Hozan Canê

Hozan Canê is a German-Kurdish singer.

She was born Saide Inac in 1971 in Karayazı, in Erzurum province. As a girl, she listened to broadcasts by Kurdish radio in Yerevan and was influenced by Ayşe Şan and Meryem Xan. She studied singing at  the Arif Sag music school with Ferqîn Şiyar and Kazim Bora.

During the repressive 1980s and 1990s, Canê was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured by Turkish police. In 1991 she was arrested in a concert in Van and imprisoned for nine months.  She was assaulted and shot three times by unknown gunmen after attending a concert for the Democracy Party.

In the wake of these incidents, she fled Turkey and found refuge in Germany. She lived in Cologne and became a naturalized German citizen.

In the next years she worked with the Akademiya Cand û Hunera Kurdî (Academy of Kurdish Culture and Arts) and  released several albums, among them Lê lê lê Dayê; Hozanê Kurdî; Eşqa Welat; Wezîrê Min; Dîlana Dila; and Vegere.

In 2017, Canê in a video criticized the imprisonment of HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş, saying, “We condemn the mentality that calls the will of 6 million people ‘terrorist.'”

In 2018, ahead of national elections, she performed at campaign rallies for the HDP in Edirne province, near where Demirtaş was and is imprisoned for “terrorism.” On June 22 she herself was arrested for “membership in a terrorist organization.” Among the evidence against her: a made a film that was said to be terrorist propaganda. The film, The 74th Genocide in Sinjar, was about the 2014 genocide of Yazidis by ISIS in Shingal. Canê directed it and played the lead role. A social media post about it showed a still from the film, in which she is apparently standing with Kurdish fighters and holding a weapon. Hence her “membership of a terrorist organization.”

 That November 14, Canê was convicted and sentenced to six years and three months in prison. She was detained in the women’s prison in Istanbul’s Bakirköy district.

On September 30, 2020, a court ordered her released, finding her prison sentence disproportionate. But she was not allowed to leave Turkey. Her daughter Gönül Örs is also accused of terrorism.

On October 18, 2021, a court in Edirne sentenced Canê to three years, one month, and 15 days in prison for allegedly supporting the PKK in her Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Sources: Deutsche Welle and Wikipedia. Photos from Wikipedia and Hozan Canê’s Facebook page.