Musicians Stand Behind Niyazi Koyuncu's Newroz Performance

Local musicians from Northern Turkey Cultural Center released a statement today,protesting the criticism against Niyazi Koyuncu who had a concert performance at Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır province on March 21.

Over the few days, Niyazi Koyuncu, brother of famous singer Kazım Koyuncu, was protested by certain groups via twitter for his Newroz performance.

"Art and artists should stand with peace in the name of humanity. With this responsibility, we stressed that Niyazi Koyuncu represented our word even though we didn't need to speak the same language as Kurdish people...We perform at weddings, celebrations. We also celebrate Kurdish people's Newroz. We, the people of North, have never ignored any culture or language so far. We don't speak the same language but our tears are in common. We don't want to be invited to funerals, we prefer weddings. Therefore, we dedicated our word to peace, as always," the statement said.

The list of statement signers were as follows: Mehmet Gümüş, Fuat Saka, Efkan Şeşen, Yaşar Kurt, Gökhan Birben, İbrahim Karaca, Elif Ergezen, Filiz Gazi, Seyhan Kaya, Belma Baş, Okşan Dede, Resul Dindar, Marsis, Erdal Bayrakoğlu, Karmate, Hürdağ Aydın, Ayla Yılmaz, Ayşenur Kolivar, Metin Yılmaz, Selçuk Balcı, Aydoğan Topal, Bayar Şahin, Uğur Sönmez, Grup Helesa, Elin Can Vayiç, Ferda Sönmez, Budak Akalın, Haldun Açıksözlü.

Kazım Koyuncu, a folk-rock singer and a Laz language activist, passed away due to cancer in 2005. (AS/BM)