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With this mes­sage, Brazil­ian ecoso­cial­ist philoso­pher Michael Löwy, a mem­ber of ATTAC and author of sev­er­al books, joins the mobi­liza­tion for the lib­er­a­tion of Kur­dish singer Nûdem Durak.

FREEDOM FOR NÛDEM DURAK !
Freedom for the Kurdish nightingale!

Nûdem Durak is a young Kur­dish singer.  Incar­cer­at­ed in 2015, she was sen­tenced to 19 years in prison. Her crime? Singing in Kur­dish. For Turk­ish author­i­ties, for Erdo­gan’s fascis­tic regime, this is a dan­ger­ous act of sub­ver­sion.   The Kur­dish lan­guage, music, cul­ture, art, poet­ry are always sub­ver­sive, they rep­re­sent a men­ace to the estab­lished order, a  chal­lenge to exist­ing author­i­ties and a mark of dis­re­spect for police decrees. To be pun­ished severe­ly. With 19 years in prison.

What do Nûdem Durak’s songs sing about? They sing about peace. This is dan­ger­ous. They sing about free­dom. This is inso­lent. They sing about love. This is scan­dalous. They sing about the suf­fer­ing of the Kur­dish peo­ple oppressed for cen­turies. This is out­lawed behav­ior. She sings about the dreams of eman­ci­pa­tion of Kur­dish youth. This is a crime. This is why her singing is a mat­ter for the police and the courts. To be pun­ished severe­ly. With 19 years in prison.

The Kur­dish nightin­gale’s song comes from way back. As she says, it is a her­itage from her ances­tors, trans­mit­ted by her par­ents, and that she taught to oth­er young peo­ple. Her songs belong to this tra­di­tion of the oppressed, a Kur­dish tra­di­tion of sev­er­al cen­turies, irre­press­ible, unsink­able, irre­ductible. To be pun­ished severe­ly. With long years in prison.

Her weapon, more dan­ger­ous than a kalash­nikov: a gui­tar. With her gui­tar and her voice, she has sown seeds of resis­tance, seeds of dig­ni­ty. She gave rise to dreams of free­dom in her lis­ten­ers. She brought a breath of poet­ry, a breath of fresh air from the plains and the moun­tains of Kur­dis­tan. To be severe­ly pun­ished by shut­ting up in a cell.

For those who still believe in peace, in free­dom and in human dig­ni­ty,   Nûdem Durak’s impris­on­ment is an unbear­able affront. This is why it is time for a cry of rebel­lion to rise a bit every­where in the world, in Paris, in New York, in Rio, in San­ti­a­go Chili, in Berlin, with this imper­a­tive demand:

FREEDOM FOR NÛDEM DURAK !

Michael Löwy

You can sup­port Nûdem Durak

Petition Free Nûdem Durak • Facebook @nudemdurak • Twitter @NudemDurak • Instagram @freenudemdurak • Youtube Free Nûdem Durak • Write to Nûdem and her friends in prison: Nûdem Durak M Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi Bayburt — TURKEY
Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges – iknowiknowiknowblog.wordpress.com
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