The Musician Ahmet Kaya

4 August, 2009 (10:00) | Characters, Language, Music, The Search, human rights, istanbul

Once upon a time in Istanbul… There once was a musician in Turkey named Ahmet Kaya and his music was loved by everyone in the country. Now what I mean by everyone, was everyone. Be they left or right, conservative or modern, young and old, Turkish or Kurdish, he was loved by all. He sold many albums throughout his short life. The themes of his music were social injustice, the love of one’s mother, hope and sacrifice. He “topped the charts” you might say.

Ahmet Kaya was born in Malatya in October of the year 1957. Before he became famous he worked as a taxi driver in Istanbul.

One day, when he was at the pinnacle of his fame he was to be honored with the Musician of the Year award at the televised annual music awards ceremony “Show TV”. The audience was full of artists and intellectuals. A ‘high quality’ crowd, you might say. He made the fatal mistake (fatal, let’s say, only in Turkey) of wanted to sing in Kurdish. Ouch. Whoops. And then, this honorable audience, lowered themselves to the level of Thug, attacked him with knives and forks, Turkish singers such as Ebru Gundes and Serdar Ortac. Shame.

In Canada, this would be like a Quebecois performing in Toronto and saying he would like to sing a song in French. But what would happen then? Nothing. The crowd would hush and … listen.

Ahmet Kaya was accused of siding with the Kurdish separatist group. He fled in exile to Paris as all great artists would. In absentia, he was sentenced to 3 years, 9 months.

But he died in Paris in the year 2000 and God took away the gift of his music from the world that punished him. He was buried in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery where all great artists, writers and musicians are buried, ones with the names of Frederic Chopin, Jim Morrisson, Honoré de Balzac, Maria Callas and Edith Piaf.

I heard the music of this musican, Mr. Ahmet Kaya and someone told me this bizarre story. So I thought I would share the music of this great musician from Turkey. Everyone should hear it. I found this video on YouTube where you may find many of his songs and videos. This song is called “Karanlikta” which means, “In the Dark.”

Nowadays in Istanbul and all over Turkey, Kurdish music and broadcasting on the television is permitted. This move towards diversity is promising for everyone in Turkey. Little steps towards a free society, acceptance of all people and all cultures, how wonderful… to replace this tragic story of shame.