LaLa Land

One night in Silopi we were invited to the home of Selman’s neighbors and family, Sıdık and Divan Çevik. They told us the story of how they met and married, risking their lives to do so. It was such an interesting story that I thought I would post it.

They first met when they were in third grade. Sıdık was immediately interested in Divan when he saw her and asked a local hoca create an amulet to make her fall in love with him. The hoca told him to get a lock of her hair to make the love amulet. Divan wore her hair in 40 braids. Sıdık stole a pair of folding scissors from his father’s pocket. However, instead of taking a small lock, he took an entire braid from her head. She remembered him as the boy who had cut her braid.

Years later, when Sıdık was an eligible bachelor in his teens, he had his pick of 16 girls in the village. According to Sıdık, the girls were fighting over him to the point of pulling each other’s hair! However, his attention was on Divan, who was the daughter of the ağa, the Tatar tribal chief. But because he was not a member of the tribe, he would not be allowed to marry her. They loved each other very much, so they decided to elope. Their marriage was dishonorable to the Tatar family and their marriage put their lives in danger. They went to several villages to hide but each time had to run to avoid being caught and murdered in an "honor" killing. Eight members of the Tatar came forward to testify that Divan was already engaged to another man, making their elopement punishable by death. However, one person secretly came forward to the officials involved in the case to say that Divan was not previously engaged. It was decided that a spy be used to determine the truth. A woman was found to approach the Tatar family and request work. She was able to work in the household for several weeks and learned that the engagement was indeed falsified. The names of Sıdık and Divan were cleared and the death sentence was removed from their heads. However, they were still not accepted in the Tatar tribe.

Eventually, Sıdık and Divan escaped to Iraq where they lived for six years in the mid-1960’s. Because they were in Iraq illegally, Sıdık could not work. They were forced to live in the mountains 'as animals,' and their clothes were so dirty that they actually broke at times. At this time, Faisel II was the king of Iraq and ordered the bombing of Kurdish villages in northern Iraq. One day, word came to Sıdık and Divan that their village would be bombed. Sıdık did not believe that their small village would be bombed and stayed behind. Eventually the planes came and he ran for his life. He found an area where two calves had been tied to a pole near a small ditch. The exploding bombs threw the calves and dirt on top of him so that he could not be seen and his life was spared.

Sıdık and Divan returned to Turkey with their child. The Tatar family still did not accept them and Divan was hated for betraying her family. Gradually, after 20 years or so, they were accepted again in the Tatar family. Sıdık received an education and enjoyed a long career as a civil servant. Now in retirement, he works for the rights of Turkish drivers of taxis, buses, trucks, etc. Sıdık and Divan are a joy to be around and it was a fun night of food, music, and stories in their home.