Aram Tigran

Aram Tigran (Armenian: Արամ Տիգրան) or Aramê Dîkran (Kurdish rendering from Western Armenian), born Aram Melikyan (Armenian: Արամ Մէլիքեան), (1934 – 8 August 2009)[1] was a contemporary Armenian singer who sang primarily in Kurdish. Among Assyrians in Qamishli he was known as Aram Dikran.

Statue of Aram Tigran in Silvan, Diyarbakir, Turkey.

Tigran was born in Qamishli in northeastern Syria to a family originally from Diyarbakır, Turkey.[2] His first Oud he received from his uncle at the age of six.[3] After finishing ninth grade, he concentrated his efforts on learning music and playing Oud[2] and in 1953 he gave his first public concert at the Newroz celebrations.[3] By the age of twenty years, he was singing in four languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac and Armenian.[2] In 1966 he moved to Yerewan, Armenia, at the time a part of the Soviet Union, where he worked for 18 years at the Radio Yerewan.[3][4] He left Armenia in 1995 and settled in Athens.[3] He is considered among the best of contemporary Kurdish singers and musicians.[5] He recorded 230 songs in Kurdish, 150 in Arabic, 10 in Syriac, 8 in Greek.[6]

Tigran died in Athens on August 8, 2009, in the Evangelismos General Hospital.[7] Tigran wanted to be buried in Diyarbakır in Turkey,[8] but the Turkish authorities refused this request.[4][9] He was buried in Brussels instead.[10]

He was married and father of three children.[10]