Cem Karaca

Cem Karaca — Biography

Born Muhtar Cem Karaca on 5 April 1945 in the Bakırköy district of Istanbul, he was the son of theatre actor Mehmet Karaca, of Azerbaijani background, and performer Toto Karaca, of Armenian background, and was educated at Robert College. His musical career began in 1963 with the band Dinamitler and continued with Jaguarlar before he joined Apaşlar in 1967, taking second place in the Altın Mikrofon contest with the song Emrah. He formed Kardaşlar in 1969 and scored a hit with Dadaloğlu, then joined Moğollar in 1972 and wrote Namus Belası, before founding his own band, Dervişan, in 1974 to fuse Anatolian rock with progressive and political lyrics. In 1978 he released the rock opera Safinaz with the group Edirdahan. After moving to Germany for work in 1979, he was accused following the 1980 coup of separatist and Marxist-Leninist propaganda; a warrant was issued for his arrest and, in 1983, he was stripped of his Turkish citizenship, forcing a long period of exile. An amnesty from Prime Minister Turgut Özal allowed him to return in 1987, when he released the album Merhaba Gençler ve Her Zaman Genç Kalanlar. In his later years he turned toward religious themes, meeting Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and recording an album of his poetry in 2001. He died of a heart attack in Istanbul on 8 February 2004 and was buried at Karacaahmet Cemetery.