Biamag :: Kendi Celladına Biat Eden Bir Halk Olmayacağız! - Bianet

Biamag :: Kendi Celladına Biat Eden Bir Halk Olmayacağız! - BianetBaşbakanın son günlerde verdiği mesajlarda Seyit Rıza'nın son nefesini verirken söylediği sözleri hatırlatması tarihi bir öneme sahiptir. Türkiye'nin geleceği açısından önemli olan yaklaşımların siyasete kurban edilmeyerek gereğinin yapılması ise tek arzumdur. Aksi takdirde önemli olan bu söylemlerin değeri olmayacaktır.

Taraf Gazetesi | Dersim vahşeti tarihteki yerini nihayet almıştır

Taraf Gazetesi | Dersim vahşeti tarihteki yerini nihayet almıştırFerhat TUNC

Fişlenen internet siteleri, andıcı yargıya taşıyor - ZAMAN GAZETESİ [İnternetin İlk Türk Gazetesi]

Ünlü ses sanatçısı Ferhat Tunç, sitesinin fişlenmesine tepki gösterdi. Tunç, "Demokrasiyle yönetilen ülkelerde iktidarın sahibi hükümettir. Bu işi önümüzdeki günlerde yargıya taşıyacağım." dedi. Birçok site sahibi de Tunç'la aynı görüşü paylaşıyor. Sanatçı ve site sahiplerinin görüşleri şöyle:

Reactions vary as celebrities weigh in on political issues

Reactions vary as celebrities weigh in on political issuesFerhat Tunç, a singer known for his activism, stated that it is important for artists to assume a role in such historical processes. “For artists have always had the power to leave an important mark on the consciousness and the emotional world of society. We have seen in the past such sensitive statements have had important effects. I think it is important that artists are taking such a conscientious stance on such an important issue, even if this might come at a cost,” Tunç said.

Taraf Gazetesi | Cumhurbaşkanı’na açık mektup: Munzur; düşlerimizin ve anılarımızın mekânsal karşılığıdır

FERHAT TUNÇ * / Dersim, 1937-38’de yaşadığı büyük ve dokunaklı acıların etkisini hâlâ üzerinden atamamışken bugün yeniden yıkıcı ve kahredici bir süreçle karşı karşıyadır.

Singer Ferhat Tunç in his seventh court case

NEWS
14 July 2009
Turkey:

Police brutality against the Kurdish-Turkish singer Ferhat Tunç lead to a court case — not against the police, but against the singer .

By Anja Hotopp, reporting from Berlin

Prison threat 4-12 years. Under this headline news agencies in Turkey report of a new scandal in the Turkish justice sector. A new case against the Kurdish musician Ferhat Tunç and his friend from Germany, İsmail Özen, has been opened, whereas the case according to several media sources and the singer should have opened against the police for brutality.

Tunç is one of the best selling protest musicians of his country. But popularity does not protect him against police harassment on the Bosporus. So far, six court cases are pending against Tunç, now followed by the seventh. There seems to be no end to the repression and harassment that the singer faces in his home country. Last year alone, he was arrested twice.

Interrogated and beaten

The most recent case stems from 24 December 2008 when Ferhat Tunç was arrested while he was having lunch at a restaurant in Istanbul because a friend of his, İsmail Özen, who joined him for the lunch, could not present his identity papers to police as they were searching the restaurant.

The papers were in a car, parked only a few minutes walk away from the restaurant. Rather than accompanying İsmail Özen and Ferhat Tunç — who are both German citizens — to the car, approximately 30 civil police officers arrested them and brought them to a nearby police station.

Ferhat Tunç and his companion were taken to the police station handcuffed for a ‘health review’. According to Ferhat Tunç, he and his friend had to spend the night in the police custody, where they, according to Tunç, were abused and beaten during the interrogations. The next day both were released.

During the night at the police station Ferhat Tunç heard the loud screams of his friend. They could be heard from the top floor of the police building to the basement. He asked the police indignantly: “Are we in the mountains here? So why are you beating that young man?” [The statement about the mountains refers to the brutality of Turkish military in Kurdish mountain region — something which is generally censored in the Turkish public sphere].

Filed a complaint

Ferhat Tunç has already long been in the spotlight of the Turkish security agencies. In March 2008, he was the target of a violent ‘pick-up’ by armored security forces at 06:00 in the morning. Six police officers from Istanbul entered the house where he lives with his wife and daughter.

Under the indictment of having ‘insulted’ and ‘resisted the police’ the most recent court case was opened against Ferhat Tunç in Istanbul on 9 June 2009. The persecutor demanded between four and 12 years imprisonment for his ‘harassment against the police’.

Although Ferhat Tunç filed a complaint against four officers involved in the socalled ‘ID check’ at the restaurant last December, no procedure has been opened. Ferhat Tunç charged the police for violence, because of the kicks and blows he and his friend received.

In the court Ferhat Tunç and his friend raised the question why they and not the policemen were the accused. In order to prove their innocence, they requested the court to review the security camera videos of a school, which happened to be on Istanbul’s Istiklal Caddesi pedestrian street. The cameras would reveal police brutality during the arrest, they said.

“A civilian not able to present an ID-card should never be treated in this way by the police. No one should be treated in such a way, no matter what,” said Ferhat Tunç to the press.

The policemen involved in the incident, Kazim Urun, Muhammet Fatih Karaburç, Necati ve Hüseyin and Yıldız Samli participated in the opening proceedings.

New album

Ferhat Tunç who frequently tours Germany will perform at the forthcoming celebration of ‘20 years of twinning Istanbul-Berlin’ and the Festival ‘Music & Politics’.

“I have now been working more than two years on my next album — but because of the court proceedings, accusations, threats and censorship, I was only able to finish it recently. These proceedings hinder me in my work as an artist — physically and mentally,” explained Ferhat Tunç.

But he he says he will not give up. Ferhat Tunç wants to remain strong and active for a social change in Turkey.

http://www.freemuse.org/sw34452.asp

Ferhat Tunç, "Laments for Rebels and Soldiers"

Friday, March 20, 2009

Arrested in 2003 for one episode of outspoken protest and again in 2005 and 2007, Tunç is once more on trial in his native Turkey. Released temporarily, the fearlessly engaged Kurdish recording artist comes to Duke to sing lilting, string-spiked songs about state terror and reconciliation.

Ferhat Tunç's Visiting Artist's Residency is made possible by a Visiting Artist Grant from the Council for the Arts, Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, with additional support from Duke University Center for International Studies, Department of Music, Duke Islamic Studies Center, Duke Human Rights Center, Asian and Middles Eastern Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Concilium on Southern Africa and the Ethnomusicology Working Group.

8 pm, Nelson Music Room - Duke University -

Duke Students
Tickets through Duke Performances at dukeperformances.duke.edu/programs/artpoliticsnow/tunc.php
Parking information is available at dukeperformances.duke.edu/venues/nelson.php

Tunç joins Lucey at Duke /Freemuse

NEWS
25 March 2009Ferhat Tunc was listening to colleague Roger Lucey at Duke event. Photos by by Rhonda Klevansky

USA: Tunç joins Lucey at Duke Duke University in its human rights series present censored musicians and highlight freedom of musical expression.

Music censorship and music activism has been in focus for the past week at Duke University, USA. Two Freemuse ambassadors, Ferhat Tunç and Roger Lucey joined forces at a seminar on music activism and each presented their own concerts. Ferhat Tunç in a lecture, "Laments for Rebels and Soldiers" on 20 March talked about his arrests in Turkey and discussed state terror and reconciliation.

Tunç is currently offered a ‘Visiting Artist's Residency’ at Duke and Roger Lucey is writing a book about his experiences of music censorship during the apartheid years in South Africa. Lucey, who is also one of the main characters in the Freemuse produced film `Stopping the Music,´ presented the film at Duke. It tells the story about how a security police systematically destroyed his music career.

Lucey and the (former) security police, Paul Erasmus has later reconciled and lectured together at several Freemuse events. Ferhat Tunç recently performed at Music Freedom Day in Stockholm. He met Lucey for the first time at the 3rd Freemuse World Conference in Istanbul in 2006. Lucey’s concert at Duke was even a fundraiser for Freemuse. Read more:

Ferhat Tunç Date Added THIS AFTERNOON at Talullah's

Saturday, March 21, 2009

WHAT: Ferhat Tunç, Kurdish singer from TurkeyWHEN: TODAY, Saturday (3/21), 4 p.m. - ?WHERE: Talullah's, W. Franklin St., Chapel HillCOST: (unknown, if any)I saw Ferhat Tunç last night at the Duke Performances show. (Ferhat is on a short artist residency at Duke.)

He played the saz or bağlama, a narrow-necked, fretted instrument which has 3 pairs of double-coursed strings. An extra bass string on this particular saz, for added depth, made for a total of seven tuning pegs. He sings with a particular, rather rapid, full-throated vibrato; at times it helped to just close my eyes and listen. I don't know what kind of scales or modes this music employs, but in my "Western" terms it sounded like minor keys exclusively--nothing I would characterize as a major mode--and occasionally micotonal, but not as much as the Arab music we heard recently. I picked up some unusual meters (9/8, maybe? what was that?) and one of Tunç's original tunes I thought could be happily repurposed into prog rock. A few of us thought he looked like Billy Bragg up there on stage, in jeans and a flannel shirt.

Tunç (pronounced "Too-nch") had just one musician with him (which is a shame, listening to the videos, would have liked to hear a whole band to get a better feel for this music): Bulgarian/Turkish classical guitarist Nuray Ahmed. Nuray was the one who explained the saz' workings to me, with the help of a very kind UNC student who translated for us. The owner of Tallulah's was at the concert last night, and they set up this impromptu concert for this afternoon at 4. Not sure if they will charge admission or not, but this is a nice chance to hear him if you missed the Duke show.

He performed a lot of Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian songs, and through translator Firat Oruc, provided some context for the political and cultural contest.See also, panel discussion on Monday (3/23):Roger Lucey performs Monday night at 7:30 pm in the Nelson Music Room, Duke East Campus in the East Duke Building. He is a South African musician whose career was suppressed by security police in the '70s and '80s. This concert is a fundraiser for Freemuse.org, a Danish organization promoting free speech and human rights for musicians.

The Ferhat Files

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sylvia Pfeiffenberger http://ondacarolina.blogspot.com/search/label/Turkey

I've learned a lot about Turkey, its politics and culture, in the last few days, hanging out with Ferhat Tunç and his entourage.

The last event on his local residency is TODAY, Wednesday (3/25) from 7-9 pm at NCSU's Stewart Theater in Raleigh. (After this, they are headed to California, then Rome, then back to Istanbul.) I hear that Ferhat and Nuray will play music at the beginning, and again at the end of this event. There will be a panel discussion in between with Louise Meintjes and Catherine Admay, the two professors responsible for bringing them to Duke.

Tuesday afternoon I visited their class, "Human Rights and The Arts." The students had a lot of great questions for Ferhat about music and politics (and might I add, that classrooms are a different place now than when I was last a student? Everyone--without exception had laptops open, typing their notes and toggling between Google maps of Turkey, Wikipedia entries and the Freemuse.org site that has lots of source material about Ferhat in English.)

After that, he met some Turkish students for coffee in Van der Heyden, the café in Duke's library; they debated the Kurdish question and possible roads toward multiculturalism in Turkey.

Later I learned from Ferhat that his instrument, the bağlama, has a long history of being associated with political protest and persecution.

Ferhat Tunç Unplugged from Santa Salsera on Vimeo.Ferhat Tunç playing the bağlama and singing a song about Pir Sultan Abdal, a 16th-century musician who was killed by the Ottoman Empire because he would not renounce freedom. Translation at the end provided by Ömür Kayikçi.