Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts in the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, participated in the funeral and burial ceremonies of the artist and poet Jean Thomas, on Thursday morning, 6 July 2023, at the church of St. John the Baptist in Ankawa district centre. This was in the presence of Rebwar Yalda, member of the political bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Farhang Ghafoor, Director General of Culture and Arts in Erbil, Rami Nuri Siyawish, District Commissioner of Ankawa, and a gathering of the deceased’s fans and friends.
In the eulogy he delivered on the occasion, Oghanna praised the prominent role played by the deceased in the service of art in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Whether through his composition of Kurdish songs, his participation in a number of Kurdish artistic groups, or his Church service, Oghanna stressed that the deceased was a symbol of brotherly coexistence in the region.
Oghanna also indicated that the deceased’s productivity was not limited to music but, rather, he was a poet who carried his people’s concerns and expressed them in his poetry, especially the poem of Simmele. He added, “Today, as we bid farewell to the deacon Jean Thomas, we remember all the departed of our people, whose output was not limited to a specific component but, rather, contributed to the development of the Kurdistani cultural and artistic movement in general.”
It is worth noting that the deceased was one of the most prominent pioneering artists in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. He contributed to the founding of the Bawaji Koya Ensemble and the Erbil Art Ensemble. His archive includes many lyrical tunes and Church hymns, in addition to his presidency of the Artists Syndicate and his educational work in the field of pedagogy.
