History

Tunceli/Dersim is imbedded to the south of the ranges of Mercan- and Cemaldaglari, which flanks to the north-western side of Kurdistan. His Kurd origin and affiliation to the Alevi religion is for him the inspiration and mission as well as composer, singer, author and political human being.

During primary school time his father already lived in Germany as guest-worker. During grammar school time he often performed as a singer at events of left-wing organizations and besides played his first performance to a full house at “Arkadas-Sinema” of Tunceli. Since then he is called “The little Ozan of Dersim”

The seventies were determined by political conflicts between the fascist “Grey Wolfs”, the police and the army on the one side and on the other side students, the working class and left wing intellectuals. The state sided with the right wing. Against this background he emigrated in 1979 to Germany, without finishing his grammar school education. There he visited the evening school to learn German.

In 1982 he recorded his debut album “Kizilirmak” in a small sound studio in Bremen. In the same year he got to know the American musician Darnel Sumers with whom he set up together with three German and one Greek friend his first band. The impressions of this new period of life flew into his album “Bu Yürek Bu Sevda Var Iken” that was released in After 6 months he abandoned the voice study and preferred to go on tour in Germany. He gave many concerts for an audience consisting of mainly Turkish – Kurdish people living in 1984.

That’s why he couldn’t return to the Turkey, where he must expect persecution by the military government, especially since the political situation had still got worse after the military coup on 12th of September 1980.

In 1985 he returned to Turkey for the first time since he had left his home country. As soon as he arrived he was immediately arrested and brought into the prison camp DAL in Ankara.

Some of his lyrics are written in the language of the Zaza and Kurmanci, which are regarded as languages of the Kurds. His concerts became meetings of the resistance movement. Besides he supported strikes of the working class, the democratization of Turkey, the environmentalism and the free university of Istanbul, which practices critical teachings and research. He is also an active member of IHD, an association for human rights.

His apparent oppositional attitude caused several arrests and trials in the following years. In 2006 he went on tour with his new album “Ateşte sınandık” throughout Turkey. The concerts were themed “songs for peace.

Since 2003 he has been working together with the film-maker Umur Hozatli on the film “Perperik”, which tells the story about a life as Kurd in the Turkey .This will be the first movie that is televised only in Kurdish.