“Xwezî baranek bibare jana dil paqij bike.Xwezî piştî her bahozan roj derbikeve.Li vê jiyanê tu bi tenê yî.Ti kesên te tune ye!Rastî ev e birako xwe nexapîne.”
"I wish it would rain and carry away the aches of the heart. I wish sunrise would follow every storm. But, you are alone. You have no one! Brother, it is your reality, don't fool yourself..."
I am in the İstiklal Avenue in Taksim; with my back against the wall, I am looking at the questions that I have prepared to ask artist XEM. The rhythmical voice of XEM is just bringing the above lyrics to my ear. I am holding my little notebook in my hand that I rest on my camera, looking over my notes. At that moment, XEM approaches me in the way rappers walk and my camera just captures the above snapshot of him.
It is now time to go to the nearest cafe and ask questions. (A conversation on rap music without tea would be unthinkable, of course.)
Do you think that rap music and Kurdish match well together?
Video clip of Newroz by XEM (Source: Red Müzik Dijital/YouTube)
(Waving his right hand towards me in the way that I am familiar from the video clips of rappers) Miraaad! My dude (in English), both rap and Kurdish are rebellious voices! Kurds are the blacks of this country... Rap and Kurdish do indeed match well together. The rhythm of rap and Kurdish chime in with each other quite well. It is not only me who says that. My friends from other countries are of the same opinion as well.
There are several young Kurdish people making rap music in İstanbul. Do you think that you have given them a lead, an inspiration by releasing an album?
I can say that without hesitation: I am the one who has shouldered the burden of Kurdish rap in the North* and in Turkey. I can give the names of at least 8 rappers living in İstanbul. We are actually here, but not in the music platforms. I am pressuring my friends into releasing albums. I would really want my friends like Ronî Artîn and Reqso to release albums.
Performance of Ronî Artîn at Kurdish Rap Night event
OK, I admit that there is no Kurdish rap industry. But, I don't think that rappers have fulfilled their responsibilities, either. There have to be 10-15 rappers in music platforms so that a competition environment can be created. A Kurdish rap industry can also be formed with this environment. Rappers should stop complaining about the lack of audience. They should do their share. There are no new names and the ones that we know as rappers have not released any new works for the last four or five years.
Performance of Reqso at Kurdish Rap Night event
But, you organized the "Kurdish Rap Night" last year, right?
Kurdish Rap Night Concert
Frankly, I organized it. Then, my friends helped as well. I also want to organize concerts in [mostly Kurdish-populated cities of] Silêmanî (Sulaymaniyah in Iraq), Hewlêr (Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan), Wan (Van in Turkey), Amed (Diyarbakır in Turkey), Dêrsim and İstanbul. In fact, we are done with preparations, but friends cannot get prepared somehow and the plan has just remained as it is without any progress.
What will happen now?
We don't have the luxury to wait for the organizers to organize an event. We have to do something, then others will follow. It was the case in the US, Germany and Turkey as well.
Are you helping each other with Turkish rappers?
Of course. Ezhel, Patron, Dj Suppa and Aga B. are my friends... A couple of years ago, Ezhel sent me a message on Facebook. He told me that he went to the Kurdi-Der [Association for Research and Development of Kurdish Language] in Ankara, was learning Kurdish and doing research on Kurdish rap. I and Rêzan attracted his interest. He suggested that we should definitely release an album. Then, we went to Ankara to make music for a theater play and met and became friends with him. Friends both supported and helped us.
(Aziz Aslan**) What is the relation between Kurdish rap and populism?
Being popular is one of the ways to reach a community. We have highly successful artists, but as their works and efforts don't come to the forefront, they remain hidden. Being hidden and "Underground' stand in our way. But, we are trying to reach the whole community.
There are, in fact, some signs showing that I have achieved it to a certain extent. Young girls, little children, elderly men and many other people from different walks of life shoot self-videos and send them to me. There are many posts on social media like that. Actually, my music is suitable to reach the society. It is a type of music that you can come across everywhere, be that in your car, at your home, in a wedding-saloon, in a cafe or in a "club"...
Is there something that differentiates the rap that you make in Kurdish from the rap music in general?
We cannot talk about the existence of walls between music styles anymore. Mixing of styles gives us new opportunities. It leads to more original works. To give you some examples from my music: Newroz is a mixture of Rap, House and pop; as for Biyan, we made it by mixing Rap, Afro-trap and R&B; and Payîz is a mixture of Rap, R&B and Reggae styles.
There are three songs in your album. Don't you think that it is a bit few in number?
No. Just as we follow new music trends, we follow music production and distribution trends as well. The trend is EP [extended play] albums now. And three songs are enough for that. We actually prepared 10 songs, but when we saw the tendency, we made an EP album.
What about the other songs?
We will put them in the two other EP albums that we will release this year. There will be three songs in one album and four songs in the other one.
Tell us a bit about your video clip...
(Laughters...) First, we shot a video for the song Biyan with a friend of mine. Then, we thought that it was not really the way I wanted it. Afterwards, Özgür Kurt shot a professional video clip for the song Newroz. We didn't plan that it would come out in Newroz [March 21], but it was a nice coincidence. HDP [Peoples' Democratic Party] shared it on its social media accounts and, in the South, Vin TV (music channel) has started to show it.
(MB/HK/SD)
* The north of Kurdistan region
** We announced it on social media that we would make an interview with XEM. We asked XEM the question which Aziz Aslan would like to ask him.
Gazeteci, Botan International'in kurucusu.
2016-2020 yıllarında bianet Kurdî editörü olarak çalıştı. Serbest gazeteci olarak Diyarbakır’da Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera International, Deutsche Welle, RT TV ve the...
Gazeteci, Botan International'in kurucusu.
2016-2020 yıllarında bianet Kurdî editörü olarak çalıştı. Serbest gazeteci olarak Diyarbakır’da Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera International, Deutsche Welle, RT TV ve the New York Times için çalıştı.
Kürt medyasında beş yıl Kurd1 TV, Evro Gazetesi, Waar TV ve Kurdistan24 televizyonunda haber editörü, köşe yazarı ve muhabir olarak çalıştı.
Oxford Üniversitesi, Reuters Gazetecilik Çalışmaları Enstitüsü uluslarası gazetecilik yarışmasını kazanarak “fellowship” programı katılımcısı (2019) oldu. Program kapsamında Oxford Üniversitesinde yaz dönemi “dijital gazetecilik” eğitimi aldı.
Belkî îşev binive (Belki bu gece uyur, Avesta Yayınları) öykü kitabının yazarı.
Los Angeles, California Üniversitesi (UCLA)-KAES tarafından "en yaratıcı ve orjinal yazan genç yazar" (2012) Güneydoğu Gazeteciler Cemiyeti tarafından Kürtçe haber ve program dalında "yılın gazetecisi"(2014) ödüllerine layık görüldü.
One of the leading figures of arabesk music in Turkey and Yeşilçam film actor, Ferdi Tayfur passed away on 2 January 2025 in Antalya at the hospital where he was being treated.
Composer, lyricist, singer and film actor, one of the leading figures of arabesk music in Turkey, Ferdi Tayfur was born in the Hürriyet Neighbourhood of Adana in 1945. His full name is Ferdi Tayfur Turanbayburt.
He developed an interest in music at an early age. He began singing at wedding halls during his youth, and then took part in a music competition organized by Adana Radio. He came second, made a name for himself and began work at the Lunapark Casino in Istanbul.
He began to be known with the records he brought out in the early 1970s, yet his true breakthrough came in 1975 with the album “Çeşme [Fountain]”. The eponymous film he starred in the following year was watched by 12 million viewers.
With the albums that followed, including “Bırak Şu Gurbeti [Leave the Foreign Land]” and “Derbeder [Vagrant]”, he became one of the leading representatives of arabesk music. He became known with unforgettable songs including “Emmoğlu [My Uncle’s Son]”, “Ben de Özledim [I, Too, Yearn]”, “Huzurum Kalmadı [I Have No Peace Left]”.
His 1992 album, “Prangalar [Shackles]” sold five million copies to become one of the best-selling albums of all time in Turkey.
His concert at Gülhane Park in Istanbul in the year 1993 was attended by a crowd of 200 thousand people.
He starred in many Yeşilçam films, for which he also composed the soundtrack. He published books, among them “The Price of Fame” and “I Once Was a Tree”.
Derya Bengi, writer and editorial director of Roll magazine from 1996 to 2009, wrote the following regarding the origin of Ferdi Tayfur’s name:
“His father named him after Ferdi Tayfur, the acclaimed actor and dubbing artist whom he admired... Little Ferdi loved Raj Kapoor’s films the most, he loved Awara, and the touching voice of Mukesh, who sang in the film.” (TY/NHRD)
A press meeting was organized on 16 December 2024 within the scope of the solidarity campaign for the documentary directed by Çayan Demirel and Ayşe Çetinbaş, which focuses on Turkey’s multilingual collective memory.
The musical and political journey of Kardeş Türküler [lit. “Sibling Songs”], a project that began in 1993 as part of the Boğaziçi University Folklore Club, is being made into a documentary film.
The Surela Film team has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Germany-based Startnext platform for the final, post-production process of the documentary.
A press meeting was held at the Aynalı Geçit cultural events center in Beyoğlu within the scope of the solidarity campaign for the documentary directed by Çayan Demirel and Ayşe Çetinbaş.
Both the Surela Film and Kardeş Türküler teams were present at the meeting where a call was made for a strong solidarity campaign to complete the documentary due to the difficulties suffered by independent documentary-making in Turkey.
Bearing Witness
Speaking first at the press meeting, filmmaker Ayşe Çetinbaş stated that the project began 12 years ago under the directorship of Çayan Demirel, yet remained unfinished due to the health problems the director suffered. Initially the producer of the documentary, Çetinbaş stated that she assumed also director’s duties for the project.
During this period, the team formed a comprehensive archive by documenting Kardeş Türküler’s concerts, tours and interviews.
The documentary holds a mirror to Turkey’s multilingual cultural and political history. According to Çetinbaş, the documentary contains witness accounts from the 1993 Madımak Massacre to the memories of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist murdered in 2007. “This documentary is not only the story of a musical band, but also that of Turkey’s cultural transformation,” adds Çetinbaş.
Archival footage in the documentary display the power of both music and solidarity.
Tomasyan’s table
Musician Feryal Öney, a founding member of the Kardeş Türküler project, also spoke of the witness accounts Çetinbaş mentioned, referring to the dinner table set at the home of writer and publisher and her friend Yetvart Tomasyan who recently passed away on the night of 13 December 2024:
“That table was not only a place where we gathered to eat. It was a meeting point where young people who had come to study at university in Istanbul learned about Turkey on the one hand, while they shared cultural elements on the other hand. We were all quite young, most of us were still in our 20s. Tomo was someone who added depth to the conversation at the table, and thanks to his passion for archiving, often brought either an old newspaper or a now-forgotten newspaper cutting from the back room.
Hrant Dink would tell us about his hometown Malatya, while Tomo would share stories from his childhood. Hrant Dink’s multilingual songs that began in Kurdish, continued in Armenian and tied into Turkish still echo in our ears to this day. Everyone would bring home-cooked food. That dinner table became a school where culture and arts were blended with friendship. That’s where its metaphorical meaning lies.”
N. Evrim Şerifoğlu, the documentary’s campaign director, stated that the call for solidarity was an important step in overcoming the economic difficulties faced by independent art.
The campaign will continue until 24 January 2025 with the aim of collecting the 30 thousand Euros necessary to complete the final process of the documentary.
You can access detailed information regarding the documentary and supporting the campaign here.
bianet LGBTİ+ haberleri editörü. "1 Mayıs 1977 Kayıplarını Yakınları Anlatıyor/1 Mayıs 1977 ve Cezasızlık" dosyasını hazırladı. Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe bölümü mezunu. 2019 yılından...
bianet LGBTİ+ haberleri editörü. "1 Mayıs 1977 Kayıplarını Yakınları Anlatıyor/1 Mayıs 1977 ve Cezasızlık" dosyasını hazırladı. Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe bölümü mezunu. 2019 yılından beri "Küba" isimli köpekle ev arkadaşı.
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