Ban on Kurdish singer’s concert triggers controversy in Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A recent ban on a renowned Kurdish singer’s concert in Turkey’s northwestern province has caused controversy in the country, with opposition parties slamming the decision.

The 47-year-old Aynur Dogan was supposed to hold a music concert in Derince city, Kocaeli province on May 20. However, the city’s municipality said in a statement on Sunday that they had banned the event “for being inconvenient,” without sharing further details. The date of the decision coincided with the Kurdish language day in Turkey.

The municipality, held by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), added that they made the decision after a “detailed examination.”

Rudaw English has learnt that a large number of tickets had already been sold online.

Hours after the ban, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), slammed the decision, saying “We were born free and will die free in this country. Put this in your head AKP.”

He also shared the Spotify link of Dogan’s famous song, Dar Hejiroke (Fig Tree), with his Twitter statement.  

Dogan, who sings in both Kurdish and Turkish, received the 2021 WOMEX Award in October. 

Nurhayat Altaca Kayisoglu, a lawmaker for the CHP, said in the Turkish parliament on Tuesday that it is normal in Turkey to sing an English song but not a Kurdish one, singing a few lines from Dar Hejiroke.

Saruhan Oluc, a lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), criticised the decision during a press conference on Monday, claiming that “the hostility towards the Kurdsih language and Kurds is at its peak'' in Turkey.

He asked what made the concert “inconvenient.” 

The Kurdish language had been banned in formal settings in Turkey since the establishment of the state until the AKP’s government partially removed the ban a decade ago, allowing Kurds to speak their language in informal settings and granting them the right to attend Kurdish elective courses at school and continue their studies in their mother tongue language at college. 

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Turkish far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), targeted Kilicdaroglu for his support for the Kurdish singer.

“Mr. Kilicdaroglu, listen to me well. Supporting a so-called singer who sings folk songs under the posters of the child killer is cruelty itself,” said Bahceli, referring to Abadullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

This is not the first time that a Kurdish event has been banned. The Kurdish performance of an Italian play was banned in Istanbul in late 2020.

More recently, the Mus governor’s office also banned the concert of Metin and Kemal Kahraman, who sing in Kurdish and Turkish, on Monday. The event was due to take place on Tuesday. Cayirova district authorities in Kocaeli province banned the performance of Don Kixot (Don Quixote), reported independent Bianet news outlet on Tuesday.