Nizamettin Ariç

Nizamettin Ariç — Biography

Nizamettin Ariç, born in 1956 in Ağrı, is a Kurdish musician, composer and director. He grew up immersed in the traditional dengbêj singing style, and from 1976 performed for Ankara Radio, though until 1980 he worked mainly as a singer of Turkish folk songs, several of which he had personally translated from Kurdish. In 1979, he was arrested on a propaganda charge after performing a Kurdish-language love song during a hometown concert in Ağrı; facing a lengthy prison sentence, he fled to Germany, where he has lived in Berlin ever since. Recording under the pen name Feqiyê Teyra, he became an influential figure for musicians back in Turkey, notably the group Kardeş Türküler. His film A Song for Beko is regarded as one of the earliest Kurdish-language feature films and has received more than fifteen international awards.