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Considering the circumstances in the autumn of 1957 when Ahmet Kaya was born, it was indeed not so hard to foresee that he would spend most of his lifetime in the dark of the autumn. Neither his father who used to be a worker at a cloth factory had an ideal such as changing the world; nor did his city of birth, Malatya and the family’s 40- sqm. House has a window to comfortably see the beauties of life. Perhaps the land he was born as that was honoured by all the blessings the nature supplied; however in those years, there were no such beauties worth seeing in that district of the world. Turkey, made even poorer by the Second World War, would witness the first full-fledged military coup during the republican period , three years after the birth of little Ahmet and would watch her prime ministers, ministers on death chairs. The young republic of thirty four years of age was prone to substantial pain. The pain of the Anatolian land where there were so much bloodshed, of millions of people from dozens of races- for the sake of religion, for the sake of gold or even for the sake of a woman- would not be relieved, who knows for how many years more.
Ahmet was the fifth and the last child. His father was a Kurd who had immigrated from Adıyaman to Malatya to find a job and his mother was a Turk who had been striving to grow her children in chastity and respectably. They were, in a way, like a summary of Turkey in those years. Ahmet’s rebel against the authority was initiated when he got acquainted with the street at the age of four-five. He was a member of the quiet and peaceful family, extrovert and undisciplinable. Sometimes he used to sell his grandfather’s quinces to the grocery to go to cinema and sometimes he rode the idle donkey in the neighbourhood, put the sword in the evil acting as Dark Murat, a cartoon character from a comic strip published daily in the most popular newspaper at the time.
One day, his father, discovering Ahmet’s interest in music, brought a large bağlama (a traditional Turkish folk music instrument) – almost equivalent to Ahmet’s size- to him as a birthday gift, when he was only six. Of course, nobody could realise that the bağlama which was afforded through the savings from the family’s modest livelihood, was the first breeze of an unavoidable storm.
It was as if Ahmet was born with a missing limb and his body was complete only after that bağlama arrived home.
For several months, he annoyed the whole family through the sounds he made with the bağlama. Yet, it might be high time to appear on the stage. He was obstinate enough to find someone who would listen to him, even though people showed no interest. He gave his first concert in the garden to the chickens in the poultry house. One could never know whether the chicken was happy with it; but Ahmet carried on those free of charge concerts for a long time. He had to wait until the age of nine for his first real appearance. When he was nine, he found himself at the stage at a labour day’s evening entertainment organized by the co-workers in the factory where his father used to work. That day, the workers enjoyed listening to Ahmet and Ahmet liked the workers who listened to him… It was three years before the second coup which would devastate the lives of hundred thousands of people, workers. That night neither the workers there nor Ahmet were aware that they could hardly even use the word “worker” in an immediate future, let alone celebrating the Labour Day.
Turkey had been sending thousands of university students and workers to languish in prison, when three socialist anti-American youngsters at their middle twenties were executed - though they never committed murdering or injuring anybody - after a fast trial, representing the landmark incident of the 1970 military coup. Ahmet was 15 then. The land of Anatolia, kept receiving recommendations for her benefactions. Another generation was growing in the midst of such a social and political climate, moulding their level of consciousness. It wouldn’t be the first case of injustice to be witnessed by that generation.
Ahmet used to go to school and used to work at the cassette and record shop that belonged to a family acquaintance in his spare time. During the time he worked at the shop, he had the chance to get to know various kinds of music. He was particularly interested in youngsters with long hair, who used to buy cassettes of Ruhi Su and wear wide-leg trousers. After many years, he would tell at a documentary film featuring his biography that he used to call them “fans of Su (in Turkish also meaning “water-bearers”. The youngster that Ahmet used to call “Fans of Su” was nothing but a reflection of a generation that had a social sensibility and was referred throughout the world as “the 68 generation” in Turkey. The first music composition that Ahmet recalled was dedicated to one of those youngsters, his beloved brother Başar who was engaged in para-transit service using a Volkswagen minibus and assisted by Ahmet for a while. Ahmet, feeling sorrow for Başar, who was one day suddenly detained by the police in the middle of the street, was of course unaware that his music composition with initial lyrics as “I will buy a Volkswagen and I will name it Başar” was the stepping stone of his music repertoire to consist of hundreds of songs.
The family decided to leave Malatya and to migrate to Istanbul hoping for a new job and a better future for the children since the father was retired and his post retirement gratuity was not sufficient to earn a living. It was a period of migration in Turkey. Every day hundreds of buses and Lorries used to carry “hope” from the East to the western cities, mainly to Istanbul. Every day thousands of children, just like Ahmet, experienced the fear consternated by the metropolis and the oppression caused by the grandeur thereof. Ahmet, took the sea that he saw for the first time in his life for “a large brook”. He realised on the first day of their arrival that they had come to a city where they were despised because of the word “Malatya” written on the parcels full of their belongings and he realised that he was an “outsider” because of his accent despite speaking the same language. This “difference” was gradually isolating those that had nothing to lose except for their labour, which accumulated towards a miserable stream of anger.
As western Turkey grew in population, the gap between different segments of the society widened, political polarization moved towards an extreme and the tension throughout the country -from east to west - grew more and more every day. Every day, death notices were received from universities and the ever worsening economic conditions and the unemployment used to create massive mobs. It was the time for Ahmet to leave school and work to earn a living for his family. He started to recognize and perceive the street from a different perspective. He envied the youth in Istanbul that roamed around in mixed groups, boys and girls but he was sad to feel that he was unfit to get dressed and resemble them. He could neither abandon his native culture nor could transform Istanbul into Malatya. During those years, he used to work at and quit many jobs as an unskilled worker. He was engaged in various short-term occupations such as street peddling, he apprenticed at various work places but he never abandoned his bağlama. He used to live for music and naturally, his music was influenced by the circumstances in the country, just the way it influenced his state of mind.
Leaving school and beginning to work offered Ahmet the chance to get to know the street better, however it also caused another wound in his heart. He wanted to go to conservatory but it hardly seemed possible. In an attempt to keep his hope alive, he decided to finish high school using an opportunity given by the state whereby he could enter the exams but he was not required to attend courses. Those were the most traumatic years of his self-devastation. The social opposition that arose towards the second half of 70s had no channel to flow through, while Ahmet was one of those who felt cold amidst such an uncertain climate as someone aware of everything but viewing life through a youngster’s enthusiasm. Beyond knowing nothing about the future, he was engaged in composing music and roaming streets in a hopeless effort to earn some money, as he, himself, would tell in later years.
He would never forget and mention during many interviews that in those days he used to get completely unhappy and one day when he felt really hopeless, he entered a wedding hall full of people he didn’t know at all, he dashed into the crowd and he danced and cried like a maniac.
The youngsters that were united through a bond of being outsiders, isolated, desperate and failing to survive, started to set groups and get organized at any segments with full idealism and with an ambition to change the world. Like all his revolutionist companions he started to visit the Public Sciences Association ad to join cultural studies. Naturally he never lacked his bağlama there. His distinctive style of playing his bağlama caught attention and was found strange by others right from the start. Ahmet’s style did not fit any method or a tenet since he learned to play it by himself. In that period, he went to a concert of Ruhi Su, a famous bağlama player that he was a fan of at Bosporus University and somehow he managed to have access to his “Master” after the concert. He wished to show Ruhi Su his cover versions of “Ruhi Su” compositions. He played one of the most famous masterpieces of Master Ruhi, a song called “Mahsus Mahal”. The Master interrupted his interpretation, seized the bağlama from Ahmet and said angrily, “Bağlama cannot be played like this, like a horse kick, you shouldn’t fight with the bağlama, you should make love with the bağlama”. Ahmet buzzed in surprise but of course he would do it in his way. His master’s words made Ahmet much more seethed, making him pursue ideas or ways that were not tested before. His music compositions were found weird since they reflected an unknown style.
Accompanying his friends from the Public Sciences Association, he went to various districts in Turkey for music concerts and folk dance shows. Ahmet, on one hand, appeared on the stage at “Revolutionists’ Nights” organized by various associations and trade unions or students’ associations, together with the popular gallants and artists and sang revolutionist marches and folk songs, exclaiming by his bağlama and, on the other hand, collaborated with the community to fulfil their concrete and vital demands through a sense of social sensibility. Ahmet joined either the efforts of revolutionist youngsters that collected goods for the victims following the earthquake in Van or the collaborative efforts aimed at setting up a shanty district.
During the bloody May Day of 1977 at Taksim Square, Ahmet lost his friends next to him under the automatic weapons fire from buildings in the vicinity by people still unknown today. Even though he survived after the incident safe and sound, yet, losing one of the pairs of his shoes, he was anyhow familiar with the feeling of pain for having witnessed the death of his friends and the feeling of “being in prison” when he was taken into custody after being caught hanging an innocent poster.
At the time he finished high school through a peculiar system of “distance learning” and started the Department of Violin at the Institute of Education, during when opposing and angry crowds were preparing to design a “future” for them in a rush, he met a girl called Emine at the Public Sciences Association. The two youngsters who immediately became closer and felt themselves as belonging to the same segment, decided to get married. They were engaged, however, there is a duty for every man in this country to fulfil before he launches into the life: Military Service. In 1978, when Ahmet was twenty one, he cut short of his violin education and left his fiancé behind to enrol the army to return after eighteen months.
He was despatched to Gelibolu (Gallipoli) for his military service. His commanders who discovered his interest in music and his talent soon, wanted to see him play at the officer’s club orchestra. He completed his whole military service as the key member of the orchestra. He developed ties with many musical instruments there. The Western motifs he added in his mind to the music he created through the bağlama, further improved, thanks to his obligation to play more classical instruments such as cello during his military service.
Upon returning from the military service, even before his hair had grown, the third and the strongest military coup in both Ahmet’s life and in Turkey’s history, suddenly took place. In the morning of 12 September, Turkey woke up hearing military marches. The whole cabinet and the President were arrested and put in prison and a street–hunting started. Many of Ahmet’s companions were arrested and taken to unknown places. Nobody could receive news about those who were arrested. Because of his several probations prior to the military service and his links with the Public Sciences Association, he expected the same doom for himself and started to experience hard days. There were tank caterpillar’s crossing overs Turkey. According to today’s estimations, 600.000 people were arrested for different reasons, thousands of people lost their lives under torture, thousands left the country illegally to seek asylum abroad. Turkey was paying the penalty for being ill-administered, to the expense of losing very young lives.
Ahmet was not arrested but he was left alone. All his friends, almost everyone he knew were either at prison or somewhere unknown. 1981 brings another react pain for Ahmet. In April, they fare welled Ahmet’s father who was the most valuable person for Ahmet and the only person who genuinely believed in Ahmet’s music, for eternity. Ahmet, hiding from everyone, got the bağlama bought for him by his father and cried on streets for days.
Emine and Ahmet were married and as months elapsed, they started to get used to living with the coup. Ahmet wanted to make music and express himself, to communicate with his friends at prisons through his songs; yet, he had a household to look after. Soon, in August 1982, their daughter was born. They called her name “Çiğdem”. Ahmet got his bağlama in his hand and wrote a song; he sang to Çiğdem to tell her not to cry for the viciousness of the world she was born into and to keep her hopes for the future alive: “Don’t cry my baby, don’t you cry, hope is with you, tomorrow is with you… There is such a village in the distance where is happiness and a life ready to share...”
After a short period of time, Emine was drifted to anxiety about the future because of Ahmet’s ambition to make a music album and the fact that he failed to earn their living. One day, without any notification, she left home, taking the baby Çiğdem who was only several months old then and they got divorced. Once more, his bağlama and Ahmet, were alone.
Then the year 1984 came, while Ahmet went on paying frequent visits to music companies, insistently, with his songs in his pocket. But both the songs and Ahmet were tired. Companies declined acceptance to make an album for Ahmet because of his unprecedented style and of the concern over the social content, however, Ahmet’s name and his songs had already gained certain popularity. By the help of several friends he organized a concert at Hodri Meydan Convention Centre and at Bilsak and he referred to the words said to him by Ruhi Su, on his banner: “Here Is How Bağlama May Also Be Played!”
Following the unexpected popularity of this concert, Ahmet found himself at the Sezer Bağcan’s Studio Değişim, again in Beyoğlu, with a small earned income as well as small contributions by his friends and his mother. He decided to produce his own music album. Sezer Bağcan liked that enthusiastic young man with refreshing songs and they started the recordings. His songs were very dangerous for that period. Let alone broadcasting such songs, even listening could be regarded as a crime and being sentenced to prison would be inevitable but Ahmet told: “There are no jobs, we roam the streets in hunger, I was deserted, they don’t let me see my baby, all my friends are already at prison. I will sing my songs and put in prison to join my friends…” However Ahmet, as he would confess in later years, wanted to go to prison but actually he didn’t wish to stay there for a long time. Therefore, he included an epic song in his album praising the bravery of the Turkish army during the War of Independence, alongside other songs of heavy criticisms… It would lead to confusion!
The album was completed within a short time and under harsh circumstances. It was not very difficult for Ahmet to find a company since there were no significant commercial risks for a finished album though it was not sold much. The album was released in April 1985, named after his title song written for Çiğdem “Ağlama Bebeğim (Don’t Cry, My Baby)”. Very soon he gave a concert at Şan Theatre which was one of the most prestigious halls in Istanbul then and the hall was unexpectedly full to the brim.
The album “Ağlama Bebeğim (Don’t Cry My Baby)” was confiscated immediately following its release and Ahmet was taken into custody. During the first trial, the judge was obsessed with the lyrics “There is such a place in the distance where is happiness” in Ahmet’s song “Ağlama Bebeğim”. They asked Ahmet where such beautiful places were! Hearing did not last much and the album was re-released upon a decision of the Council of State and perhaps, thanks to the confusion caused by that “epic” song. The company and Ahmet announced the liberation of the release of the album in the newspaper. The newspaper announcement which was published as “Ahmet Kaya’s banned album called ‘Ağlama Bebeğim’ is re-released upon a court decision.” attracted further interest in the album. It caught an unexpected and unbelievable attention initially at prison houses and then on the street. Ahmet become the voice of hundred thousands of political prisoners and their families through his album.
Some of those that had gone behind the bars in 1980 were gradually released. He went to the Studio Değişim for the production of his second album. Sezer Bağcan, the owner of Studio Değişim, was the brother of the famous singer Selda Bağcan and Selda was held at Metris Military Prison House after the coup for a short time. While Selda was at prison, she got acquainted with one of the girls. That girl; Gülten Hayaloğlu, started working at Studio Değişim, upon being released from prison after four years and following the insistent request of her friend Selda Bağcan. During the recording of Ahmet’s second album, Gülten and Ahmet had a chance to chat for hours at the studio and the long conversations of two youngsters that shared the same perception about the world, soon evolved into a very close friendship. Gülten had listened to Ahmet’s first album before she met him and she already liked it, however, as many other people did, she had no idea of Ahmet’s profile until they met each other. Shortly, his second album called “Acılara Tutunmak (Holding Onto Pain)” was released and thereabouts his friendship with Gülten turned into a love affair. The second album, without any promotions, got popular and achieved incredible sales records. Ahmet would share his happiness with the woman he loved.
The albums were sold however they didn’t bring a great deal of money. Ahmet began to hold concerts in many places, alone and with his bağlama. He was taken into custody or arrested during most of his concerts. At that time, he was married with Gülten. It was when Gülten showed a poem written by a death convict he knew from prison- Nevzat Çelik- for his mother, to Ahmet: “Şafak Türküsü (The Folk Song of the Dawn)”. It was 1986 and still, hundred thousands of people were held at prison without even a court decision, waiting for their trials to end. In front of prisons, there were crowds of crying mothers and fathers. The third album was released with the title “Şafak Türküsü (The Folk Song of the Dawn), composed by Ahmet.
Once again Ahmet told about the persistent suffering of the society, once again he became the wanton child in the system. Probations and interrogations never ended but Ahmet got more and more famous and became a controversial figure. 1986 was a year of success for the album “Şafak Türküsü”, while 1987 was another fortunate year for Ahmet bringing his second experience of fatherhood upon the birth of the daughter of the couple, Gülten-Ahmet, called Melis. Ahmet was incredibly productive with the excitement caused by the fatherhood, of which he became really aware, upon the birth of Melis and he started to create brand new music compositions one by one.
In 1987, the “best seller” lists in newspapers gradually became popular. When Ahmet’s album released that year “An Gelir (And the Moment Comes)” became a “best seller” the actual sales figures and the extent of Ahmet’s popularity was officially confirmed. Ahmet’s music which couldn’t be classified under any category until then, created a new music kind called “authentic music” perhaps because of the necessity felt by newspapers to define a specific kind for all music compositions. Ahmet built his own track and his music had a name.
Gülten’s brother was a poet: Yusuf Hayaloğlu. Yusuf was engaged in design, sculpture and graphics at his small workshop in Şişli. Gülten, knowing her brother’s poems and creativity believed that combination of those poems with Ahmet’s music would bring marvellous consequences and wished to have Yusuf, who had no intention of writing songs, accompany Ahmet for a joint production. One day, while they were having a meal at outskirts of Tarabya district all together, Yusuf, who had previously resisted to accept such offers, suddenly put his first draft lyrics in front of Ahmet: “Hani Benim Gençliğim (Where is My Wild Youth)”. Ahmet started crying upon reading those lyrics which would be crooned for years become a classic in Turkey and which told a young generation who was confiscated of all the things it loved. He immediately composed the lyrics right after he returned home. In subsequent days, Ahmet composed several other lyrics written by You, added them to his own songs and produced his album “Yorgun Demokrat (The Tired Democrat) in November 1987. The album was up for trial for many times however lost no chance to be ranked as “best seller”, confirming that Ahmet’s success, his dispute with the system and his opposition were not temporary.
While Ahmet went on creating, he provided support for workers, students, those who he believed to be fighting for a life they deserved throughout Turkey via his songs. He gave concerts and at the same time, he went on producing consecutive albums. In August 1988 he released the album “Başkaldırıyorum (I Revolt)” and in April 1989 he released another one called “Resitaller (Recitals)” consisting of the recordings made during his concerts with a single bağlama. Both albums became the best sellers of their time, while especially the ranking of the album “Resitaller”, which was recorded with a single instrument and two microphones, at the top of the billboard lists for a long time, would be a landmark in history.
In 1990, Ahmet had a chance to addresss his audience in a very large area for the first time and his concert at Gülhane Park was participated by an audience of 70.000 (who bought tickets), while the real figure was estimated as 150.000 people. During the concert many incidents happened, the police shot in the air and there were lots of injured people among the audience. Ahmet, once again, underwent a trial by reason of the fact that the colors yellow-red-green on the scarf worn by one of his fans who jumped onto the stage during one of his concerts, were the symbols of the Kurds.
During the initial years of his music career, another interesting point in Ahmet’s mass popularity was the fact that in that period, there were no private TV channels but there were only the state television and radio. In other words, since Ahmet Kaya was “banned” he was not heard, seen and his songs were not played, even his name was not even cited through audio-visual media. Ahmet carried on, focusing on concerts. His fans who knew him just as a photo image, used to mob concert halls everywhere he visited.
One could see Ahmet on the newspapers published in that period either standing on trial or because of the incidents happened during his concerts or at hunger strikes aimed at supporting student revolts protesting against anti-democratic practices at universities or standing by workers on strike or helping prisoners’ relatives.
Although Turkey reverted to the multi-party democracy through the national assemby established through military authorizations and directions several years ago, prisonhouses were still full of prisoners that were sentenced after the military coup of 12 September 1980 and the country was too far from democracy.
Though the constitution enacted in 1982 –so-called “the constitution of the coup”- entered into force; it was widely and severely criticised by academicians, enforcement authorities, political parties, associations, trade unions and the media.
During the trials that were initiated under the harsh circumstances of September and that were still underway, the courts were ordering executions, imprisonment for life and a whole generation that was subject to a muzzling was slandered, disparaged in an attempt to be isolated from anything nice and good. Although the utopia, as adopted by a young generation that struggled to integrate itself into the life- of changing the world did not cease, although they strived to keep their hope alive through their resistance at prionhouses, they were destined to receive more pain for many years. While young people who told that they loved the country and its people even more than themselves were taking the consequences, the first private TV channels in Turkey started broadcasting from abroad to Turkey. After that Ahmet Kaya would show up on TV for the first time and he would get closer to people. His fans who had a chance to get better acquainted with his opponent style, his forthright attitude against unfairness would feel more attached to him, yet the system would enhance the restrictions because Ahmet had become the voice of a generation that was deprived of its dreams. The more Ahmet’s productivity which was the consequence of a mixed experience of historical and daily concerns was disregarded, the more the number of his adherents increased. His albums were confiscated in many provinces, his concerts were banned and there were many court cases filed against him with a claim of sentencing him to several decades.
The proliferation of private TV channels both provided for Ahmet Kaya the opportunity to introduce himself personally and exposed his hidden passion for visual arts. He shot and directed music videos for his songs including his old songs. Ahmet had become one of the most popular and top-rating artists in Turkey. As a dissenter Ahmet was well aware that he had to think twice to take advantage of the situation. While his every step had been watched by the media, he offered social messages whenever he was called in to attend a TV program because of his popularity. He couldn’t keep himself from telling his rights and wrongs in his peculiar style. Despite he was a “nice and popular consumable” for the media, he was also a man who was frequently avoided and criticised by the media due to his heavy criticisms and his opponent style.
In those years he made one best-seller and record-breaking album after another alongside his concerts abroad and in Turkey. He released the albums namely İyimser bir Gül (An Optimistic Rose -November 1989), Resitaller 2 (Recitals 2 -May 1990), Sevgi Duvarı (The Wall of Love -October 1990), Başım Belada (I’m In Trouble- August 1991), Dokunma Yanarsın (Don’t Touch or You’ll Be Burnt-July 1992), Tedirgin (Anxious-April 1993). While every album was ranked at top of the billboard lists Ahmet Kaya received dozens of awards from various organisations and newspapers. In the same period, copies of Ahmet Kaya started to appear, representing every different political stances. There were artists on many music albums’ covers all dressed up like Ahmet Kaya, had a beard like Ahmet Kaya and looked like Ahmet Kaya and they all sang songs that were tailored hard to resemble the music of Ahmet Kaya. Even his marked emphasis on certain words because of his accent was imitated by others.
Cuba was one of the countries in the world which Ahmet wondered about the most. In 1993 he and his wife Gülten, their daughter Melis and a group of friends went to Cuba for Labour Day celebrations. Ahmet met many artists and government officials there. Upon return to Turkey, he invited part of a popular music group from Cuba, called Tropicana. He put the group of 9 musicians from Tropicana up in his house as his guests and they held a music tour of 16 concerts in order to reserve the whole revenue for children in Cuba.
During this period Ahmet Kaya participated concerts organised on behalf of children in Bosnia or for workers in Denmark. He held aid concerts in almost every European country.
The 90’s started with a rapidly growing tension which the land of Anatolia never lacked: the Kurdish question. In th eastern and southeastern cities of Turkey, the fight between PKK and the Turkish army, turned into an internal war that affected the whole Turkey in a very short time. Every day, there were incidents and demonstrations during funerals all around Turkey. While mothers cried for their sons, in the East, almost one person from each family that used to live in regions with Kurdish majority went to the mountains and started fighting which caused the grief to sustain. As long as it was alleged “There are no Kurds, there are no languages such as Kurdish.”, citizens of Kurdish origin allied with the PKK and as the attacks of PKK become abundant, the state harshened its measures and sanctions. The media, amidst the stressful climate of the war-thorn days and the harsh actions, transformed the word “Kurdish” into a word to become afraid of. Finally the concepts Kurdish and PKK were almost identical to each other. Millions of Turks and Kurds were strangers to one another on a land where they used to live side by side for thousands of years. Consequently many people who had no connection with the PKK but told that the Kurdish language and culture should be respected were claimed as traitors. One of them was Ahmet Kaya.
Ahmet Kaya mentioned this problem during each media interview, at each concert and in each TV program he featured. He told that he wanted the Turkish Republic to get united rather than get divided and he wanted people of different races or different origins to co-exist as brothers or sisters in a totally democratic Turkish Republic but every time, he emphasized that the state should recognize the existence of Kurdish people in the country, should respect the Kurdish language and culture, should provide better education and life standards for places with Kurdish majority. He kept saying that he never supported any organizations, the arts surpassed the influence of any organizations and there could be no arts under the influence of any organizations, he only told about his own values and “rights and wrongs” and reflected them in his song lyrics, he loved Turkey as a whole, from east to west, he supportedTurkey’s indivisible integrity, however, he believed that brushing aside wouldn’t solve any problems. The more Ahmet mentioned about “Kurds”, the more the press coverage on Ahmet Kaya brutalized.
Upon the release of his album called “Şarkılarım Dağlara (I Send My Songs to the Mountains)” in 1994, it ranked first at billboard lists with a landmark success. Consecutive music videos shot for 3 songs in his album, immediately became the most wanted in all TV programs Saza Niye Gelmedin (Why Didn’t You Come to Play Music), Kum Gibi (Like the Sand), Ağladıkça (As We Cry). The author of the lyrics of the song “Ağladıkça”, which has still been sang since then, was his wife Gülten Kaya.
Şarkılarım Dağlara (I Send My Songs to the Mountains), broke an unreachable record with a sale of 2 million 800 thousand, so far. Considering that volume of the production of label-less, counterfeit cassettes and CD's exceeds legal sales volumes in Turkey, we can say that the volume of sales should be calculated even higher than such figures.
Immediately after the release of the music album Ahmet Kaya signed a contract to appear on a TV program with Channel D. The name of the program that he produced with Gülten Kaya and Yusuf Hayaloğlu was “The Ship of Brother Ahmet”. He sang together with his guests in the program and chatted about the country’s agenda. He used his seat in the program to call for peace, brotherhood and democracy. Through inviting artists from all over Turkey , he emphasized the multi-cultural diversity in Turkey. In each of the said TV program series that lasted for 13 weeks, he mostly shot poem videos where he read poems written by Yusuf Hayaloğlu and directed and played as well.
In 1995, Turkey got acquainted with mothers who gathered in front of the Lycee de Galatasaray in Beyoğlu every Saturday in search for their children who were lost.
This civil action soon was named “Saturday Mothers”, attracting media interest as the police frequently tried to block the demonstrations and took the mothers into custody. The Saturday Mothers consisted of mothers that were searching for their children who had been taken into custody by the police on various political grounds and no one had heard about afterwards. Ahmet Kaya, who already sanctified the concept of “motherhood” in most of his songs, participated the Saturday Mothers’ action and that year, in 1995, he released another album named after a song he wrote for Saturday Mothers: “Beni Bul (Anne): Find Me (Mother)”.
Ahmet Kaya never had a down face despite his disposition as a rebellious, tough and austere man. We can easily say that those who knew him well described him as humorous, funny, interesting, riposte and intelligent. Indeed, partially, he remained as a kid who used to chase enemies riding the idle donkey in the neighborhood. Whenever he had a chance amidst the busy schedule of concerts and music studies, he enjoyed having feasts together with his family and friends, cooking for them, chatting until the morning and pranking and tricking their friends with practical jokes. He loved spending time with his daughter Melis, buying electronic devices, opening them up and examining inside, shooting scenes that he imagined with his camera. He had a very little grasp of the concept of money.
He made almost no considerable investment except those he made to guarantee a good future for his daughter and his wife. He returned “broke” from many music tours. The tour organizer wouldn’t pay his money, however, he would still give his concerts since he believed that his fans who waited for him, were not guilty at all. He gave all his money available if he thought someone was in deed, he distributed all revenues gained after some concerts to the musicians that accompanied him. He used to explain such behaviour as “I can earn money any time I want”.
In 1996, again, his album called “Yıldızlar ve Yakamoz (Stars and Phosphorescence) in which he compiled and re-arranged certain songs from his first 3 albums and added two new songs, became the best-seller. One of his new songs called “Yakamoz (Phosphorescence)” and its video, marked an era, once again.
Each of Ahmet Kaya’s albums released became a phenomenon, just like his every word had wide repercussions. Because of his emphasis on the Kurdish language and the Kurdish culture, Ahmet had largely become a target for the media and he could be a scapegoat easily and at any moment, because of any of his words on any issue. When he used a very old expression mentioning about certain customs in Turkey such as “barbers pulling teeth or circumsising boys”, the Federation of Barbers (Hairdressers) rose in rebellion, under the manipulation of the media. People in Tokat rose in rebellion when he laughed and joked a guest from Tokat saying “Look, people from Tokat are dangerous.” in a TV program. He also made witty references in his own style to certain artists that he regarded as “extreme nationalists.”
Radical Islam and radical leftist opinion have always inhabited opposite poles in Turkey and their names are never cited together. Scathing criticisms against one another were at the top of the agenda many times. In 1997, Tayyip Erdogan, who is now the prime minister, was the mayor of Istanbul and at that time, he was adjudicated and sentenced to jail for 9 years because of a poem he read at a mass meeting. While mass demonstrations by Islamists were underway against such conviction, but the leftists connived. When the media asked for his opinion and Ahmet Kaya replied “Democracy is there for all of us. The freedom of thought should exist for me but it should equally exist for Mr. Erdogan. Nobody should be deprived of his freedom because of a poem he read!”, this time, he received the heavy criticism from the leftist fractions. When he also gave support to the demonstrations of students who were partisans of Islam and wanted to be admitted to universities with their scarves on their head, through his definition of democracy “If I can wear suits, they should be able to wear scarves.”, a new profound debate was launched among newspaper columnists on the concepts of democracy and liberty. Upon this Ahmet Kaya told “The rightists do not like me, nor the leftists, nor the Islamists. Then, who are those millions of people that buy my albums and those thousands of people that come to my concerts?, criticising newspaper columnists and artists of adopting politic views in negligence of the public opinion.
The Gülten and Ahmet couple decided to open up a studio and establish a production company with a view to enable Ahmet to continue his music studies freely and comfortably as well as to produce albums for the emerging new generation and talented musicians. They set up a music company called GAK (Gülten Ahmet Kaya) and a studio named thereafter. In the studio, many albums were produced for Çetin Oraner who had been assisting Ahmet Kaya for many years and for a music band called Kent Ozanları (The Poets of the City) composed of five academy students. While their music videos were shot under the directorship of Ahmet Kaya, Ahmet Kaya completed his music album called “Dosta Düşmana Karşı (Against All Odds)” in March 1998, as the first album recorded in his own studio.
The album “Dosta Düşmana Karşı”, too, became a top-of-the-pops soon . The music videos shot for two songs in the album called “Giderim (I Shall Go)” and “Korkarım (I’m Afraid) were listed among the favourites and the most frequently broadcasted for a long time. Ahmet,wished to concentrate on his music studies in the forthcomig years following his last album, songs in which were completed and to shoot a movie to be called “Mülteci (The Exile)” on which he had been elaborating for a very long time and had been working on a scenario. He even started to discuss about the casting during his meetings with close friends who were actors or actresses, alongside searching for proper movie shooting places.
We are not certain on the number of awards received by Ahmet Kaya during his career as a musician, however, we know that he was many times selected by various organisations, TV channels, newspapers, magazines as the artist of the year through public voting. He received many gratifications and awards from many charity organisations and many democratic mass organisations. In 1998, as it was the case following each of his new album releases, Ahmet Kaya became “the artist of the Year” through public voting conducted by the Association of Magazine Journalists”.
On the night of 10 February 1999, the award ceremony was held in a hall full of Turkey’s most famous artists and other celebrities and the ceremony was broadcasted alive on Show TV throughout Turkey. Everyone appeared on the stage in order and received his/her award one by one. It was Ahmet Kaya’s turn and he was “the Artist of the Year”. Once again he took to the stage acoompanied by applauds, he received his award and he took the microphone in his had to sing his song called “ I Shall Go” before his following speech:
“I would like to thank to the Human Rights Association, to “Saturday Mothers”, to all media proletarians and to the whole Turkish public for this award. I also have a declaration: in the album on which I have been working and will release in the forthcoming days, I will sing in KURDISH and will shoot a video for the song. I know that there are many brave TV broadcasters here among us but I don’t know how they will setle up with the people in Turkey if they don’t do it.”
A sudden silence fell upon the hall...
On that night of 10 February, the unprecedented scenario, the one that should never be experienced by any artists, was immediately launched following that declaration. Ahmet Kaya, among the cheers of protests againts his speech, sang his song with his award in his hand, in his usual manner, smiling. When he finished his song and left the microphone to head for his seat, hisses and hoots from the tables seated by certain artists (!), journalists, celebrities were heard first and then, they started to throw forks and knives in an offhand manner addressing Ahmet. Ahmet hardly managed to reach the table in a retired spot, seated by his wife Gülten and several friends. There was a real turmoil. In full view of the whole Turkey, the cynical smile of Ahmet was broadcasted live alongside the cameras and people rose in rebellion. Some waiters and artists tried to stand amidst the forks and fragments of food thrown at Ahmet and Gülten. It was just a squabble and it was because Ahmet mentioned “Kurdish”.
The announcers immediately called the next singer to the stage in a rush to put things in order. That singer, taking advantage of such a sensitive mood and acting in a quite provocative manner, changed the lyrics of her song as if it was a march of heroism (“Nobody is a sultan today, neither a king, nor an emperor / The whole Turkey is following Atatürk’s wisdom / this country is ours / not of foreigners”) and after it, she sang the famous “10th Anniversary Celebration March” (the Anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic) in a night of recreation. She was immediately followed by an attempt by one of the most famous anchormen in Turkey to jump on the stage to invite all artists in the hall to sing the march. At that moment Ahmet was leaving the hall rounded by a circle of securitymen and cameramen. After the hall was cleaned off a betrayer(!) and his wife, the night lasted with all its ecstacy(!).
The Kaya couple were used to adjudications and probations for many years but they were faced with an unprecedented adjudication in the morning of 11 February. The incident hit the headlines in many newspapers in the country, all prime time news programmes mentioned about it in detail and Ahmet was proclaimed a betrayer of his country.
But it was not over yet... On 14 February, Hürriyet - the most widely circulated newspaper in Turkey- placed a screamer on the headlines “Shame on You, the Apple of My Eye”. The concert photo which was never submitted to the court as evidence, was allegedly shot in Berlin in 1993 showing some parts of the Turkish territory as Kurdistan behind Ahmet Kaya on stage. Ahmet Kaya was detained after the initial interrogation and was dispatched to prison but he was released upon the objection of his lawyers on the same day. Ahmet was free then, however; Gülten, Ahmet and Melis were all alone in their house besieged by the media. Except very close friends, noone among those people that used to encircle them, used to call them many times a day and sang songs together before the incident, never called them again. The TVs started to tell about Ahmet as a betrayer in the headlines. Melis was eleven and she tried to understand whatever was happening, both looking at his father by her side and at the "betrayer(!)" on TV.
The family, being drifted to a huge solitariness started to receive anonymus letters left in their mail boxes and death threats on the phone; they used to send their daughter to school in unease. When Ahmet tried to go to the street once, he was greeted with marches and spittles.
Although it was proved during the ongoing trials through passport records that Ahmet had never been in Germany in 1993 and despite the fact that the photo published in the newspapers was never submitted by the newspaper Hürriyet to the court regardless of all relevant correspondence, no matter Ahmet kept saying that the photo was a product of photo-montage and nevertheless, an artist could never be held responsible for a stage design organized abroad, none of the newspapers published these. Nobody asked the newspaper Hürriyet why they awarded a man who was confirmed to be a betrayer in 1993 as “the Artist of the Year” in 1994 and nobody realised or wished to realise that the accusation of the public prosecutor was solely composed of the comments on TV channels.
Days passed all alone afterwards. Ahmet never left his studio and tried to record the songs for his new album in a great haste since he couldn’t foresee the future. He started to put on weight and had skin problems. He was really hurt to be neglected by his friends who denied him a phone call or a greeting. He wanted to shoot a movie all his life but he could never embrace the idea to be the leading man for a scenario written by others.
During his first trial the public prosecutor asked for his imprisonment for 13 and a half years on grounds of “Betrayal to the Country” and Ahmet read his plea consisting of twelve pages. In his defense argument, he described himself as “an earth citizen” who did not deem himself to belong to any specific place and a musician who was universal to the extent of incapable of limiting any of his feelings, and owner of a heart capable of embracing and loving all languages, nations, religions and cultures in he world, in total tolerance. He asked the court “Would I still be proclaimed as a betrayer if I declared that I would sing a song in anther language for example in Italian, Arabic or in English? Do you believe that I am rightfully accused of being a “Betrayer of My Country” in the eyes of whole Turkish public and children because of my wish to sing just one song in a language that I personally do not know though I hear everyday but would like to use in the song, on the basis of the fact that I have been living side by side on the same territory of millions of people that know and speak that language?
The trial was dated forward by the court in order to collect evidence.
On the day after the trial, newspapers did’nt publish even one word from the twelve-page plea. The defendant Ahmet Kaya was referred in the headlines as “The Nit”, “Corrupted”, “Degenerate”, Ignoble”, “Inane”, “The Prisoner of Opinion Having No Opinions”, while nobody ever cared that Ahmet Kaya had two daughters who were both literate.
Ahmet had made a deal for a European tour. He was forbidden to travel abroad. Another application was submitted to the court and the court abolished the ban.
In June 1999, following the night he recorded the Kurdish song in his studio, at 4 o’clock in the morning, he left the rainy Istanbul, deeply hurt, tired and deprived of a single friendly farewell.
And Paris… Ahmet Kaya gave concerts around Europe and the Turkish press was following him. As the press went behind his every word and pressurized him, Ahmet became more and more peevish and isolated. His every word was manipulated, each concert news was contorted and the media broadcasts were so twisted to reflect his most unifying sentences as if they were the most cruel ones. All of these laid the grounds of new proceedings.
In one of his concerts “…I cannot bear the pain I have been subject to, living so far from my country and the situation I am drifted into just because of a few cads. I want the Kurdish reality to be recognized. I want to live as the Kurdish Ahmet from Turkey.” he said and sentence hit the next day’s newspaper headlines as “You Cad” and “Ahmet Kaya Insulted 64 Millions.” . He requested to use his right to answer and/however his explanations never found any space in any newspapers or on TV.
A piece of news containing sentences such as “ I don’t have any troubles with the Turkish public nor with the Turkish Republic, I am troubled for the crying Kurdish people just like me.” was reflected in the headlines as “Just Like A PKK Militant”.
A press item containing his speech as “A Bosnian can say ‘I am Bosnian.’, an Armenian can say, ‘I am Armenian.’ and so on. Why can’t my people say ‘I am Kurdish.’? Why the hell can Turkey make peace with Greece with whom she has been at war for 70 years but cannot make peace with the Kurds with whom she has been living side by side for 1500 years?”, was unnecessarily published under the heading “Kaya Spew Hatred and Oaths Again.”
All such headlines laid the grounds for new court proceedings and it was getting more and more impossible both legally and actually for Ahmet to return his home country.
During no phase of his lifetime did Ahmet plan living outside his own land, however, one of the most popular newspapers in Turkey, in a reckless attitude and without basing its arguments upon any documental proof or evidence, stroke a different course in the deliberate and atrocious campaign against Ahmet Kaya led for several months, by top lining his residence permit in France.
Ahmet, on one hand, tried to get a grip of the big deal, while on the other hand, he kept expressing all his feelings in his usual candid style , telling another reporter in Paris during an interview:
“Look my dear, deliver my salute to the people of my country and tell them to look at the sky through their windows just once on my behalf, but please tell it, don’t forget, let them see it with my eyes, walking in my shoes, just like the look of Mecnun to Leyla…”
Gülten used to visit Ahmet almost every week in his exile in Paris to pep him, while she had to assume the whole responsibility, taking care of the children and undertaking all the work by herself. She also attended the court hearings at the National Security Court (DGM) every month on behalf of Ahmet and she was torn apart during all those lonely days.
At each court hearing they attended, their attorneys used to draw attention to the newspaper headlines, pointing out that they had been influencing public attitude adversely, creating an environment of lynch. Still and despite such efforts, the lynch campaign expanded progressively.
The first court case filed againts Ahmet was finalised while he was in Europe and the court sentenced Ahmet to a prisonment for 3 years and 9 months.
Ahmet din’t return becasue of the order for his arrest. He decided to search for ways to exonerate himself in Paris. He organized a press conference and told about what he had been through. There were representatives from the Turkish media in the meeting. Next day, not even one newspaer ever mentioned what had been told by Ahmet, as usual.
Months passed. He tried to explain the injustice he had been subject to during all his interviews and his speeches. In all his speeches he told how he missed his daughters, his wife, his mother, his country, his people and his acquaintance and expressed his sorrow because of his old friends who had never called him:
“I don’t believe that I infringed any of the penalty regulations in force in Turkey. I didn’t kill anybody, I never commited fraud, I never burgled any place, I never avoided tax liabilities, I was never involved in unchastiness, I never sold drugs… I only expressed my opinions. I would rather be in my house in Istanbul, beside my barbeque with a broken leg than being here in Paris at this moment. I’d rather drink a glass of “Rakı” (a Turkish alchoholic beverage) or I would prefer going down to the seaside in Bopshorous to have some meatballs with bread to drinking these wines bearing unfamiliar names … And then, I’d rather drink a glass of beer as a boost... Afterwards, I would rather go home, as I used to do, joking with the policemen along the road. You may acknowledge that the” Special Campaign for the Lynch of Ahmet Kaya” has been ritualized and underway. You think you had sent me away from my country and you wonder whether I will return or not. But I’m already there and I don’t have in mind to go somewhere else.” he said.
Gülten and Melis used to visit him frequently however the family was almost split. Melis’s school, unfinished production and lonely songs, a fictional life in Istanbul...
They didn’t know what to do at all. They paid another visit to Paris and had a short vacation with Ahmet. Gülten was worried for Ahmet was tired and decayed; Ahmet was hit hard by his fight against the feeling of loneliness and injustice and by his banishment from his country.
He was, perhaps for the first time in his life, feeling so desperate, missing his home land, longing to return for whatever it could take… They had lost his elder sister, his nephew and Gulten’s elder brother (Ahmet’s beloved friend) and Ahmet couldn’t go back to his country. His old and depressed mother and elder sister could only visit him once.
In Paris, a weird, a hard-to-describe mode of “survival” was the mainstream for him. He was neither totally emigrant nor he could embrace a definite land to live on. He was trying to simulate his life in his homeland in the middle of Paris and he was following-up the developments carefully. Loneliness, he had never been fond of, especially in an alien place, seemed to embrace him. Their temporary settlement in Paris, which they had initially hoped not to last very long, couldn’t evolve into a permanent state despite the increasing uncertainty and Ahmet struggled to live in his house of exile in Paris as if he was going to retun his house in Istanbul at any moment.
He was reading books, taking Kurdish and French courses and he was going to concerts. He had left all his song pieces in his country; the sound recording studio which he had established in a mood of enthusiasm looking forward to new projects was deserted because of Gulten’s incapability to get through all obligations ; those tables of feasts in the studio’s garden where they used to gather with their loved ones every night and the Kangal dogs with which he used to play at midnight in the garden were left all alone.
Melis, far from his beloved father’s shelter, went to her school and strived to bear all that happened in the outside world by herself and to the extent of her full capacity; while her mother was trying hard to boost her morale, despite herself being fell into pieces to shoulder the run of the family life and family business and keepng up the court proeedings.
Although Ahmet went to Paris almost every week , he was yet not satisfied of such visits, however, they still found it hard to plan settling in another country.
He was going for long walks along the streets of Paris with Gulten, following-up the news from his country on TV every evening and tried to understand what was going on with the aid of the interpretation of Gulten. What the hell had happened to let the vital reality he had underlined hit him, blast his life and his creative production course so traumatically? He was tired of asking himself so many questions...
Or else, how can someone live differently? Wouldn’t a man be disappointed if he played the blind to see a disregarded truth? Could the arts be said to have any functions then? How could a man make himself, his production, his very reason of existence meaningful? This was not a ‘decision’ at all… That was a feeling, a sensation, an internal situation and it was impossible for it to take place upon a plan or a decision. There was a history annoying him, a liar history and he was just unveiling it through his words. Wasn’t that what was supposed to happen already? Wasn’t that a must for everyone, particularly the duty of the arts itself? Weren’t there many precedents in the world’s history of arts? Then, why the hell he was all alone to hear his own voice?
How nice had France embraced Sartre as an opponent profile, gaining a noble privilege and recognition in the history of democracy through such a historical act?
Those were the unending quests and he was hoping all those to be tolerated in his country too, one day… Though he wouldn’t be able to live to see that… He was living a life without forsaking his vision, daring to shoulder all the burden it generated.
He was striving to console himself through tiny moments of enjoyment, trying to make raw meatballs at home, disliking either the minced meat or the parsley, getting annoyed when he parked his car in a wrong place and all such details prevailing in a country whose official language he did not know were making him miss his country more and more.
In the evenings, he used to call Gulten in Istanbul while watching a political discussion programme on TV, for example, and he watched the program with her for hours leaving the receiver open and commenting on the issues pretending that they were together. Towards the morning he used to call her again to ask her to let him listen to Melis’s breathing while she was asleep. Each time, he made the decision to return… At an episode, where everybody thought that Ahmet Kaya arrived at a place of no return, metaphorically, he would get on a small boat full of hopes that he kept alive and would set sails towards his homeland on dark waters.
He was composing news songs however, through an unfamiliar instinct, coupled with his protest against his incapability to work freely in his own studio, he did not record any of them… Gradually, his ambition to make a movie came to the foreground and he started to make research on the stories which were the products of his fiction, he set up his technical team and he roamed around to seek places for shooting. He was relentlessly seeking places in France, in Spain, in Italy, resembling his country.
In addition to all these, he decided together with his lawyers to appeal his case.
The distance between him and his country kept widening, under the willful influence of “some” and it was distancing him more and more from his hope to “return”. He would be content if he could at least release his last album where he recorded a Kurdish song. He disliked his performance caused by the gloomy mood before the days in exile, he listened to Gülten’s mix demos produced in the studio GAK carefully and/but he couldn’t embrace and get satisfied with such a “remote” work. Gülten used to take a different mix demos to Ahmet at her each visit. Finally, they decided to make a deal with a sound recording studio in Hamburg to release the album in December, at all costs after completing all recordings and the mix.
On 28 October, on his birthday, the Kaya couple came together once again in Paris.
Ahmet was distressed, complaining about the ulcer which is a typical illness of the “bannitus”, mainly resulting from stress. He was often having pain and seeing him in that state grieved Gülten deeply. They celebrated his birthday in Paris, with their firends in an Armenian restaurant… There decided Gülten:
In November, during Melis’s school vacation of one week, they weer supposed to visit Ahmet and she would to take him to the doctor to have him examined in her presence. She informed the friends in the restaurant of her decision and she requested them to make an appointment for him as soon as possible.
Finally, on 11 November, she took Melis, whom Ahmet called in his own jargon as “the most necessary drug” with her to go to Paris for a week. The appointment with the doctor was already made for 17 November.
Gülten, having rejected all requests for interviews by the Istanbul press, accepted an interview for Channel 7 after a conversation with Ahmet Hakan who was the anchorman of the channel primetime news at that time and she engaged herself for the interview on 16 November in Paris.
On 15 November, they saw the doctor in Paris, assisted by the interpretation provided by their beloved friend Deniz, they got the preliminary drugs and started to prepare for their appointment with the hospital on 17 November.
They had a very enjoyable evening together, for the last time…
Gülten and Melis, woke up hearing a noise in the house in Paris on the morning of 16 November 2000. Ahmet was lying at full length along the corridor. They tried hard but Ahmet’s tired and offended heart rejected to beat again.
The poet passed away, leaving 18 music albums, one of which was not yet released, about 200 songs and at least one line embedded in Turkish people’s memory. His heart was fourty three years old, the morning it stopped unable to bear the sorrow inside. The next day, over 30.000 fans arrived in Paris from Turkey and all around Europe to farewell him. They sang his songs with their all hearts and entrusted Ahmet to the safe custody of the cemetery of love and history, Peré Lachaisei.
The newspapers of the same day reported his journey as “The Tired Democrat Passed Away.” , “He Couldn’t Release The Kurdish Album.”, “He Died of A Heart Attack.”, “Ahmet Kaya Defeated To His Heart.”, “He Died In Exile.”, “He Passed Away Peeved At His Homeland.”, “The Tired Democrat, Defeated To His Heart.” , “He Will Sleep Side By Side With Yılmaz Güney.”, “When The Time Comes, The Chat Ends”, “You’re In Our Heart.”
Ahmet couldn’t see that Kurdish songs were permitted (!) in Turkey; that he was awarded the “Peace Prize” in the year he passed away by the Democracy Platform of Diyarbakır; that Gülten established a production and publication company called (upon his request) GültenAhmetMelis (GAM) and released his 18th album called “Hoşçakalın Gözüm (Goodbye the Apple of My Eye)” in 2001 and she produced a music video for the Kurdish song in that album, fitting together archived images and delivered it to almost every house inside CDs; that in 2002, the most popular twenty singers in Turkey sent a farewell to him for which he longed for, through an album called “Dinle Sevgili Ülkem (Listen, My Beloved Country)” whereby they sang Ahmet’s songs; that one of his unreleased songs was released in 2003 by GAM Müzik being called as “Biraz da Sen Ağla (Now It’s Turn To Cry)” ; that he was pictured on the cover of that album as looking at the album released after his death sitting at a tram-stop in Istanbul, respecting the disbelief of his fans in his death; that music videos have been made for some of his songs solely composed of his archived images; that a book series called “THE LIBRARY OF MUSIC NOTES” for his hundreds of songs; that a book called I’M IN TROUBLE was published and it was also translated into Kurdish; poems and songs dedicated to his soul; that nearly 150 thousand fans have been meeting on the web site launched in his name, that an album of folk songs called “Kalsın Benim Davam/Divana Kalsın (Let My Case, Let It To The Supreme Court)” which was produced by Gülten Kaya as an unprecedented one in Ahmet Kaya’s discography since it was solely composed of folk songs was released in 2005; that a poem album which was composed of poems written by Orhan Kotan and read by Ahmet Kaya and was called “Gözlerim Bin Yaşında (My Eyes Are A Thousand Years Old)” was released in 2006; that his bud (his beloved Melis) was graduated from the high school and became a university student and Gülten and Melis have been still keeping the valuable whisky bought by Ahmet to celebrate his daughter’s graduation; that his first baby Çiğdem was graduated from the university and passed into adulthood and many more… He couldn’t see that his friends who had left him all alone, have been singing Kurdish songs publicly; that people have been carrying the name of Ahmet Kaya as a flag. And more importantly, Ahmet couldn’t see that the newspaper columnists who had proclaimed him as a betrayer have now been writing about the injustice he had been subject to, they have been confessing about their regrets on having isolated Ahmet, they have been even proclaiming him as “immortal”, they have been telling that a Turkey without Ahmet is lackluster and they cannot give up his songs and they have realised that “the country couldn’t be split just because of a song” , just like Ahmet had been telling insistently in the last years of his life…
He couldn’t see that a certain leading newspaper columnists titled their articles featured in the newspapers such as, “Left Without Any Windows”, “And… The End…”, “Bury Me In My Homeland If I Die”, “My Friend Ahmet and Rebel Against The Destiny”, “I Cannot Stand You Any More…”, “It’s Just Who I Am”, “Mum, How Weird It Is To Die”, “We Were On The Same Branch”, “Just Enough of Pain”, “Ahmet Kaya Is Dead, The Country Is Free From Being Split”, “He Was Killed By Loneliness”, “The String of The Saz (Bağlama) Is Broken Away” ...
He couldn’t see that his audience have kept the people’s adorance alive all around the world, insistently and the audience have grown and spread over and over, new born kids have been named after him or Gülten…
Perhaps, if he could see that still today, hundreds of people have been listening to his songs and missing him, that his songs have been played out loud in the streets where he couldn’t roam around freely during the last years of his life, that his eternal home at Peré Lachaise where he rested side by side with many esteemed opponents from all around the world was attributed a monumental status through traditional Turkish items brought from the vicera of the land he passed away longing for to see (Blue bead from the Aegean region, the bottle of tear drops from the Central Anatolia, the Cypress Tree as the symbol of eternity found on the embroidery on Kastamonu cloths, the tulip from the Ottoman Istanbul, the sun figure found on the warrior dressings from the Mezopotamian empire, a piece of the Hittite Sun figure, the carnation garnishing tiles of Kütahya , mey, zurna, erbane (three traditional Turkish music instruments) his indispensible bağlama, a piano as a symbol of his universal music perspective, miniature Mardin houses as the symbols of the geography and the general silhoutte of his native region, the imitation of Tower of Galata and houses of Galata as a souvenir from the city of Istanbul which was the place he used to live and create and he was forced to leave, his favorite flower “snowdrops” which can only live on the Anatolian territories, on the rocks and high places and blossom as the harbinger of the spring), then, we could have given him back his smile that we know very well. And perhaps, if no artists,no singers, no human beings are lynched just because they wish to sing a song in their mother tongues, nowhere in the world, any more, it would relieve him out of his sorrow arising from what he had been through… He will now be warmed by the Mezopotamian sun above him. His songs will not be silent of course.
Never again, with the aspiration of a country where nobody is shot through his identity;
In a peace of mind to entrust Ahmet Kaya to the safe custody of the justice of life and history...
“I’m suffering undescribable pain
The sun set in this alien land, with me, seeking for the wind
I’m under the rain, far from my homeland
It’s evening now, the exile keeps quiet…”
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