This civil action soon was named “Saturday Mothers”, attracting media interest as the police frequently tried to block the demonstrations and took the mothers into custody. The Saturday Mothers consisted of mothers that were searching for their children who had been taken into custody by the police on various political grounds and no one had heard about afterwards. Ahmet Kaya, who already sanctified the concept of “motherhood” in most of his songs, participated the Saturday Mothers’ action and that year, in 1995, he released another album named after a song he wrote for Saturday Mothers: “Beni Bul (Anne): Find Me (Mother)”.

Ahmet Kaya never had a down face despite his disposition as a rebellious, tough and austere man. We can easily say that those who knew him well described him as humorous, funny, interesting, riposte and intelligent. Indeed, partially, he remained as a kid who used to chase enemies riding the idle donkey in the neighborhood. Whenever he had a chance amidst the busy schedule of concerts and music studies, he enjoyed having feasts together with his family and friends, cooking for them, chatting until the morning and pranking and tricking their friends with practical jokes. He loved spending time with his daughter Melis, buying electronic devices, opening them up and examining inside, shooting scenes that he imagined with his camera. He had a very little grasp of the concept of money.

He made almost no considerable investment except those he made to guarantee a good future for his daughter and his wife. He returned “broke” from many music tours. The tour organizer wouldn’t pay his money, however, he would still give his concerts since he believed that his fans who waited for him, were not guilty at all. He gave all his money available if he thought someone was in deed, he distributed all revenues gained after some concerts to the musicians that accompanied him. He used to explain such behaviour as “I can earn money any time I want”.

In 1996, again, his album called “Yıldızlar ve Yakamoz (Stars and Phosphorescence) in which he compiled and re-arranged certain songs from his first 3 albums and added two new songs, became the best-seller. One of his new songs called “Yakamoz (Phosphorescence)” and its video, marked an era, once again.

Each of Ahmet Kaya’s albums released became a phenomenon, just like his every word had wide repercussions. Because of his emphasis on the Kurdish language and the Kurdish culture, Ahmet had largely become a target for the media and he could be a scapegoat easily and at any moment, because of any of his words on any issue. When he used a very old expression mentioning about certain customs in Turkey such as “barbers pulling teeth or circumsising boys”, the Federation of Barbers (Hairdressers) rose in rebellion, under the manipulation of the media. People in Tokat rose in rebellion when he laughed and joked a guest from Tokat saying “Look, people from Tokat are dangerous.” in a TV program. He also made witty references in his own style to certain artists that he regarded as “extreme nationalists.”

Radical Islam and radical leftist opinion have always inhabited opposite poles in Turkey and their names are never cited together. Scathing criticisms against one another were at the top of the agenda many times. In 1997, Tayyip Erdogan, who is now the prime minister, was the mayor of Istanbul and at that time, he was adjudicated and sentenced to jail for 9 years because of a poem he read at a mass meeting. While mass demonstrations by Islamists were underway against such conviction, but the leftists connived. When the media asked for his opinion and Ahmet Kaya replied “Democracy is there for all of us. The freedom of thought should exist for me but it should equally exist for Mr. Erdogan. Nobody should be deprived of his freedom because of a poem he read!”, this time, he received the heavy criticism from the leftist fractions. When he also gave support to the demonstrations of students who were partisans of Islam and wanted to be admitted to universities with their scarves on their head, through his definition of democracy “If I can wear suits, they should be able to wear scarves.”, a new profound debate was launched among newspaper columnists on the concepts of democracy and liberty. Upon this Ahmet Kaya told “The rightists do not like me, nor the leftists, nor the Islamists. Then, who are those millions of people that buy my albums and those thousands of people that come to my concerts?, criticising newspaper columnists and artists of adopting politic views in negligence of the public opinion.

The Gülten and Ahmet couple decided to open up a studio and establish a production company with a view to enable Ahmet to continue his music studies freely and comfortably as well as to produce albums for the emerging new generation and talented musicians. They set up a music company called GAK (Gülten Ahmet Kaya) and a studio named thereafter. In the studio, many albums were produced for Çetin Oraner who had been assisting Ahmet Kaya for many years and for a music band called Kent Ozanları (The Poets of the City) composed of five academy students. While their music videos were shot under the directorship of Ahmet Kaya, Ahmet Kaya completed his music album called “Dosta Düşmana Karşı (Against All Odds)” in March 1998, as the first album recorded in his own studio.

The album “Dosta Düşmana Karşı”, too, became a top-of-the-pops soon . The music videos shot for two songs in the album called “Giderim (I Shall Go)” and “Korkarım (I’m Afraid) were listed among the favourites and the most frequently broadcasted for a long time. Ahmet,wished to concentrate on his music studies in the forthcomig years following his last album, songs in which were completed and to shoot a movie to be called “Mülteci (The Exile)” on which he had been elaborating for a very long time and had been working on a scenario. He even started to discuss about the casting during his meetings with close friends who were actors or actresses, alongside searching for proper movie shooting places.

We are not certain on the number of awards received by Ahmet Kaya during his career as a musician, however, we know that he was many times selected by various organisations, TV channels, newspapers, magazines as the artist of the year through public voting. He received many gratifications and awards from many charity organisations and many democratic mass organisations. In 1998, as it was the case following each of his new album releases, Ahmet Kaya became “the artist of the Year” through public voting conducted by the Association of Magazine Journalists”.

On the night of 10 February 1999, the award ceremony was held in a hall full of Turkey’s most famous artists and other celebrities and the ceremony was broadcasted alive on Show TV throughout Turkey. Everyone appeared on the stage in order and received his/her award one by one. It was Ahmet Kaya’s turn and he was “the Artist of the Year”. Once again he took to the stage acoompanied by applauds, he received his award and he took the microphone in his had to sing his song called “ I Shall Go” before his following speech:

“I would like to thank to the Human Rights Association, to “Saturday Mothers”, to all media proletarians and to the whole Turkish public for this award. I also have a declaration: in the album on which I have been working and will release in the forthcoming days, I will sing in KURDISH and will shoot a video for the song. I know that there are many brave TV broadcasters here among us but I don’t know how they will setle up with the people in Turkey if they don’t do it.”

A sudden silence fell upon the hall...

On that night of 10 February, the unprecedented scenario, the one that should never be experienced by any artists, was immediately launched following that declaration. Ahmet Kaya, among the cheers of protests againts his speech, sang his song with his award in his hand, in his usual manner, smiling. When he finished his song and left the microphone to head for his seat, hisses and hoots from the tables seated by certain artists (!), journalists, celebrities were heard first and then, they started to throw forks and knives in an offhand manner addressing Ahmet. Ahmet hardly managed to reach the table in a retired spot, seated by his wife Gülten and several friends. There was a real turmoil. In full view of the whole Turkey, the cynical smile of Ahmet was broadcasted live alongside the cameras and people rose in rebellion. Some waiters and artists tried to stand amidst the forks and fragments of food thrown at Ahmet and Gülten. It was just a squabble and it was because Ahmet mentioned “Kurdish”.

The announcers immediately called the next singer to the stage in a rush to put things in order. That singer, taking advantage of such a sensitive mood and acting in a quite provocative manner, changed the lyrics of her song as if it was a march of heroism (“Nobody is a sultan today, neither a king, nor an emperor / The whole Turkey is following Atatürk’s wisdom / this country is ours / not of foreigners”) and after it, she sang the famous “10th Anniversary Celebration March” (the Anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic) in a night of recreation. She was immediately followed by an attempt by one of the most famous anchormen in Turkey to jump on the stage to invite all artists in the hall to sing the march. At that moment Ahmet was leaving the hall rounded by a circle of securitymen and cameramen. After the hall was cleaned off a betrayer(!) and his wife, the night lasted with all its ecstacy(!).

The Kaya couple were used to adjudications and probations for many years but they were faced with an unprecedented adjudication in the morning of 11 February. The incident hit the headlines in many newspapers in the country, all prime time news programmes mentioned about it in detail and Ahmet was proclaimed a betrayer of his country.

But it was not over yet... On 14 February, Hürriyet - the most widely circulated newspaper in Turkey- placed a screamer on the headlines “Shame on You, the Apple of My Eye”. The concert photo which was never submitted to the court as evidence, was allegedly shot in Berlin in 1993 showing some parts of the Turkish territory as Kurdistan behind Ahmet Kaya on stage. Ahmet Kaya was detained after the initial interrogation and was dispatched to prison but he was released upon the objection of his lawyers on the same day. Ahmet was free then, however; Gülten, Ahmet and Melis were all alone in their house besieged by the media. Except very close friends, noone among those people that used to encircle them, used to call them many times a day and sang songs together before the incident, never called them again. The TVs started to tell about Ahmet as a betrayer in the headlines. Melis was eleven and she tried to understand whatever was happening, both looking at his father by her side and at the "betrayer(!)" on TV.

The family, being drifted to a huge solitariness started to receive anonymus letters left in their mail boxes and death threats on the phone; they used to send their daughter to school in unease. When Ahmet tried to go to the street once, he was greeted with marches and spittles.

Although it was proved during the ongoing trials through passport records that Ahmet had never been in Germany in 1993 and despite the fact that the photo published in the newspapers was never submitted by the newspaper Hürriyet to the court regardless of all relevant correspondence, no matter Ahmet kept saying that the photo was a product of photo-montage and nevertheless, an artist could never be held responsible for a stage design organized abroad, none of the newspapers published these. Nobody asked the newspaper Hürriyet why they awarded a man who was confirmed to be a betrayer in 1993 as “the Artist of the Year” in 1994 and nobody realised or wished to realise that the accusation of the public prosecutor was solely composed of the comments on TV channels.

Days passed all alone afterwards. Ahmet never left his studio and tried to record the songs for his new album in a great haste since he couldn’t foresee the future. He started to put on weight and had skin problems. He was really hurt to be neglected by his friends who denied him a phone call or a greeting. He wanted to shoot a movie all his life but he could never embrace the idea to be the leading man for a scenario written by others.

During his first trial the public prosecutor asked for his imprisonment for 13 and a half years on grounds of “Betrayal to the Country” and Ahmet read his plea consisting of twelve pages. In his defense argument, he described himself as “an earth citizen” who did not deem himself to belong to any specific place and a musician who was universal to the extent of incapable of limiting any of his feelings, and owner of a heart capable of embracing and loving all languages, nations, religions and cultures in he world, in total tolerance. He asked the court “Would I still be proclaimed as a betrayer if I declared that I would sing a song in anther language for example in Italian, Arabic or in English? Do you believe that I am rightfully accused of being a “Betrayer of My Country” in the eyes of whole Turkish public and children because of my wish to sing just one song in a language that I personally do not know though I hear everyday but would like to use in the song, on the basis of the fact that I have been living side by side on the same territory of millions of people that know and speak that language?

The trial was dated forward by the court in order to collect evidence.

On the day after the trial, newspapers did’nt publish even one word from the twelve-page plea. The defendant Ahmet Kaya was referred in the headlines as “The Nit”, “Corrupted”, “Degenerate”, Ignoble”, “Inane”, “The Prisoner of Opinion Having No Opinions”, while nobody ever cared that Ahmet Kaya had two daughters who were both literate.

Ahmet had made a deal for a European tour. He was forbidden to travel abroad. Another application was submitted to the court and the court abolished the ban.

In June 1999, following the night he recorded the Kurdish song in his studio, at 4 o’clock in the morning, he left the rainy Istanbul, deeply hurt, tired and deprived of a single friendly farewell.

And Paris… Ahmet Kaya gave concerts around Europe and the Turkish press was following him. As the press went behind his every word and pressurized him, Ahmet became more and more peevish and isolated. His every word was manipulated, each concert news was contorted and the media broadcasts were so twisted to reflect his most unifying sentences as if they were the most cruel ones. All of these laid the grounds of new proceedings.

In one of his concerts “…I cannot bear the pain I have been subject to, living so far from my country and the situation I am drifted into just because of a few cads. I want the Kurdish reality to be recognized. I want to live as the Kurdish Ahmet from Turkey.” he said and sentence hit the next day’s newspaper headlines as “You Cad” and “Ahmet Kaya Insulted 64 Millions.” . He requested to use his right to answer and/however his explanations never found any space in any newspapers or on TV.

A piece of news containing sentences such as “ I don’t have any troubles with the Turkish public nor with the Turkish Republic, I am troubled for the crying Kurdish people just like me.” was reflected in the headlines as “Just Like A PKK Militant”.

A press item containing his speech as “A Bosnian can say ‘I am Bosnian.’, an Armenian can say, ‘I am Armenian.’ and so on. Why can’t my people say ‘I am Kurdish.’? Why the hell can Turkey make peace with Greece with whom she has been at war for 70 years but cannot make peace with the Kurds with whom she has been living side by side for 1500 years?”, was unnecessarily published under the heading “Kaya Spew Hatred and Oaths Again.”

All such headlines laid the grounds for new court proceedings and it was getting more and more impossible both legally and actually for Ahmet to return his home country.

During no phase of his lifetime did Ahmet plan living outside his own land, however, one of the most popular newspapers in Turkey, in a reckless attitude and without basing its arguments upon any documental proof or evidence, stroke a different course in the deliberate and atrocious campaign against Ahmet Kaya led for several months, by top lining his residence permit in France.

Ahmet, on one hand, tried to get a grip of the big deal, while on the other hand, he kept expressing all his feelings in his usual candid style , telling another reporter in Paris during an interview:

“Look my dear, deliver my salute to the people of my country and tell them to look at the sky through their windows just once on my behalf, but please tell it, don’t forget, let them see it with my eyes, walking in my shoes, just like the look of Mecnun to Leyla…”

Gülten used to visit Ahmet almost every week in his exile in Paris to pep him, while she had to assume the whole responsibility, taking care of the children and undertaking all the work by herself. She also attended the court hearings at the National Security Court (DGM) every month on behalf of Ahmet and she was torn apart during all those lonely days.

At each court hearing they attended, their attorneys used to draw attention to the newspaper headlines, pointing out that they had been influencing public attitude adversely, creating an environment of lynch. Still and despite such efforts, the lynch campaign expanded progressively.

The first court case filed againts Ahmet was finalised while he was in Europe and the court sentenced Ahmet to a prisonment for 3 years and 9 months.

Ahmet din’t return becasue of the order for his arrest. He decided to search for ways to exonerate himself in Paris. He organized a press conference and told about what he had been through. There were representatives from the Turkish media in the meeting. Next day, not even one newspaer ever mentioned what had been told by Ahmet, as usual.

Months passed. He tried to explain the injustice he had been subject to during all his interviews and his speeches. In all his speeches he told how he missed his daughters, his wife, his mother, his country, his people and his acquaintance and expressed his sorrow because of his old friends who had never called him:

“I don’t believe that I infringed any of the penalty regulations in force in Turkey. I didn’t kill anybody, I never commited fraud, I never burgled any place, I never avoided tax liabilities, I was never involved in unchastiness, I never sold drugs… I only expressed my opinions. I would rather be in my house in Istanbul, beside my barbeque with a broken leg than being here in Paris at this moment. I’d rather drink a glass of “Rakı” (a Turkish alchoholic beverage) or I would prefer going down to the seaside in Bopshorous to have some meatballs with bread to drinking these wines bearing unfamiliar names … And then, I’d rather drink a glass of beer as a boost... Afterwards, I would rather go home, as I used to do, joking with the policemen along the road. You may acknowledge that the” Special Campaign for the Lynch of Ahmet Kaya” has been ritualized and underway. You think you had sent me away from my country and you wonder whether I will return or not. But I’m already there and I don’t have in mind to go somewhere else.” he said.

Gülten and Melis used to visit him frequently however the family was almost split. Melis’s school, unfinished production and lonely songs, a fictional life in Istanbul...

They didn’t know what to do at all. They paid another visit to Paris and had a short vacation with Ahmet. Gülten was worried for Ahmet was tired and decayed; Ahmet was hit hard by his fight against the feeling of loneliness and injustice and by his banishment from his country.

He was, perhaps for the first time in his life, feeling so desperate, missing his home land, longing to return for whatever it could take… They had lost his elder sister, his nephew and Gulten’s elder brother (Ahmet’s beloved friend) and Ahmet couldn’t go back to his country. His old and depressed mother and elder sister could only visit him once.

In Paris, a weird, a hard-to-describe mode of “survival” was the mainstream for him. He was neither totally emigrant nor he could embrace a definite land to live on. He was trying to simulate his life in his homeland in the middle of Paris and he was following-up the developments carefully. Loneliness, he had never been fond of, especially in an alien place, seemed to embrace him. Their temporary settlement in Paris, which they had initially hoped not to last very long, couldn’t evolve into a permanent state despite the increasing uncertainty and Ahmet struggled to live in his house of exile in Paris as if he was going to retun his house in Istanbul at any moment.

He was reading books, taking Kurdish and French courses and he was going to concerts. He had left all his song pieces in his country; the sound recording studio which he had established in a mood of enthusiasm looking forward to new projects was deserted because of Gulten’s incapability to get through all obligations ; those tables of feasts in the studio’s garden where they used to gather with their loved ones every night and the Kangal dogs with which he used to play at midnight in the garden were left all alone.

Melis, far from his beloved father’s shelter, went to her school and strived to bear all that happened in the outside world by herself and to the extent of her full capacity; while her mother was trying hard to boost her morale, despite herself being fell into pieces to shoulder the run of the family life and family business and keepng up the court proeedings.

Although Ahmet went to Paris almost every week , he was yet not satisfied of such visits, however, they still found it hard to plan settling in another country.

He was going for long walks along the streets of Paris with Gulten, following-up the news from his country on TV every evening and tried to understand what was going on with the aid of the interpretation of Gulten. What the hell had happened to let the vital reality he had underlined hit him, blast his life and his creative production course so traumatically? He was tired of asking himself so many questions...

Or else, how can someone live differently? Wouldn’t a man be disappointed if he played the blind to see a disregarded truth? Could the arts be said to have any functions then? How could a man make himself, his production, his very reason of existence meaningful? This was not a ‘decision’ at all… That was a feeling, a sensation, an internal situation and it was impossible for it to take place upon a plan or a decision. There was a history annoying him, a liar history and he was just unveiling it through his words. Wasn’t that what was supposed to happen already? Wasn’t that a must for everyone, particularly the duty of the arts itself? Weren’t there many precedents in the world’s history of arts? Then, why the hell he was all alone to hear his own voice?

How nice had France embraced Sartre as an opponent profile, gaining a noble privilege and recognition in the history of democracy through such a historical act?

Those were the unending quests and he was hoping all those to be tolerated in his country too, one day… Though he wouldn’t be able to live to see that… He was living a life without forsaking his vision, daring to shoulder all the burden it generated.

He was striving to console himself through tiny moments of enjoyment, trying to make raw meatballs at home, disliking either the minced meat or the parsley, getting annoyed when he parked his car in a wrong place and all such details prevailing in a country whose official language he did not know were making him miss his country more and more.

In the evenings, he used to call Gulten in Istanbul while watching a political discussion programme on TV, for example, and he watched the program with her for hours leaving the receiver open and commenting on the issues pretending that they were together. Towards the morning he used to call her again to ask her to let him listen to Melis’s breathing while she was asleep. Each time, he made the decision to return… At an episode, where everybody thought that Ahmet Kaya arrived at a place of no return, metaphorically, he would get on a small boat full of hopes that he kept alive and would set sails towards his homeland on dark waters.

He was composing news songs however, through an unfamiliar instinct, coupled with his protest against his incapability to work freely in his own studio, he did not record any of them… Gradually, his ambition to make a movie came to the foreground and he started to make research on the stories which were the products of his fiction, he set up his technical team and he roamed around to seek places for shooting. He was relentlessly seeking places in France, in Spain, in Italy, resembling his country.

In addition to all these, he decided together with his lawyers to appeal his case.

The distance between him and his country kept widening, under the willful influence of “some” and it was distancing him more and more from his hope to “return”. He would be content if he could at least release his last album where he recorded a Kurdish song. He disliked his performance caused by the gloomy mood before the days in exile, he listened to Gülten’s mix demos produced in the studio GAK carefully and/but he couldn’t embrace and get satisfied with such a “remote” work. Gülten used to take a different mix demos to Ahmet at her each visit. Finally, they decided to make a deal with a sound recording studio in Hamburg to release the album in December, at all costs after completing all recordings and the mix.

On 28 October, on his birthday, the Kaya couple came together once again in Paris.

Ahmet was distressed, complaining about the ulcer which is a typical illness of the “bannitus”, mainly resulting from stress. He was often having pain and seeing him in that state grieved Gülten deeply. They celebrated his birthday in Paris, with their firends in an Armenian restaurant… There decided Gülten:

In November, during Melis’s school vacation of one week, they weer supposed to visit Ahmet and she would to take him to the doctor to have him examined in her presence. She informed the friends in the restaurant of her decision and she requested them to make an appointment for him as soon as possible.

Finally, on 11 November, she took Melis, whom Ahmet called in his own jargon as “the most necessary drug” with her to go to Paris for a week. The appointment with the doctor was already made for 17 November.

Gülten, having rejected all requests for interviews by the Istanbul press, accepted an interview for Channel 7 after a conversation with Ahmet Hakan who was the anchorman of the channel primetime news at that time and she engaged herself for the interview on 16 November in Paris.

On 15 November, they saw the doctor in Paris, assisted by the interpretation provided by their beloved friend Deniz, they got the preliminary drugs and started to prepare for their appointment with the hospital on 17 November.

They had a very enjoyable evening together, for the last time…

Gülten and Melis, woke up hearing a noise in the house in Paris on the morning of 16 November 2000. Ahmet was lying at full length along the corridor. They tried hard but Ahmet’s tired and offended heart rejected to beat again.

The poet passed away, leaving 18 music albums, one of which was not yet released, about 200 songs and at least one line embedded in Turkish people’s memory. His heart was fourty three years old, the morning it stopped unable to bear the sorrow inside. The next day, over 30.000 fans arrived in Paris from Turkey and all around Europe to farewell him. They sang his songs with their all hearts and entrusted Ahmet to the safe custody of the cemetery of love and history, Peré Lachaisei.

The newspapers of the same day reported his journey as “The Tired Democrat Passed Away.” , “He Couldn’t Release The Kurdish Album.”, “He Died of A Heart Attack.”, “Ahmet Kaya Defeated To His Heart.”, “He Died In Exile.”, “He Passed Away Peeved At His Homeland.”, “The Tired Democrat, Defeated To His Heart.” , “He Will Sleep Side By Side With Yılmaz Güney.”, “When The Time Comes, The Chat Ends”, “You’re In Our Heart.”

Ahmet couldn’t see that Kurdish songs were permitted (!) in Turkey; that he was awarded the “Peace Prize” in the year he passed away by the Democracy Platform of Diyarbakır; that Gülten established a production and publication company called (upon his request) GültenAhmetMelis (GAM) and released his 18th album called “Hoşçakalın Gözüm (Goodbye the Apple of My Eye)” in 2001 and she produced a music video for the Kurdish song in that album, fitting together archived images and delivered it to almost every house inside CDs; that in 2002, the most popular twenty singers in Turkey sent a farewell to him for which he longed for, through an album called “Dinle Sevgili Ülkem (Listen, My Beloved Country)” whereby they sang Ahmet’s songs; that one of his unreleased songs was released in 2003 by GAM Müzik being called as “Biraz da Sen Ağla (Now It’s Turn To Cry)” ; that he was pictured on the cover of that album as looking at the album released after his death sitting at a tram-stop in Istanbul, respecting the disbelief of his fans in his death; that music videos have been made for some of his songs solely composed of his archived images; that a book series called “THE LIBRARY OF MUSIC NOTES” for his hundreds of songs; that a book called I’M IN TROUBLE was published and it was also translated into Kurdish; poems and songs dedicated to his soul; that nearly 150 thousand fans have been meeting on the web site launched in his name, that an album of folk songs called “Kalsın Benim Davam/Divana Kalsın (Let My Case, Let It To The Supreme Court)” which was produced by Gülten Kaya as an unprecedented one in Ahmet Kaya’s discography since it was solely composed of folk songs was released in 2005; that a poem album which was composed of poems written by Orhan Kotan and read by Ahmet Kaya and was called “Gözlerim Bin Yaşında (My Eyes Are A Thousand Years Old)” was released in 2006; that his bud (his beloved Melis) was graduated from the high school and became a university student and Gülten and Melis have been still keeping the valuable whisky bought by Ahmet to celebrate his daughter’s graduation; that his first baby Çiğdem was graduated from the university and passed into adulthood and many more… He couldn’t see that his friends who had left him all alone, have been singing Kurdish songs publicly; that people have been carrying the name of Ahmet Kaya as a flag. And more importantly, Ahmet couldn’t see that the newspaper columnists who had proclaimed him as a betrayer have now been writing about the injustice he had been subject to, they have been confessing about their regrets on having isolated Ahmet, they have been even proclaiming him as “immortal”, they have been telling that a Turkey without Ahmet is lackluster and they cannot give up his songs and they have realised that “the country couldn’t be split just because of a song” , just like Ahmet had been telling insistently in the last years of his life…

He couldn’t see that a certain leading newspaper columnists titled their articles featured in the newspapers such as, “Left Without Any Windows”, “And… The End…”, “Bury Me In My Homeland If I Die”, “My Friend Ahmet and Rebel Against The Destiny”, “I Cannot Stand You Any More…”, “It’s Just Who I Am”, “Mum, How Weird It Is To Die”, “We Were On The Same Branch”, “Just Enough of Pain”, “Ahmet Kaya Is Dead, The Country Is Free From Being Split”, “He Was Killed By Loneliness”, “The String of The Saz (Bağlama) Is Broken Away” ...

He couldn’t see that his audience have kept the people’s adorance alive all around the world, insistently and the audience have grown and spread over and over, new born kids have been named after him or Gülten…

Perhaps, if he could see that still today, hundreds of people have been listening to his songs and missing him, that his songs have been played out loud in the streets where he couldn’t roam around freely during the last years of his life, that his eternal home at Peré Lachaise where he rested side by side with many esteemed opponents from all around the world was attributed a monumental status through traditional Turkish items brought from the vicera of the land he passed away longing for to see (Blue bead from the Aegean region, the bottle of tear drops from the Central Anatolia, the Cypress Tree as the symbol of eternity found on the embroidery on Kastamonu cloths, the tulip from the Ottoman Istanbul, the sun figure found on the warrior dressings from the Mezopotamian empire, a piece of the Hittite Sun figure, the carnation garnishing tiles of Kütahya , mey, zurna, erbane (three traditional Turkish music instruments) his indispensible bağlama, a piano as a symbol of his universal music perspective, miniature Mardin houses as the symbols of the geography and the general silhoutte of his native region, the imitation of Tower of Galata and houses of Galata as a souvenir from the city of Istanbul which was the place he used to live and create and he was forced to leave, his favorite flower “snowdrops” which can only live on the Anatolian territories, on the rocks and high places and blossom as the harbinger of the spring), then, we could have given him back his smile that we know very well. And perhaps, if no artists,no singers, no human beings are lynched just because they wish to sing a song in their mother tongues, nowhere in the world, any more, it would relieve him out of his sorrow arising from what he had been through… He will now be warmed by the Mezopotamian sun above him. His songs will not be silent of course.
Never again, with the aspiration of a country where nobody is shot through his identity;
In a peace of mind to entrust Ahmet Kaya to the safe custody of the justice of life and history...
“I’m suffering undescribable pain
The sun set in this alien land, with me, seeking for the wind
I’m under the rain, far from my homeland
It’s evening now, the exile keeps quiet…”