Ahmet Kaya

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Ahmet Kaya


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Background = solo_singer
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Born = 1957 [http://www.ahmetkaya.com/ozgecmis_eng Biography of Ahmet Kaya] "Ahmet Kaya Resmi Web Sitesi"]
Malatya, Turkey
Died = death date and age|2000|11|16|1956|10|28
Paris, France
Origin = Kurdish
Instrument = Bağlama, Singing
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Occupation = Musician, poet
Years_active = 1985–2000
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URL = [http://www.ahmetkaya.com www.ahmetkaya.com]

Ahmet Kaya (1957 – 16 November, 2000) was a Kurdish poet, singer, and a leading artist in Turkey. Some of his most popular songs include "Protect Yourself", "My Heart is Bleeding", "A Strange Man", "Ayrılık Vakti", "Koçero", and "Ağladıkça" ("As We Cry").

Career

He was born in Malatya, Turkey in the autumn of 1957 to a Kurdish family.Ahmet Kaya is the youngest of five children born to a working class Kurdish family in Malatya, Turkey. He first encountered music at age 9 in primary school. Ahmet Kaya worked for a while as a taxi driver in Istanbul before becoming well-known as a singer in the mid-1980s.

His first album, Ağlama Bebeğim, was released in 1985. His popularity continued to rise into the 1990s when in 1994 he relased the album Şarkılarım Dağlara which was sold a record 2.8 million copies. All of his 1990 albums to chart-toppers.

During his career he recorded approximately 20 albums and was known for his protest music and positions on social justice. Most of his work is in Turkish. Recurring themes in his songs are love towards one's mother, sacrifice, and hope.

Awards controversy

At a 1999 televised annual music awards ceremony, SHOW TV, at which he was to be named Musician of the Year, he spoke out about his 'Kurdish' background and said that he wanted to produce music in his native Kurdish as naturally as he does in Turkish. He announced that he had recorded a song in Kurdish ("Kerwan", released on the "Hoşçakalın Gözüm" album in 2001) and intended to produce a video to accompany it. At this event he was attacked by some Turkish singers because of his stance on the use of Kurdish. However, some of the same singers were among the first people to make Kurdish albums when the government gave in to pressure from Europe to relax the restrictions on the use of Kurdish language. Fact|date=June 2007

Exile and death

Kaya went to France in June 1999 escaping various charges arising from his political views.Fact|date=June 2007 Among them were the accusations that he had performed in front of a poster for the Kurdistan Workers Party at a 1993 concert in Germany, and that he had made statements in support of Abdullah Öcalan and had referred to Turkey as a "dishonourable people's country".Fact|date=February 2007 In March 2000 he was sentenced in absentia to three years and nine months in prison on the charge of spreading separatist propaganda.Fact|date=June 2008 He died of a heart attack in Paris in 2000, at the age of 44, and is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery. He is survived by his wife Gülten.

Discography

* "Ağlama Bebeğim"(1985) (Don't Cry My Baby)
* "Acılara Tutunmak" (1985) (To Hold Onto the Pain)
* "Şafak Türküsü" (1986) (Song of the Dawn (Folk))
* "An Gelir" (1986)
* "Yorgun Demokrat" (1987) (Tired Democrat)
* "Başkaldırıyorum" (1988) (I Defy)
* "Resitaller-1" (1989) (Recitals 1)
* "İyimser Bir Gül" (1989) (An Optimistic Rose)
* "Resitaller-2" (1990) (Recitals 2)
* "Sevgi Duvarı" (1990) (Wall of Love)
* "Başım Belada" (1991) (I'm in Trouble)
* "Dokunma Yanarsın" (1992) (Don't touch You burn)
* "Tedirgin" (1993) (Anxious)
* "Şarkılarım Dağlara" (1994) (My Songs to the Mountains)
* "Beni Bul" (1995) (Find Me)
* "Yakamoz" (1996) (Phosphorescence)
* "Dosta Düşmana Karşı" (1998) (Against All)Posthumous:
* "Hoşçakalın Gözüm" (2001) (Farewell My Dear)
* "Biraz da Sen Ağla" (2003) (Your Turn to Cry)
* "Kalsın Benim Davam" (2005) (Let My Struggle Remain)
* "Gözlerim Bin Yaşında " (2006) (My Eyes are Thousand Years Old)

References

* [http://www.ahmetkaya.com/ozgecmis_tr Turkish] , [http://www.ahmetkaya.com/ozgecmis_kr Kurdish] , and [http://www.ahmetkaya.com/ozgecmis_fr French] biography
* [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/11/16/turkey.france.kurds.reut/index.html CNN's report about his death]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-AZtXORQvc Interview with Ahmet Kaya]
* [http://www.aksiyon.com.tr/detay.php?id=27090 Interview with Gülten Kaya, Ahmet Kaya's wife]
* [http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=2644327330387363657&q=ahmet+kaya+olmasaydi Documentary about Ahmet Kaya]

Further reading

*

External links

*Fr icon [http://www.institutkurde.org/activites_culturelles/hommage/ahmet_kaya/ His biographical information by Kurdish Institute of Paris]