Kurdish musician Nûdem Durak was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and sentenced to 19 years imprisonment. Her only crime was to sing songs in Kurdish, her native language. The now 32-year-old musician is jailed in Bayburt Prison.

 

In order to ensure Durak's release, an international campaign has been launched in France, involving artists and intellectuals from England, the US, Sweden, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Guadeloupe and other countries.

 

According to the organizers, internationally known personalities such as Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Ken Loach, David Graeber, Peter Gabriel and Roger Waters are demanding the release of Nûdem Durak. In a message of solidarity, the French-Brazilian eco-socialist philosopher Michael Löwy writes: "Her songs are part of the tradition of the oppressed and the Kurdish tradition preserved over centuries. For those who still believe in peace, freedom and human dignity, the imprisonment of Nûdem Durak is an unbearable insult. Therefore, an outcry must be raised throughout the world, in Paris, New York, Rio, Santiago, Berlin."

 

French poet Delphine Durand has written a poem for Nûdem Durak. Durand, who has written poems for Kurdish politician Hevrîn Xelef, who was murdered last October in northern Syria by Islamist proxies backed by Turkey, and for the political prisoners in Amed (Diyarbakir), also calls for solidarity with female prisoners in various places around the world.

 

Chilean author and filmmaker Carmen Castillo, who has lived in France since 1976, writes in a message: "You sing songs, Nûdem, in Kurdish. That is a language I do not understand. Nevertheless, for the last few days I have been experiencing each song as a holistic experience. It's about our freedom. No government, no wall, no guardian can stop this miracle: Your voice makes the distance disappear."

 

The campaign is being run under the title "Free Nûdem Durak" on various social networks and can be reached through the links below:

 

http://www.kedistan.net/category/eclairages/dossier-special-nudem-durak/?fbclid=IwAR1vRTAB8-cKTC44uVQKzkzDXBGipNTUpnI_sXUWf9inUoiyrsLu_FZ6miQ

 

• Facebook @nudemdurak

https://www.facebook.com/nudemdurak/

• Twitter @NudemDurak

https://twitter.com/NudemDurak

• Instagram @freenudemdurak

https://www.instagram.com/freenudemdurak/

• Youtube Free Nûdem Durak

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB3DR_IrxHNjX4pvz5li7UA/