Aynur Doğan concert banned in Turkey

Doğan is a Kurdish vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist. Her other concerts will proceed across Turkey.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/05/16 19:01

Aynur Doğan received the international WOMEX award on Sunday, Oct 31, 2021. (Photo: Eric Van Nieuwland/WOMEX)

Syria Aynur Doğan AKP Music Turkey Derince District Municipality Kocaeli province

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Derince District Municipality in Turkey's northwestern Kocaeli province banned an Aynur Doğan concert scheduled to be held on May 20, Turkish media reported.

In a statement on Twitter, it said that "after a thorough investigation, it is found out that the organization (concert) is unsuitable and canceled by our municipality."

Derince District Municipality is run by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Doğan is a Kurdish vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist. Her other concerts will proceed across Turkey.

According to a report on the news website Bianet, the ban came after pro-government social media accounts targeted Doğan for defending the 2013 Gezi Park protests.

This decision, which was widely discussed on social media, was seen as a ban on Kurdish music.

Pro-Turkish government media defended the decision, claiming she performed in front of a poster of the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2011.

Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Pervin Buldan posted Aynur's song "Dar Hejîrokê" on Twitter and condemned the ban on Kurdish concerts.

Doğan has not commented on the incident as of writing. However, the rest of her tour in Turkey, from May 18 to May 31, will continue, including in the cities of Ankara, Antalya, Izmir, Istanbul, and Bursa.

"With an AKP municipality banning a concert by Kurdish singer Aynur Dogan, we've gone full circle," tweeted Louis Fishman, associate professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

"In early 2000s it was the AKP that allowed her and other Kurdish singers to take stage and sing in their language," he added. "2 decades later they have taken it back."

Last year, Doğan won the international WOMEX 2021 Artist Award in Porto, Portugal.

Doğan's music is based on traditional Kurdish folk songs which focus on the life and sufferings of the Kurdish people in general and Kurdish women in particular.

She has performed all over the world and received several international awards.

Kurdistan 24's Ankara correspondent Ercan Dag contributed to this report.