Murat Yazar

Photographer

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shadows of kurdistan. a photographic research of a cultural identity

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Footprints in the Snow.
Çaldıran is the coldest area of Anatolia, with snow for 5 or 6 months a
year. The footsteps of a wolf continue indefinitely in the snow.
Çaldıran, Turkey 2016

The School
It is forbidden to speak Kurdish in schools; only Turkish is allowed. When
children walk outside the door, they return to their Kurdish mother
tongue.
Doğubeyazıt, Turkey 2016

Newroz Festival in Peacetime
When talks began between Turkey and the PKK in 2012, people’s hopes were high. They started to feel safe and celebrated the new year's Newroz festival in freedom.
Suruç, Turkey 2015

A Break for a Game On one side is Mount Süphan; on the other side is Lake Van and young men are playing between these two beautiful landscape features. Adilcevaz,Turkey 2016

Women in Traditional Attire for the Newroz Festival
For the Kurdish people, Newroz is an event which symbolizes the revolution and struggle of Kurds throughout history.
Diyarbakır, Turkey 2015

Saturday Mothers
The Saturday Mothers is a group which gathers every Saturday at noon for half an hour at Galatasaray Square in Istanbul, holding photographs of their "lost" loved ones. Primarily mothers of victims, and renowned as a model of civil disobedience, they combine a silent sit-in with a communal vigil to protest the forced disappearances and political murders in Turkey during the military coup-era of the1980s and the OHAL (State of emergency) of 1990s.
Istanbul, Turkey 2009

A Woman Tries to Find Her Home after the Occupation
The Turkish army occupied the city of Şırnak from 14 March - 16 November 2016. When the people returned to their city, they could not find their homes, because it had been totally destroyed by the Turkish military.
Şırnak, Turkey 2016

Kurdish Wedding
Govend, a traditional Kurdish dance celebrated in a village at the foot of Mount Ararat.
Iğdır, Turkey 2016

Preparing for Winter
In summer, shepherds care for village sheep in the mountains. When winter returns, they separate their animals and return them to the barns.
Doğubeyazıt, Turkey 2016

Greater and Little Mount Ararat
Doğubeyazıt, Turkey 2016

Carpenters
Kurdish day laborers wait in the café for someone to come and give them work.
Kars, Turkey 2012

Shepherd Girls
A Kurdish village in Turkey near the city of Kobani in Syria. The border between Syria and Turkey separated the Kurdish people into two different countries.
Suruç, Turkey 2016

Animal Bazaar.
The bazaar was held for the the Sacrifice Feast.
Urfa, Turkey 2013

Game in Shadow
Children playing games in the historic streets of Urfa.
Urfa, Turkey 2011

Beri
Nomadic women returning to their tent after milking the sheep. Half of the year is spent in the mountains and half near the cities.
Hasankeyf, Turkey 2015

A Village near the Armenian Border
Armenian and Kurdish people lived together before the 1915 genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire.
Kars, Turkey 2015

Newroz Festival in PeacetimeWhen Turkey and the PKK began talks in 2012, peoples’ hopes were high. They started to feel safe and celebrated Newroz with freedom.
Cizre, Turkey 2015

A Wall around His Home.
There is an important border crossing between Turkey and Iran by Mount Ararat. Every day hundreds of big trucks pass through this crossing. When they tear their tires, they leave them on the road and the villagers collect them to make walls around their homes.
Doğubeyazıt, Turkey 2015

A Villager Collecting Branches
They will be given to their animals during winter.
Amadiya, Iraq 2019

Peshmerga
Two Peshmerga soldiers guard a mountain road checkpoint.
Dukan, Iraq 2019

Newroz Spring Festival
Men carry torches up the mountain to celebrate the Kurdish New Year.
Akre, Iraq 2019

The man is looking to the city view from the mountain.
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq 2019

A Short Tour Before the Ceremony
A couple is taking a boat tour in Lake Dukan before their wedding celebration.
Dukan, Iraq 2019

High Dive into the Khabur River
From an ancient bridge, teens leap 16 meters down to the Khabur River.
Zakho, Iraq 2019

21 March is the new year in Kurdistan, when nature with its flowers and plants returns after winter. Boys collect the flowers and try to sell them to drivers and passengers on the roads.
Arbil, Iraq 2019

Shed for the farmers near Lake Dukan
Dukan, Iraq 2019

The dogs are searching food near the butcher in the city.
Hamedan, Iran 2019

Forest in the Snow.
Baneh, Iran 2019

The people are looking at the view of the city along the road.
Sanandaj, Iran 2019

The Ceremony of Pir Şaliyar
Villagers gather for an ancient ceremony to honor Pir Şaliyar, a Zoroastrian dervish who lived in Hawraman in the 11th century CE.
Hawraman, Iran 2019

A villager is going to the field to work. He will be out working all day, and so is carrying his water and food.
Hawraman, Iran 2019

A woman is visiting the holy cemetery during the ceremony of Pir Şaliyar.
Villagers gather for an ancient ceremony to honor the Zoroastrian dervish who lived in Hawraman in the 11th century CE .
Hawraman, Iran 2019

Game Time by Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia is a salt water lake in Iran. In recent years the water level has decreased due to over irrigation in the region as well as the effects of climate change. Winds carry the salt from the lake to the farmers' lands nearby, destroying the soil and forcing many villagers to leave their homes.
Urmia, Iran 2019

Turkish Military Bombing Serê Kaniyê
In 2019, Turkey attacked the Kurdish area of Rojava in Syria. After a few weeks of war, Turkey occupied the city of Serê Kaniyê (Ras al-Ayn ).
Ras al-Ayn, Syria 2019

Barbed Wire
In 2014 ISIS attacked the city of Kobane in Syria. Many civilians tried to flee to Turkey but the borders were closed by the Turkish government, leaving people stranded on the other side, waiting in Syria.
Kobane, Syria 2014

Sleeping in the Elements
Finally, crossing into Turkey, refugees from Kobane spent the nights outside waiting for the war to finish so they could return home.
Suruç, Turkey 2014

The Road
Bingöl, Turkey in 2016

| ©Murat Yazar, 2019