Karapetê Xaço

Who was Karapetê Xaço?

Karapetê Xaço or Karabêtê Xaço or Gerabêtê Xaço, was an Armenian singer of traditional Kurdish dengbêj music.

Karapetê Haço was born in the village of Bileyder in the Ottoman Empire to an Armenian family in 1900. He observed the annihilation of his village during the massacres of 1915. Xaço and his brother Abraham, sisters Manuşak and Xezal survived because a soldier said Let's free them and allow them to go as he lost his parents. He was saved by his knowledge of Kurmanji and a miraculous talent.

At a young age, he began taking a liking for music and would sing old Kurdish folk songs that were passed on through generations. He has worked as a mercenary soldier of French Foreign Legion nearly 15 years. He married Yeva of Azizyan family in the Syrian city of Al-Qamishli, when he was a legionnaire in 1936. They had four daughters and a son. He and his family went to Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and settled in Yerevan in 1946. He formulated his experiences of the genocide. Karapete Xaço worked for the Kurdish Service of Yerevan Radio and was popular among the Kurdish people.