Rahmi Saltuk

Rahmi Saltuk — Biography

Rahmi Saltuk was born in 1945 in the village of Akören, in the Hozat district of Tunceli, and completed his early schooling there before finishing high school in Balıkesir and Elazığ. He went on to study law, first at Istanbul University and later at Ankara University, graduating in 1978, yet he never practiced as a lawyer, devoting himself instead to music.

A veteran of Turkish folk music, Saltuk became known for his distinctive interpretations of traditional türküler and a resonant voice often compared to that of Ruhi Su. His 1989 album "Hoy Nare" was notable as the first Kurdish-language record to receive approval from Turkey's Ministry of Culture, though the approval was withdrawn only weeks later and not reinstated until 1992.

Saltuk also built a career on stage and screen. He appeared in Güneş Karabuda's 1973 film "Bebek" and starred opposite Hülya Koçyiğit in Şerif Gören's 1979 film "Almanya Acı Vatan," playing the character Mahmut and composing the film's score. Between 1968 and 1970 he took the role of narrator-bard in the play "Pir Sultan Abdal," which was staged roughly 900 times across Turkey — a record in Turkish theater history — performing around fifteen türküler drawn largely from Pir Sultan Abdal's poetry.