At a ceremony sponsored by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, 77-year-old singer and bassist Roger Waters, founder of the band Pink Floyd, was given an award for raising his voice in support of Palestinians in the face of Israeli oppression.
During the online ceremony on 18 June Waters spoke with Deputy Culture Minister Özgül Özkan Yavuz and said that Kurdish musician Nûdem Durak should be released.
“Please, President Erdoğan, I implore you. Look into the case of a young woman sentenced to 19 years incarceration for the crime of singing songs in her native tongue,” Waters said.
“Just do the right thing. Please, sir, pardon Nûdem Durak.”
“I know she is not a Palestinian, but she is a human being,” he added. “She is locked up and she should be set free.”
Roger Waters is part of an international campaign launched in support of the Kurdish musician Nûdem Durak, who was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
The campaign, launched in France to secure the release of the 32-year-old musician, is being waged with the support of artists and intellectuals from the UK, the USA, Sweden, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Guadeloupe and other countries.
Other internationally known personalities such as Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Ken Loach, David Graeber and Peter Gabriel have also called for the release of Nûdem Durak.
The campaign can be found under the title “Free Nûdem Durak” on various social networks including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.
