In 2017 Nudems guitar was destroyed in a nocturnal cell search. Her family was given the instrument as you can see in the picture. We can only imagine how hard it must be for Nudem to be without a guitar. That’s why we are already making plans to get her a new one!
We’re happy to share another song for Nudem with you! Hanic from Iran sings “Çiyaye me”.
And that’s what she wrote to us:
“I wish that Nudem hear my song. Right now I’m living in the dark pieces of my life and I understand her when she said I saw a guitar in my dreams. Or when she said I followed my dreams. When I knew about this girls story I went to my office’s WC and I cried and I couldn’t control my tears. And now even I’m not in the prison but I’m living in my own darkness and I just want to sing a song that Nudem feels me. I wish that Nudem feels me because I feel Nudem in my life.” – Hanic
Thank you very much, dear Hanic!
Dear friends:
I greet you with the pride and fire of freedom, the many colours of the flowers and the melodies and the faith in the beautiful days.
In prison, letters are the only way to contact us. No matter whether these consist only of paper and pencil and the description as a “letter” is so simple. For me it is not mediocre or ordinary. It is important and significant. I have received your loving, kind and precious letter.
Above all, it touches me that there are such sensitive and attentive people like you.
If people are thrown into jail for singing songs but these songs are still being heard outside, it means that it’s not the songs that are evil but the repressive mentality of the country they reside in. If they are disrespectful to art and the artist, then in my opinion they have no respect for anything.
Because I sang songs, they put me in prison. Because I play instruments, I was accused of “causing social activity” and therefore they confiscated my instruments. They can take everything from me, but never my language and my voice!
Knowing that such significant people like you are campaigning for me it gives me strength. For this reason, I want to thank you beautiful people very much.
So I remain with the hope that someday I can come together with such precious people like you in a free country and sing triumphant songs …
With a free soul and music notes, I greet you.
Nudem Durak
The “Song for Nudem Durak” by David Steffen & Stefan Steffen marked the start of our campaign. On Wednesday, December 13th, Stefan and Jan aka Elbe 3 presented a new interpretation of the title at our information event in the program of the “Tatort Kurdistan Café” at the Centro Sociale in Hamburg.
Here is the live-recording – thanks a lot, Stefan and Jan!
On Wednesday, December 13th, we held an information event on Nudem Durak at the Centro Sociale in Hamburg. The “Tatort Kurdistan Café” had invited us to present our campaign.
We reported on Nudem’s fate and her current state of adhesion and played some of her songs. The slides of the lecture can be found here.
Afterwards, the music group “Elbe 3” played the song that marked the beginning of our campaign: “Song for Nudem Durak”.
In another lecture we discussed the general oppression of the Kurdish culture in Turkey. The slides of the lecture including a detailed list of sources can be found here.
Another piece of live music followed: Claus Zimmermann presented his song “The Story of Nudem Durak”.
The event ended with some information about our campaign. We drew particular attention to our planned music event on 8 September 2018.
The money raised for Nudem Durak had a gratifying result. We would like to thank all donors!
Many thanks to the Centro Sociale, the Tatort Kurdistan Café and everyone who came to visit us!
My dear friends and dear music friends,
I heard that you created a website about me / my story. I would like to thank you very much for your appreciation and all the effort!
I wish I could look at your site and follow you online. Unfortunately, there is no Internet in prison.
Once again my sincere thank to each one of you.
There is one thing I would like to say: I miss the music very much!
In love
Nudem Durak
The G20 summit with participants such as Erdogan was not the only event happening on Saturday in Hamburg. According to the organisers more than 76,000 people took to the streets and attended the demonstration themed “Solidarity without borders instead of G20”. Among the protesters were many Kurdish activists. We were there too and talked to many people who were interested in Nudem’s story.
We are very excited to show to you “The Story of Nudem Durak” by Claus Zimmermann!
The recording was taken at our event on July 25. Thank you very much, dear Claus!
We’d really appreciate if you like the song and spread the word.
On Sunday June 25th we are hosting an event with live music and background information about Nudem Durak as well as the initiative “Song for Nudem Durak”. The event will take place at Hamburg’s Barmbek-Basch. The event is open for anyone who is interested and will start at 3 pm.
Here you can download the leaflet of the event (in german) and here is the link to the event on facebook.
For the first time in many months the family was able to visit Nudem Durak in her new prison. It took them 14 hours by car to travel the distance of 600 km from Kumcatı to Bayburt. Although her mother Hatice is not healthy, she went along with them. Here you can see her relatives taking a rest.
