(21) years since the departure of the Kurdish artist Ahmed Kaya

ARK News... Ahmed Kaya, one of the most prominent Turkish singers and songwriters in the twentieth century, was persecuted by the security forces and imprisoned after he announced his intention to release a lyric album in the Kurdish language, which was banned in the republic, so he immigrated to France to escape from the Turkish police.

Ahmed Kaya was born on October 28, 1957, in Malatya to a low-income family consisting of a Turkish mother and a Kurdish immigrant father from the Adiyaman region in southeastern Turkey. He was the fifth and youngest among his brothers.

His father, who worked in textile factories, was forced to move to Istanbul in 1972 in search of job opportunities, and poverty pushed him to leave school, so he was imprisoned for the first time before he was over ten years old on charges of distributing political pamphlets against the coup of May 27, 1960.

Study and training
He studied the essential stage in Malatya schools, but his family's difficult financial circumstances forced him to leave school. He was attached to music and singing, so he had the first opportunity to sing on the podium in a celebration of Labor Day at the age of nine, and that occasion was a father who entered the world of singing and playing an instrument. "Bagاlama" is commonly used in Turkish melodies.

intellectual trends
His trends were affected by the atmosphere that accompanied the 1970 coup in Turkey and the accompanying political and social events, such as the expansion of the phenomenon of migration to cities, the anti-coup revolutions in universities, the intensification of political polarization, and the widening of the gap between the poor and the rich. “Rohi Su”, which was very popular among university students because of its focus on the national revolutionary dimension.

His love for patriotic singing prompted him to move between the different provinces of Turkey with his friends in parties calling for the rejection of the coup and revolution against him. He also declared his pride in his Kurdish race and angered the anti-Kurds at an art festival on February 10, 1999, when he announced his intention to sing in his mother tongue (Kurdish). The festival attendees attacked him, and the police arrested him for six months on charges of advocating racism.

In June 1999, the Turkish authorities were forced to allow him to travel to France to perform a party he had pre-contracted and then return directly to Turkey, but he remained in France until the end of his life.

Functions and Responsibilities

He worked in selling singing tapes in his childhood, then worked as a taxi driver in Istanbul before entering the world of concert singing and releasing his albums.

Artistic experience
He dedicated the first album he released to his mother, entitled "Crying the Child" in 1985. He was expected to be arrested after the release of the album, which sold more than half a million copies, but that did not happen, and he returned in the same year to release the album "The Pain" and then his participation in singing at parties and in cassette tapes.

lyrical releases
He released the two albums “Al-Dakhil’ and “Words of Dawn” in 1986, the Tired Democracy album in the following year, the I Am Selecting album in 1988, then the Optimistic Roses album in 1989, the Wall of Love in 1990, and my head is in trouble in 1991, and Forbidden to Touch the following year and not easy in the year 1993 and the song of the mountains in 1994, Flashing the Stars in 1996, and Against the Friends of the Enemy in 1998. After his death several songs were released that he had composed in his life, such as Goodbye, my eyes in 2000, I cry a little in 2003, I will stay the same in 2005, and a thousand years of my eyes in 2006.

Awards and Honors
He received several awards, the Turkish Press Foundation Award in 1985, and the Musician of the Year award from Turkish Show TV in 1999.

Departure
On November 16, 2000, Ahmed Kaya died of a heart attack in France and was buried in the Great Cemetery. Turkey announced in February 2013 that it was working to recover his body for burial in his hometown.

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