Musa Anter

Musa Anter (1920 – 20 September 1992), also known as "Apê Musa" (, literally "Uncle Musa"), was a Kurdish writer, journalist and intellectual. Anter was assassinated by Turkish JITEM in September 1992.

Early life and education He was born in the Eskimağara (Zivingê) village in Mardin Province. His name after the Surname Law was Şeyhmus Elmas, after Sheikh Şeyhmus, and Elmas meaning Diamond in Turkish. However, he rejected it and wanted to be called Musa Anter. He was born into a respected family and after the death of his father, his mother became the Muhtar of the village who communicated with the tax collectors. He completed his primary education in Mardin, and then studied at junior and senior high school in Adana. During his high school studies, the Dersim rebellion led by Seyid Riza was going on, which lead to some frictions with his Turkish classmates following which he was shortly detained.

By 1941, he left for Istanbul to study law. While studying, he was able to run a catering business for the mostly Kurdish students of the Dicle and Firat student halls. such as Celadet and Kamuran Bedir Khan, Kadri and Ekrem Cemilpaşa, Dr. Nafiz, Nûredin Zaza, Nuri Dersimi, Qedrîcan, Osman Sabri, Haco Agha and his son Hasan, Emînê Perîxanê's son Şikriye Emîn, Mala Elyê Unus, Teufo Ciziri and Cigerxwîn. In 1944, he married Ayşe Hanım, the daughter of . Ayse was a member of a noble Kurdish family and had studied in a German school in Istanbul. During the 1950s, he established three media outlets: Şark Mecmuasi, (1951), Şark Postasi (1954) and İleri Yurt (1958). Anter was arrested in 1959, after publishing the Kurdish-language poem Qimil in the newspaper İleri Yurt. His arrest provoked a wave of Kurdish protests, in the aftermath of which a trial against fifty Kurdish intellectuals began, known as the "". He eventually served some time in prison but was soon released due to an amnesty. In 1970, he was one of the charged in the trial of the Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths (DDKO) members. Three years after his release, he settled in Aksaru, a village in the Nusaybin district. He later supported the establishments of the Mesopotamian Cultural Center in 1991 and the Kurdish Institute in Istanbul in 1992. Ümit Cizre claimed that Abdülkadir Aygan, a former member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who had surrendered in 1985, who had been posteriorly recruited as part of the first staff of the JİTEM (the Turkish Gendarmerie's Intelligence and Counter-terrorism Service), The former Major of the Turkish army Cem Ersever claimed that the murder was facilitated by Alaattin Kanat, a former PKK member who was shortly released during the time of the assassination. After long investigations, Turkish Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism was found guilty of Anter's assassination by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2006, which sentenced Turkey to a fine of 28,500 Euros.

Legacy He is viewed as an important and influential Kurdish poet and author. He wrote for numerous publications such as İleri Yurt, Deng, Yön, Özgür Gündem, Dicle-Firat, Barış Dünyası amongst others In 1997, the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) supported a peace initiative called the Musa Anter Peace Train.

Works

Birîna Reş (Black Scar), 1959 Qimil (Stink Bug), 1962 Ferhenga Kurdî (Kurdish Dictionary), 1967 Hatıralarım (My Memories), First Edition, 1991 Hatıralarım (My Memories), Second Edition, 1992 Çinara Min (My sycamore), 1999

Personal life Musa Anter and Ayşe Hanım married in 1944. and related to the AKP politician Cuneyd Zapsu.