A few days after a city council in Turkey announced a ban on famous Kurdish musician Aynur Doğan’s concert, a city governorate announced on Monday another ban on a concert by Metin and Kemal Kahraman, sibling musicians who perform songs in Kurdish and Turkish.
The brothers said in a press statement that they were verbally informed about the ban by the governorate of Muş (Mûş) only one day before the concert due to be held on 17 May.
They were told that they would receive a written order the next day.
The Kahraman brothers said that tickets were sold and that they had already paid out many expenditures for the concert so it appeared to them that the ban was issued with the intent to cause financial loss.
Speaking to Megafon TV on Youtube, Kemal Kahraman said that the governorate issued no justification for the ban.
He added:
“Although the bans are felt much more by Kurdish and Zazaki musicians, and by those of various ethnic origins, the political administration’s policy in this issue does not target only musicians. They have an ideological problem around music, musicians and stage performances in general.”
He noted that while all measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemics have recently been lifted in Turkey, the ban on music performances in evening hours remained in place.
“This is a cheap move by the administration to make the ban on music performances permanent,” he said.
