Osman Sabri

Osman Sabri (Kurdish: Osman Sebrî‎), (1905, Kâhta, Ottoman Empire – 11 October 1993, Damascus, Syria) was a Kurdish poet, writer and journalist. He was born in Narînç or Narinc (present-day village of Narince, Kâhta) in what was then the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire (present-day Adıyaman Province of Turkey). He and his family were involved in the failed Sheik Said Rebellion led by Sheikh Said. The ones apprehended were tried. Two uncles of him were hung in Diyarbakır while he was imprisoned. After his release he took refuge in Syria in 1929, where he got in contact of the leaders of Xoybûn. While in Syria, he got to know many Kurdish intellectuals such as: Celadet Bedir Khan, Cegerxwîn, Tîrêj and Qedrîcan. After the establishment of Republic of Ararat during the Ararat rebellion, he tried to join the revolt, but he was again imprisoned by the British authorities in Mosul and Baghdad. Although he was freed in 1935, the British forced him into exile to Madagascar one year later in 1936. He went to Lebanon in 1937, and again became involved in the Xoybûn and in the Kurdish publications in Beirut. He was employed by the French Mandate administration between 1944 and 1949, the year he was dismissed by the Ministry of the Interior. He also took part in founding the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria in 1957 and was elected as the secretary general of that party. Within the party, he was an adherent of the ideology of Mustafa Barzani. Due to his nationalist activities, he was arrested and imprisoned several times until 1972.