Ferhat Tunç remembers Ahmet Kaya
Ferhat Tunç remembers Ahmet Kaya
Ferhat Tunç is a singer and composer. He was the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block candidate at the last elections.
“Just like dear Ahmet Kaya looked for some brave people to shoot a video clip for his song but couldn’t find any, we are now looking for some brave people for the solution of the Kurdish issue but we unfortunately cannot find anyone. Together with Ahmet Kaya, all of us are still inside this dirty lynch pincer.”
I met Ahmet in the autumn of 1987 in Yusuf Hayaloðlu’s house in a back street in Istinye district of Istanbul. Until the time we met, I had known him with his albums “Aðlama Bebek” and “Þafak Türküsü” which both evoked a deep admiration for him in many other people. By the time we met, I had just released my album “Vurgunum Hasretine” and he had been living in Turkey for a year after his return from Germany. Besides the album, I was also dealing with giving solo concerts in Istanbul and different provinces in Turkey.
We would usually gather at Yusuf Hayaloðlu’s house where we would compete to compose the lyrics written by Hayaloðlu. We would work till the morning hours in a room which Yusuf had designed for himself. The same thing continued for some time, either with or without Ahmet. By the way, Ahmet had an unusual ability when it came to composition which I would to tell the truth welcome with jealousy.
With his second albüm “Þafak Türküsü”, Ahmet became known more and more by larger masses and this recognition brought him to the position of Turkey’s most prominent artist in giving concerts.
This happened at times when the effects and practices of 12 September military coup were still in place. This difficult period had the effect at the same time to push more and more people to come to our concerts where the environment was pretty much the same as that of mass meetings. Young and old alike in concert areas were all together chanting slogans to condemn the nonhuman practices and tortures going on in Turkish prisons in that period. As this sensibility mobilized police forces in the process of time, we were forced to give concerts under police blockade. I can say that concerts on one hand and new released albums on the other hand provided a significant contributions to the advancement of democracy struggle against the darkness of 12 September. Therefore, a detention rush began in the face of these developments which were disliked by the state and its police force. Being taken into custody after concerts and subjected to interrogation for days became a usual thing for us in that period. […]
[…] As years passed by, Ahmet Kaya became an artist who was known by large masses in the country. He was therefore a topical issue at the agenda of the media as well.
While praising Ahmet on one side, this political mob, who consider life as made up of interests alone, still persist with cruel policies against Kurdish people. They see no harm in the imprisonment of intellectuals and artists who show awareness concerning the solution of the Kurdish issue. What kind of a ‘reasonable’ justification could be given for putting reputable intellectuals like Ragýp Zarakolu and Büþra Ersanlý behind bars?
There is a single reason for the attacks and cases opened against me for the last ten years as a friend of Ahmet Kaya; the same racist and monist perception still continues 11 years later.
The mentality which lynched Ahmet Kaya because of his Kurdish video is today trying to lynch our calls for freedom and peace. The government unfortunately wasn’t able to take a lesson from what has been lived for these 11 years.
“Just like dear Ahmet Kaya looked for some brave people to shoot a video clip for his song but couldn’t find any, we are now looking for some brave people for the solution of the Kurdish issue but we unfortunately cannot find anyone. Together with Ahmet Kaya, all of us are still inside this dirty lynch pincer.”
I met Ahmet in the autumn of 1987 in Yusuf Hayaloðlu’s house in a back street in Istinye district of Istanbul. Until the time we met, I had known him with his albums “Aðlama Bebek” and “Þafak Türküsü” which both evoked a deep admiration for him in many other people. By the time we met, I had just released my album “Vurgunum Hasretine” and he had been living in Turkey for a year after his return from Germany. Besides the album, I was also dealing with giving solo concerts in Istanbul and different provinces in Turkey.
We would usually gather at Yusuf Hayaloðlu’s house where we would compete to compose the lyrics written by Hayaloðlu. We would work till the morning hours in a room which Yusuf had designed for himself. The same thing continued for some time, either with or without Ahmet. By the way, Ahmet had an unusual ability when it came to composition which I would to tell the truth welcome with jealousy.
With his second albüm “Þafak Türküsü”, Ahmet became known more and more by larger masses and this recognition brought him to the position of Turkey’s most prominent artist in giving concerts.
This happened at times when the effects and practices of 12 September military coup were still in place. This difficult period had the effect at the same time to push more and more people to come to our concerts where the environment was pretty much the same as that of mass meetings. Young and old alike in concert areas were all together chanting slogans to condemn the nonhuman practices and tortures going on in Turkish prisons in that period. As this sensibility mobilized police forces in the process of time, we were forced to give concerts under police blockade. I can say that concerts on one hand and new released albums on the other hand provided a significant contributions to the advancement of democracy struggle against the darkness of 12 September. Therefore, a detention rush began in the face of these developments which were disliked by the state and its police force. Being taken into custody after concerts and subjected to interrogation for days became a usual thing for us in that period. […]
[…] As years passed by, Ahmet Kaya became an artist who was known by large masses in the country. He was therefore a topical issue at the agenda of the media as well.
While praising Ahmet on one side, this political mob, who consider life as made up of interests alone, still persist with cruel policies against Kurdish people. They see no harm in the imprisonment of intellectuals and artists who show awareness concerning the solution of the Kurdish issue. What kind of a ‘reasonable’ justification could be given for putting reputable intellectuals like Ragýp Zarakolu and Büþra Ersanlý behind bars?
There is a single reason for the attacks and cases opened against me for the last ten years as a friend of Ahmet Kaya; the same racist and monist perception still continues 11 years later.
The mentality which lynched Ahmet Kaya because of his Kurdish video is today trying to lynch our calls for freedom and peace. The government unfortunately wasn’t able to take a lesson from what has been lived for these 11 years.
