth edition and revived after a nine-year break—took place at the Çand Amed Culture and Congress Centre. Prior to the ceremony, the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality City Theatre (DBŞT) staged a performance of its play Jîn. Following the performance, the awards ceremony—hosted by theatre actor Ömer Şahin—got under way.
45 plays submitted to the competition
Speaking during the programme, Ömer Şahin said there are significant shortcomings in Kurdish-language theatre playwriting and stressed that the competition is of major importance in helping to address this need. Şahin stated that 45 plays had been submitted, and said the jury—Kudbeddin Sadikî, Kawa Şexe, Rugeş Kırıcı, Şilan Alagöz and Helket İdris—had reviewed the entries with great care.
Hekarî’s struggle and literary legacy
Tahir Baykuşak, Head of the Theatre Unit, expressed his wish that culture and the arts would always shine in these halls. Recalling Franz Fanon’s words from The Wretched of the Earth—“We must stop belittling our elders’ efforts. We must also free ourselves from the pretence of failing to understand their silence and endurance”—Baykuşak underlined the importance of Evdirehîm Rehmî Hekarî’s struggle. He noted that Hekarî was born in Başkale in 1890, studied under Said-i Kurdî at the Hûrhûr Madrasa in Van, and that the First World War began during the period when he worked as a teacher. Baykuşak added that, having been taken captive by the Russians during the war, Hekarî wrote Zarokekî Dîl during that time.
Baykuşak said that, after the war, Hekarî became one of the leading figures of the Kurdish enlightenment movement in Istanbul, and that his play Memê Alan was published in the journal Jîn. He also noted that Hekarî is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Kurdish poetry.
Awards announced
Following the speeches, the ceremony moved on to the awards. The Honorable Mention went to Mesut Arif for his play Dîno, and the award was presented by actor Rezan Kaya. The third prize went to Ahmet Bilge for his play Heyran ka em jî hinekî siyaset bikin, with the award presented by director Ferhad Feqî.
The second prize was awarded to Berat Şahin Beyoğlu for his play Siyabend. Presenting the award, Head of the Department of Culture, Arts and Social Affairs Zeynep Yaş highlighted that Evdirehîm Rehmî Hekarî, through great effort, left an important legacy for Kurdish theatre.
The first prize went to İbrahîm Kazimî for his play Kela Dimdimê. On Kazimî’s behalf, the award was received by Beyan Bahmani from Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar, Co-Chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP).
