Hozan Şiyar

He was born in 1953 in Silvan of Diyarbakır Province.

Hozan's father Şiyar Şerif was a photograph.

Siyar used to help his father during his childhood years.

Unfortunately, Şiyar lost his father at the age of seven.

Şiyar's mother lived with her four small children alone in the houshold.

Şiyar's mother looked unsuccessful for a job to take care of her children.

After a while, Siyar works at an Tekel factory in Silvan.

Şiyar visited a boarding school on the one hand and worked on the other hand to help the family financially.

At a young age, he joined a young revolutionary Kurdish group at school, which raised its voice against the assimilation that was against the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

Hozan Şiyar got married in 1973 and joined the army right after his marriage.

In 1975, Hozan Şiyar started working as an employee at the Silvan military branch.

At that age he created with some friends a music group.

He sings in Kurdish along with his group at parties and weddings and in this way he is moving towards professionalism.

Indeed, Hozan Şiyar movement attracts the attention of the state as well.

The Turkish government decides to deport Şiyar away from Silvan.

On this, Şiyar quits the civil service.

In the years 1976–77, Hozan Şiyar devoted himself completely to music and the revolutionary movement parties in Turkey.

During these years, he became a member of the Kawa organization, which was a Turkish-Kurdish left-wing radical organization that advocated for Kurdish rights, in which Şiyar actively participated in the work of the organization.

He released his first music tape in 1977.

After this first tape, Hozan Şiyar published five tapes in a row between 1977 and 1980, despite all the difficulties and prohibitions which was about the Turkish state's attitude towards Kurdish music.

Towards the 1980s, the name and voice of Hozan Şiyar spread in the majority Kurdish cities especially through Radio Erevan.

With his songs, he calls people to be aware in the majority Kurdish cities and towns.

Hozan Şiyar, like many of Kurdish intellectuals, politicians and artists, took part in the 1980 Turkish coup d'état.

The military regime arrests Şiyar and puts him in prison for four years.

After his realise in 1984, he was once again arrested for twp years for producing and distributing Kurdish tapes.

According to his own account, during his arrest, Turkish police officers also tortures him in prison severely.

In 1990, In 1991, Şiyar went for Istanbul.

Here he makes contact with the Mesopotamian Cultural Center.

Then in 1992 he went to Sweden, to continue his music career in Kurdish.

Hozan Şiyar, real name Celal Sarikaya (born 1953 in Silvan, Diyarbakır - died 22 April 2001 in Stockholm), was a Kurdish singer and composer from Turkey, who later resided in Sweden.

Hozan Şiyar was diagnosed with cancer in 1998 and he passed away in Stockholm on April 22, 2001, at 8:55 a.m. According to his heart's desire, he was buried in the Şekhelil cemetery in Silvan.