Ismail Türüt facing trial Ismail Türüt, Turkish folk singer, is accused of "praising an act which is considered a crime" in a song that he had prepared for performance during the election campaign of Sevki Yilmaz, an MP linked to the now banned Welfare Party. The offending phrase is "Hodja we are proud of your actions. I don't know what they have written in those 30 files". (Unclear at present what this is referring to and whether it is in direct support of a violent act.) Türüt is charged under Artice 312/1 of the Turkish Penal Code which carries six months to two years imprisonment. Trial to commence shortly before the Istanbul Penal Court of First Instnce. Türüt will remain free during the trial.
As death threats and angry slogans greet a recent performance in Kurdish by one of Turkeys most popular singers, many human rights advocates in Turkey feel Ankara still has a long way to go to meet European Union standards on minorities
Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç faces imprisonment of up to 15 years regarding charges of "spreading propaganda for the PKK organisation", the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party
56 Kurdish mayors who stood up for Danish-based Kurdish Roj TV have gone on trial in Turkey, charged with aiding and abetting the outlawed terrorist organisation Kurdistan Workers Party (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'
The Malatya Criminal Court has sentenced the band members of Grup Munzur to 10 months imprisonment for singing a Kurdish song at a concert held in June 2008
A Kurdish song has been banned, and Kurdish singers are being arrested for singing - or just singing along to - specific Kurdish songs, accused of making propaganda
Diyarbakır High Criminal Court banned 13 members of Bahar Cultural Centre from performing arts for one year and gave them 10 months prison sentence each
Ferhat Tunç made a formal deposition at a Public Prosecution Office due to an investigation filed against him about a speech he made at a music festival in 2009.
In a court in Diyarbakır, the Kurdish singer Rojda Şenses was charged with one year and eight months imprisonment for conducting propaganda in two separate concerts
Ferhat Tunç will be tried due to article 159 of the (former Turkish Penal Code) because of using the phrase deep judiciary in an article he wrote. The first hearing will be held on December 2nd, 2004. Proposed sentence is imprisonment of 1 to 3 years
"1986: Arrested for political reasons. One week of interrogations, degradations and torture in the notorious prison camp DAL." Read the personal testimony of Turkish singer and human rights activist Ferhat Tunç
Singer and human rights activist Ferhat Tunç, jailed for alleged separatist incitement, said that he still faces charges even though he was earlier released from jail.
On 21 March 2009, a broadcasting editor of a local radio station Dünya in Adana, southern Turkey, was acquitted in a trial brought for the airing of the Kurdish song 'Keçe Kurdan'
Singer Ferhat Tunç has never felt as unsafe in Turkey as he does now. Death threats against him are published on the internet, and he faces yet another court case
