Turkish reforms
music to Kurds ears
ISTANBUL, Oct 22 (AFP)
The Kurdish hills are alive with the sound of music now that key changes in
Turkey have enabled Kurdish musicians and crooners to come out of the closet.
The first notes of
change in the wake of landmark democracy reforms agreed by the Turkish
parliament in August have begun to be played by the music-mad Kurdish
community.
Following the
quasi-recognition of the Kurdish language by the authorities, and the
ground-breaking step of legalizing language courses and broadcasts in Kurdish,
the Kurdish music industry is reportedly experiencing a boom.
Not so long ago
Turkey dealt with anyone supporting Kurdish culture by charging them with
separatist propaganda and throwing them into jail.
Indeed, feelings
against Kurdish people still run high in Turkey where Kurdish rebels have
waged a bitter and violent 15-year campaign for self-rule in the southeast of
the country.
But in the IMC
market in Istanbul, the heart of music production in the city and a haven for
music publishers and record shops, all that has been temporarily forgotten,
with sales of Kurdish music rocketing.
"Before,
people were frightened, the police could turn up at any moment and demand that
the radio or cassette be turned off," said a manager of music company
Umut Plak in Istanbul, who preferred not to be named.
"Now the
taboo has gone and the market is going through the roof. There are so many
amateur singers who have been waiting for this moment to show
themselves," he said.
He said sales had
risen 20 percent since the new laws were passed.
Music company
Asanlar Muzik recently said it had chalked up a nine-fold jump in sales in
cassettes of Kurdish music in the southeast of the country between June and
August alone.
In June, out of
50,000 units sold, only 5,000 were of Kurdish music. In August 70,000 units
were sold in all, with a staggering 45,000 of them Kurdish titles.
"I'm
convinced that if the laws remain in place the market is going to benefit
hugely, there's massive potential", says Cabbar Baris, the head of Kom, a
company specialising in sales of Kurdish music.
He said eighty
percent of the cassettes in his catalogue have, at one time or another, been
banned in the southeast of the country.
He reckons the
appearance of new radio and television stations will not only increase demand
for music, but will also provide new advertising possibilities.
The street vendors
who hawk music in the capital now no longer complain of being hassled "at
least twice a month" said the Umut Plak manager.
He proudly
exhibited the first two laser video discs charting the history of Kurdish
songs, one by Kemale Xani, the other by Salih Dilovan, which came on the the
market only two months ago.
Before, there was
simply no demand.
However, some fear
a backlash by Turkish nationalists whose representatives in parliament fought
tooth and nail to stop the reform measures going through.
Mehmet, a buyer of
Kurdish music, was gloomy about the future, saying Kurds would think twice
about marketing themselves as Kurdish singers because of the bad feeling.
"Anyway, the
greatest Kurdish artists sing in Turkish, like Ibrahim Tatlises, Ozcan Deniz,
and Izzet Altunmese, because they would never have got on television and would
never have made it to the top if they had sung in Kurdish", he said.
One person to buck
that trend is the most popular variety singer in the country, Sezen Aksu, who
started singing in Kurdish almost as soon as the ink was dry on the reforms,
brushing aside attacks from nationalists. |
