Turkey:
Date of next hearing set in Ferhat Tunç's case
The date for the next hearing in the case against musician and Freemuse Award winner Ferhat Tunç has been set to 30 September 2010
The Diyarbakır Criminal Court oversaw the first hearing on 28 July 2010 and has announced that it will proceed the case against Ferhat Tunç on 30 September.
In the latest of a number of cases against the musician, he will be tried for his public remarks made at a concert during a Nature, Culture and Arts Festival held in the eastern city of Siirt on 15 August 2009.
He will be tried under article 7/2 of the Anti-Terrorism Law (TMY), and stands accused of “committing a crime on behalf of an organisation without being a member of the organisation” according to article 220/6 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK).
On 23 June 2010, Freemuse sent an appeal to the Turkish Prime Minister for the dismissal of the latest court case against Freemuse Award winner, Ferhat Tunç.
A weekend in December 2011 ended tragically when a man was brutally murdered after he requested that musicians in a bar sing a folksong in Zaza Kurdish, his native language
Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç is the target of seven investigations and two trials due to speeches he held during his campaign for the general elections in June 2011
A 10 months sentence to three young men who had been chanting slogans at a Grup Yorum concert in Dersim in 2007 was confirmed by Supreme Court’s 9th Office
On 15 July 2011 at the İstanbul Jazz Festival the concert of the Kurdish singer Aynur Doğan was interrupted by shouting people in the audience, forcing her to leave the stage
The Kurdish singer Farquin (Yılmaz Dünen) is facing a prison sentence of between seven and 20 years, charged with ‘spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation’
A gendarmerie commander reportedly ordered village guards to “break Ferhat Tunç’s legs” as Ferhat Tunç was starting a tour in villages in Cemisgezek/Dersim area
The Turkish courts appear to be ‘copy-pasting’ cases against the popular Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç, and the agenda is allegedly to intimidate and silence him
Singer Ferhat Tunç wrote this article as a personal comment to the Music Freedom Day initiative, describing the current situation for more than a dozen musicians in his country
Syrian security agents are reported to have arrested the Kurdish singer Bave Selah in Aleppo on 24 January 2011. Amnesty International runs a campaign for his release
On 27 January 2011, Turkish folk music singer Pınar Sağ was sentenced to ten months in prison for praising leftist revolutionary Ibrahim Kaypakkaya at a festival in Dersim
In Berlin, a concert with the two Kurdish artists Hozan Aydın and Şerîbana Kurdî was prohibited in court because it was found to be celebrating the foundation of PKK
Malazgirt Criminal Court opened a court case against 18-year-old Özgür Başak and 17-year-old R.D. who are charged for singing along the Kurdish song 'Oremar'
