Ahmet Kaya's Legacy

Ahmet Kaya's Legacy

I'm proud to come from the Anatolian land, however there are many troubles in this old country/area.  Here is an example.  

Ahmet Kaya was at one time the number one seller for fantasy/folk/turko rock music, and he was one of my favourite.  

The problem (for him) was he was Kurdish.   Turkey is a country of close to 70 million, and of that number about 20 million are Kurds.   

In the olden days, Turks and Kurds, and other ethnic groups within this nation fought side by side against the imperial powers.  However, since about the mid 1970s, there is an emphasis on what your back ground is in Turkey. This divide got worse, before slowly getting better now.  

But in 1999 this is what happened to Ahmet Kaya.   

Ahmet Kaya drinking tea

He went on a show, and declared that in his future album, he was going to sing a song in Kurdish, this became a big deal and eventually he was declared that he insulted the Turkish identity and was going to be jailed, therefore he took off to France.   This all happened while he was the number one singer in Turkey.  

In France, until is death only a short year later, he kept telling the Turkish authorities that he had not said anything wrong and he declared that he wanted to come back to his country as he missed his country, friends, family etc.   However, the Turkish government did not forgive him and advised him that his prison sentence would stand.   

Ahmet Kaya died in October of the year 2000 and his wife said that he died of the heartache he had for his country.   This really upset me and many folks back then and even now.   The Turkish government has not apologized for this event yet and there are repeated requests by Kurds, his family and friends.  

My son is named after him.   My side of the family does not have any Kurdish, we have a bit of Syrian from about 7 generations back and my parents can still speak levantine Arabic, I can a bit...

My wife's grandmother was Kurdish, therefore my son is one forth Kurdish now.  My son Ahmet is one forth as following: 

Kurdish, Turkish, Canadian and Arabic, I'm very proud of this.  

My son Ahmet and his Jeep

Ahmet Kaya and his daughter

Back to Ahmet Kaya, because of his stand with  the Turkish government, Kurdish language is recognized now and there is even a Kurdish radio/TV and so on.  He paved the way for many within this country.   

May he rest in peace.    

Ben here