Hello, you're listening to the witness podcast on the BBC World Service with me,

Chael Casapulu. Today we are taking you back to Turkey in February 1999

when a popular folk singer Ahmedkaya was awarded best musician of the year at the prestigious

Music magazine award in Istanbul.

The event turned out to be the beginning of the end of his career in Turkey.

All because he wanted to sing in Kurdish, the language of his ancestors.

I've been speaking to Ahmed Kaya's wife who was present at the award ceremony starting with a cocktail party followed by dinner and then the awards.

Very cheerful ceremony in an utterly cheek hole with lots of cheek ladies and gentlemen.

But moments after Ahmed Kaya received his award,

he began to make an announcement,

clutching his figuring in one hand

and his mic in the other.

It was a turning point not just in that evening,

but in his whole career.

Because I'm of Kurdish origin I will sing a Kurdish song on my next album

I will make a music video for this song. I know there are brave television stations

that will air this music video. If they don't air it, I don't

know how they will justify themselves to the Turkish public."

Immediately the mood changed in the hall.

His wife Guiltan Kaya remembers the hostile response from the celebrities at the ceremony.

All of a sudden all those sheik women and men they all turned into monsters

grabbing forks and knives and throwing them at us. Insulting, booing,

...