12 Facts About Musa Anter

Musa Anter, known as "Ape Musa", was a Kurdish writer, journalist and intellectual.

Musa Anter was born in the Eskimagara village in Mardin Province.

Musa Anter was born into a respected family and after the death of his father, his mother became the Muhtar of the village who communicated with the tax collectors.

Musa Anter's birth date is not known; he was first registered as born in 1924, and then in 1920, but based on his mother's account, who said that Anter was born after the Armenian genocide, Anter assumed to have been born in either 1917 or 1918.

Musa Anter completed his primary education in Mardin, and then studied at junior and senior high school in Adana.

Musa Anter was arrested in 1959, after publishing the Kurdish-language poem Qimil in the newspaper Ileri Yurt.

Musa Anter's arrest provoked a wave of Kurdish protests, in the aftermath of which a trial against fifty Kurdish intellectuals began, known as the "Case of the 49".

Musa Anter eventually served some time in prison but was released due to an amnesty.

Musa Anter later supported the establishments of the Mesopotamian Cultural Center in 1991 and the Kurdish Institute in Istanbul in 1992.

Musa Anter was shot on 20 September 1992 in an incident in which Orhan Miroglu was seriously injured.

Musa Anter is viewed as an important and influential Kurdish poet and author.

Musa Anter's wife was a descendant of Bedir Khan Beg and related to the AKP politician Cuneyd Zapsu.