He was born in the
Eskimağara (
Zivingê) village in
Mardin Province. His name after the
Surname Law was Şeyhmus Elmas, after Sheikh Şeyhmus, and Elmas meaning Diamond in Turkish. However, he rejected it and wanted to be called Musa Anter. He was born into a respected family and after the death of his father, his mother became the
Muhtar of the village who communicated with the tax collectors. He completed his primary education in Mardin, and then studied at junior and senior high school in Adana. During his high school studies, the
Dersim rebellion led by
Seyid Riza was going on, which lead to some frictions with his Turkish classmates following which he was shortly detained. While studying, he was able to run a
catering business for the mostly Kurdish students of the Dicle and Firat student halls. such as
Celadet and
Kamuran Bedir Khan,
Kadri and
Ekrem Cemilpaşa, Dr. Nafiz,
Nûredin Zaza,
Nuri Dersimi,
Qedrîcan,
Osman Sabri,
Haco Agha and his son Hasan,
Emînê Perîxanê's son Şikriye Emîn, Mala Elyê Unus,
Teufo Ciziri and
Cigerxwîn. In 1944, he married Ayşe Hanım, the daughter of . Ayse was a member of a noble Kurdish family and had studied in a German school in Istanbul. At one moment, he even helped to organize an event for the German Ambassador to Turkey
Franz von Papen. Following his military service in the Turkish army, he settled in
Diyarbakir, where he became a manager of a Hotel nearby the NATO military base. == Professional career and Kurdish political activism ==