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Prominent American thinker and linguist Noam Chomsky expressed his support and solidarity for Kurdish singer Nûdem Durak who’s been jailed in Turkey since 2015, and called for her release.
He wrote on Twitter on Wednesday:
“It would be very welcome news if the case of Nudem Durak were reopened. Her sentencing was a gross miscarriage of justice. She had been engaged in an honorable nonviolent endeavor through her art to support the long struggle of the Kurdish people for recognition of their rights and their just demands. She should be honored for her dedicated and courageous work, not punished. I hope and trust that she will be freed and permitted, in fact encouraged, to go on with her work and life.”
Nûdem Durak was sentenced to 19 years in prison over ‘membership of a terrorist group’ and ‘propaganda for a terrorist group’ after she’d been indicted and faced court for performing songs of political nature.
Durak started singing around the age of 12 and bought her first guitar by selling her mother’s wedding ring. She worked as a music teacher in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority city of Cizre (Cizîr) at the Mem u Zin Cultural Centre.
She was first detained in 2009 and spent several months in custody waiting for trial. After the trial began, she was released, pending the court decision. In April 2012, she was retaken into custody for a period of time, and in 2015 arrested and incarcerated upon the decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court to uphold the court ruling.
Recently, Roger Waters also called in February for the release of Durak, sharing a video of support on his Twitter page.
