![]() We say that we are an alternative and art can be done with the people for the benefit of the people. We make political music and we express it fearlessly. How important is politics to your music and how would you describe this?Īll music is political to one degree or another, whether consciously or not. We have a long history that goes from Pir Sultan to Vapstarov, from Victor Jara to Nazim Hikmet and many others. In this context, the joys and the pains of the people, the anger, everything that the people have lived through is what influences our work and shows us the direction of our work.įormally, we are influenced by our history, world history masters, learning from them and presenting them in our own way. It is a fact that we are obliged to tell the age we live in because we carry the mission of being the intellectuals of this country. All of our productions have a social basis. What are your musical and other influences? A lot of definitions are made, but the truth may be this: we make contemporary folk music. We always think about what we can do best and newest. We use different musical styles in every new period. What does that mean? Revolutionary means new. We have a revolutionary music style in the most general sense. And so, Grup Yorum began with four university students coming out of the darkness during the 1980 coup: our first album was called Siyrilip Gelen – which when translated to English roughly means to “come through.” How would you describe your style of music? “Who are they?” The question as often asked. In 1985, the singing of four university students was heard from a small room. In a period when theatres closed their curtains and the songs were silenced, Grup Yorum appeared in the Ortakoy Cultural Centre. While the revolutionaries were being tortured in prisons, there were not many opposition voices. ![]() Can you give us a little bit about the background of Grup Yorum - where, when and why did you form?Īfter the 1980 military coup there was a dark period. They are demanding an end to police raids, removal of Grup Yorum members from the Turkish state wanted list, an end to the ban on Grup Yorum concerts, the dropping of charges and release of all Grup Yorum members. ![]() More than 10 of the band members are in prison.įive of the band members are on an indefinite hunger strike with their health seriously ailing after 192 days. Six members of Grup Yorum have been placed on the Turkish state’s notorious “grey list” as wanted terrorists with a 300,000 Turkish lira bounty on their heads. Their 2016 event was cancelled at the last minute, their community centre has been raided by police eight times in the last two years and now at least 30 core members have been detained. Recently however the situation has worsened. This has included around 400 arrests and trials, the banning of concerts and other performances and the seizure by the police of their albums.ĭespite the repression they remain hugely popular among Turkish and Kurdish progressives, with hundreds of thousands turning out to their annual open air concerts, held up until 2015. During that time the collective has undergone an almost constant series of changes with its members targeted by the Turkish state because of their political stances. ![]() FORMED at an Istanbul university in 1985, Grup Yorum is one of Turkey’s best known bands.
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