SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region—Omari Karim Agha is a well-known Kurdish TV personality. Performing since 1964, Agha became known to people when he appeared on the first Kurdish television show “Kashkol.”
After the 1991 uprising, Gali Kurdistan was the first local channel that started broadcasting. “Kashkol” was a popular TV skit.
After this long history of performing, Agha now seems less enthusiastic about Kurdish films. “Art has become a business nowadays,” he told Rudaw.
He added, “Some people abuse this business by making a lot of money but paying their actors and actresses very little.”
“In the past, making films was part of the struggle for Kurdish cause,” Agha said. “We performed to encourage a spirit of nationalism. Although we faced many troubles because of it, we never gave up.”
Expressing frustration, he told Rudaw, “I wish I could be more optimistic about Kurdish films today. I know many people wouldn’t be happy if I told the truth about Kurdish art.”
He first started performing by impersonating those around him. His last name, “Agha,” is an old title for tribal chiefs who often oppressed peasants.
However, he said, “I was not an arrogant ‘Agha.’ My family was not an oppressor. We inherited the name from my grandfather, rather than from wealth and fame.”
Until recently, the most popular TV shows in Sulaimani were “Kashkol,” “Rangala,” “Sabat,” “Zang” and “Barmnamay Barnama.” The actors and actresses who appeared on these shows are no longer working together due to political and personal disputes.
Agha, who has been on these shows, said, “The political parties played a major role in dividing the performers.”
The emergence of the Change Movement (Gorran), an opposition group established in Kurdistan in 2009, led to division among performers who used to work together in the past. The performers chose sides. Agha refused to choose a side.
Agha said, “I am not against the ideology of any political party, but I give priority to art over political beliefs. Actor and actresses are bigger than the politicians, so I don’t want to diminish art for politics.”
“When I joined the Kurdish struggle in 1964, the person in charge of my group discussed the disputes among the Kurds,” he said. “I spoke out by saying I would only participate in the revolution if the Kurds were united; if not, I would quit. Since then, I stopped being a member of any Kurdish political party.”
Also the author of poems and short stories, Agha will release his fourth volume “Kashkoli Agha” in the future.
