Turkey Erdogan’s fury, “Bella Ciao” spread by the mosques of Smirne
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Alaina
- . May 22, 2020
- . Update: May 22, 2020 10:41 am
Izmir the layman. Izmir “gavur”, the unfaithful, in the ardent criticism of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Smirne, Izmir in Turkish, is the only big city that never fell under Islamic conservatives. Here the sultan Erdogan’s party never won an election and confirmed itself as the black beast for the radical Muslim Brotherhood. A few days ago, in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan, instead of the adhan, the ritual call to Islamic prayer, several mosques in Smirne surprisingly spread the notes of the Italian song “Bella Ciao”.
Error or provocation? The words “O partisan, take me away”, although in the version “Cav Bella” adapted in the Turkish language, sounded like a colossal criticism to Erdogan’s regime, if not a real mockery. So much that provoked the reaction of the spokesman of the Islamic party, a former Turkish minister. People later realized that the Bella Ciao in Turkish was the one chanted by Grup Yorum, the folk band murdered last month by the hunger strike deaths of three of its members. The singer Helin Bolek, the bassist Ibrahim Gokcek, and the guitarist Mustafa Kocak. The three artists let themselves die after 300 days of voluntary fasting, after the Erdogan’s authorities banned them from performing in concert, on charges of links with terrorism.
Grup Yorum is a band born in the popular neighborhood of Istanbul, that most oppose Erdogan’s party. The members of the group said to be close to Marxism ideas. Strong participation was prevented to the funeral of the three artists, due to precautions for the pandemic COVID-19. Erdogan also arrested their lawyers, according to the procedures of his campaign of repression against his opponents.At the end of their concerts, Grup Yorum used to end the performance in a big hug with the audience, counting together Bella hello in Turkish. A song dear also to the Kurdish guerrillas both in Kobane, Syria, and in the PKK (the Workers Party of Kurdistan, the movement considered terrorist, for forty years fighting with the Ankara army). And so, the other night, many hands ended up replacing the sacred call to break the fast, with a song that, in the version sung by the Kurdish rebels, leads to arrest and prison in Turkey.
