My father's rifle "Childhood in Kurdistan" > Author: Hiner Salim

My name is آزاد Shiro Salim. I am the youngest son of Salim Malai. My grandfather was a humorous man full of jokes. He used to say that he was born Kurdish on free land. When the Ottomans came and told my grandfather: "You are Ottoman," he became Ottoman. When the Ottoman Empire fell, he became Turkish. When the Turks left, he returned Kurdish in the Kingdom of Sheikh Mahmoud; the King of the Kurds. And when the British came, my grandfather became a subject of Her Majesty, even learning some English words.