Subhiya Osman teaches Armenian to young people in Dirbêsiyê again after 50 years
Subhiya Osman, a woman whose mother is Arab and father is Kurdish, is teaching young Armenians their mother language.
In January 2025, in the city of Dirbêsiyê in Cizîrê Canton, the Armenian Community Council reopened its doors to the public with the aim of strengthening solidarity and unity among Armenians in the region and preserving their language and culture.
Following the opening, numerous Armenian youngsters living in Dirbêsiyê began attending the Council to learn their mother language. The greatest joy for the young people, however, was the return of their teacher, Subhiya Osman, who resumed teaching after many years.
She grew up with Armenians and Syriacs
Born in Dirbêsiyê in 1950, in a neighborhood with a large Armenian and Syriac population, Subhiya Osman began to take an interest in the Armenian language from an early age. Despite her father being Kurdish and mother being Arab, she was greatly influenced by the multicultural environment she lived in.
Her father enrolled him in the “Kelikîan Vajaran Armenian School” in the city, where she successfully completed her primary education. After her education, she taught Armenian at the same school for four years.
Migration and hope for return
However, Subhiya’s happy days did not last long. In the 1970s, the Baath regime began to pressure Armenians to leave for Armenia. Subhiya witnessed Armenians leaving the city en masse and the Armenian school and church being locked up.
She then married and lived in Raqqa for approximately 18 years with her six sons and one daughter. In 1992, while returning to Dirbêsiyê with her family, she lost her husband and three children in a traffic accident. The rest of the family survived with injuries.
Along with her surviving children, Subhiya resettled in Dirbêsiyê and, with the support of a relative, purchased the land where the old Armenian school once stood and built the city’s first bus station.
‘I have returned to my profession—or rather, to myself’
When the Armenian Community Council reopened its doors at the beginning of 2025, the first person the community sought was Subhiya. They reached her and had her return to her true calling, Armenian teaching. It was as if time had stood still, and she now has 16 students of different ages eager to learn Armenian. Subhiya describes this situation with a smile, saying, “I have returned to my profession—or rather, to myself.”
Subhiya says she is proud to be from Dirbêsiyê, describing the city as an example of coexistence among peoples, where Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, and Armenians live together as if they were one family, without any conflict.
