203 artists express support: ‘Sezen Aksu will never walk alone’

Click to read the article in Turkish

203 artists have expressed their solidarity and support in a declaration in the face of targeting remarks and threats against musician Sezen Aksu over her song with reference to "Adam and Eve".

After Aksu responded to the attack with a new poem/song, "Hunter" (Avcı), 203 writers, journalists, academics, musicians and poets, including Latife Tekin, Elif Şafak, Ece Temelkuran, Birhan Keskin, Hayko Cepkin, Şükrü Erbaş and Sema Kaygusuz, have released a declaration.

Titled "Sezen Aksu will never walk alone and we will not lose even a single one of us," the joint statement briefly reads as follows:

'They want to 'rip out' the tongue of free art'

"We watch the remarks of President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan targeting Sezen Aksu and disregarding freedom of expression with a great outcry. We are right against this attack that has been launched against Sezen Aksu, who has been writing and singing for 47 years and has gifted dozens of songs to the cultural accumulation of this land.

"We do not want a country where Aksu's freedom of expression is restricted and she is threatened with 'her tongue being ripped out'. We declare that we are together and in solidarity against this attack.

The tongue desired to be 'ripped out' is the tongue of the ancient peoples of Anatolia. It is the tongue of Pir Sultan, Yunus Emre, Karacaoğlan, Köroğlu, Aşık Veysel and Sinem Bacı, in brief, the tongue which has been representing us for thousands of years and with which we have been expressing our happiness, sadness, mourning. It is the tongue of the ancient peoples who cry like Nasreddin Hodja and laugh like Bayburtlu Zihni; it is the tongue of laborers, women and the ones who struggle against all types of oppression with their sazs and words. The tongue desired to be 'ripped out' is the tongue of free art.

"We, as artists, have struggled to protect all tongues living in this land and we will determinedly carry on this struggle from now on as well. Sezen Aksu will never walk alone and we will not lose even a single one of us."

The undersigned

Aslı Biçen, Aslı Solakoğlu, Aslı Tohumcu, Aslı Uluşahin, Ayşe Çavdar, Akif Kurtuluş, Altay Öktem, Anıl Mert Özsoy, Ali Seçkiner Alıcı, Akın Yanardağ, Ayla Turan Tan, Adnan Gerger, Ayşen Şahin, Arife Kalender, Aydan Yalçın, Aliye Özlü, Ayşegül Devecioğlu, Atiye Kalkan, Ahmet Murat Aytaç, Ahmet Telli, Birol Tezcan, Bade Osma Erbayav, Baran Güzel, Burhan Şeşen, Birhan Keskin, Büşra Sanay, Burcu Ünlü, Barış İnce, Belgin Bıyıkoğlu, Birgül Oğuz, Bircan Değirmenci, Buket Uzuner, Bülent Tekin, Barış Atay, Belma Fırat, Betül Yılmaz, Batuhan Dedde, Can Uçar, Cem Erciyes, C. Hakkı Zariç, Çağlayan Çevik, Çayan Okuduci, Cenk Kolçak, Çağrı Sinci, Cihan Ülsen, Cem Vazo, Cafer Solgun, Çetin Ali Nergis, Devrim Horlu, Deniz Durukan, Dündar Hızal, Deniz Ulkat, Derya Ulkat, Duygu Kankaytsın, Devrim Dirlikyapan, Dilruba Nuray Erenler, Diyar Atak, Ezgi Polat, Ercan Mehmet Erdem, Emrullah Alp, Esin Özbek, Emirali Türkmen, Erdoğan Emir, Ece Temelkuran, Eylem Te, Engin Turgut, Eray Sargın, Emrah Polat, Erkan Karakiraz, Erbil Doğan, Figen Şakacı, Fatih Tan, Fadıl Öztürk, Fahri Özdemir, Fatma Aras, Gaye Boralıoğlu, Gökhan Bakar, Grup Adalılar, Gonca Özmen, Gülşen İşeri, Giray Kemer, Gökhan Bakar, Haydar Ali Albayrak, Hıdır Işık, Hüseyin Bul, Haydar Ergülen, Haden Öz, Hüseyin Gökçe, Hilal Karahan, Haluk Tolga İlhan, Hüseyin Turan, Hayko Cepkin, Hatice Meryem, Ilgın Sönmez, Latife Tekin, Tekgül Arı, Nil Sakman, Sevim Erdoğan, Onur Bütün, Mahmut Çınar, Umay Umay, Sırma Mirzaoğlu, Sibel Oral, Mahir Ünsal Eriş, Murat Özyaşar, Özlem Akcan, Sercan Meriç, Mehmet Said Aydın, Metin Solmaz, Merve Göntem, Umut Altınçağ, Volkan Yosunlu, Sinem Sal, M.K. Perker, Murat Uyurkulak, Pelin Buzluk, Murat Meriç, Metin Yetkin, Muzaffer Gezer, Gönül Kıvılcım, Pınar Aydınlar, Nesimi Aday, Sevengül Sönmez, Kemal Varol, Ferhat Tunç, Fatoş Avcısoyu Ruso, Zerrin Saral, Nimet Mızraklı, Levent Karataş, Vecdi Erbay, Nadir Göktürk, Muzaffer Gezer, Şükrü Erbaş, Niyazi Koyuncu, Tunca Çaylant, Ünal Ersözlü, Sina Akyol, Tuğrul Keskin, Namık Kuyumcu, Semih Çelenk, Mazlum Mengüç, Tuba Torun, Orhan Alkaya, Suzan Samancı, Utkucan Akyol, Kazım Gündoğan, Mustafa Ergin Kılıç, Sema Kaygusuz, Oğulcan Kütük, Yücelay Sal, Ömer Ferhat Özmen, Serhad Raşa, Yücel Tunca, Muammer Ketencoğlu, Nalan Çelik, Esat Şenyuva, Nilay Özer, Müge Koçak, Sonat Yurtçu, Mehmet Özer, Kerem Görkem, Taçlı Yazıcıoğlu, Narin Yükler, Mesut Varlık, Nalan Kuruçim, Pınar Doğu, Hüseyin Akcan, Nur Sürer, Elif Şafak, Sedef Erken, Turan Parlak, Özlem Armen, Şahin Altuner, Eren Aysan, Murat Gür, Senem Gezeroğlu, Nur Saka, Metin Atik, Zeynep Altıok, Zeynep Ezmen, Tuncay Birkan, Hüsamettin Küçük, To256603zan Alkan, Mahir Karayazı, Yılmaz Şener, Mehmet Aras, Çetin Ali Nergis, Gül Kaçar, Nurani Ersoy, Zafer Türker, Levent Kaçar, Sıtar Sertaç Şanlı, Mazlum Çetinkaya, Tacim Çiçek, Hakan Güngör, Nurhan Suerdem, Okan Çil.

What happened?

Singer Sezen Aksu was targeted by pro-government people over her song "Şahane Bir Şey Yaşamak" (Living is a wonderful thing) from the year 2017 for saying, "Say hello to the ignorant Adam and Eve..."

Applying to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, a lawyer named Mikail Yılmaz and a group of people accompanying him filed a criminal complaint against Sezen Aksu on charge of "insulting religious values and provocation or degrading." A group of pro-government people also gathered in front of Aksu's house and staged a protest. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli also targeted Sezen Aksu in his weekly Parliamentary group meeting.

In a speech during the Friday prayers at İstanbul's Grand Çamlıca Mosque, President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also targeted Aksu, saying, "No one can defame his holiness, Adam. It is our duty, when the time comes, to rip out the tongues of those who defame him. No one can defame her holiness Eve."

Having remained silent until then, Aksu made a statement on Facebook on January 22. She thanked those who announced support for her and said, "As you know, the matter is not me, the matter is the country."

Aksu also shared the lyrics of a new song, which she said she wrote the day before. "You can't crush my tongue," she says in the song, apparently in response to Erdoğan's threats. In a short time, people on social media translated the lyrics into more than 30 languages. (TP/SD)