Who am I?

Last week I promised to introduce myself to my classmates and other people who would stumble upon my blog. Now I have some spare time to do it.

We know people by their names, deeds and fame. Moses is known as the messenger of the Ten Commandments. Some of these commandments had been written or practices in Mesopotamia. For example, Hammurabi is known to have put down laws and these laws considered as the first written laws. Jesus has been known for centuries and now as the Holly Spirit, God, and the Son of God. Mohammed is known as the messenger of God. Everyone has an attribute to be known for.

Since I am not of this caliber, then what am I known for? Who am I? I must admit though that I am only known by my name and last name like other billions of people. I am Yuksel Serindag. My ethnic background is Kurdish. Some of you might ask themselves about the word “Kurdish.” Yes, the word “Kurdish” describes an ethnic group in the Middle East. Kurdish is the adjective of the word “Kurds,” who live in Kurdistan. Kurdistan is the land where the Kurds live. Of course there are other ethnic groups that live in Kurdistan as well, e.g., Assyrians. To know more about Assyrians please go to Wikipedia.

Kurdish land or Kurdistan right now is divided by four countries—Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria--in the Middle East. The Kurds are neither Turks, nor Arabs, nor Persians. Linguistically they are related to the Persians. The Kurdish language is a branch of the Indo-European family language tree to which English, German, Russian, French and Greek belong. There are many Kurdish words that are similar to words in the languages above. For example, the word “Brother” in English is “Bra” in Kurdish.

My ethnicity is Kurdish but my name Yuksel Serindag is Turkish not Kurdish. The reason for that is when I was born (in the 60s) Kurdish was forbidden and still is. Therefore my parents gave me a Turkish name. The process happened in the U.S. and Australia with the natives. This process is called assimilation. That is, a militarily powerful culture tries to eradicate another one.

To be continued…