Helin Bölek

Helin Bölek — Biography

Helin Bölek was born on 5 June 1991 in Diyarbakır. Of Kurdish background, she was the lead vocalist and a member of Grup Yorum, a leftist Turkish folk music group founded in Istanbul in 1985 by students in response to the 1980 military coup.

Bölek undertook a prolonged hunger strike demanding the release of imprisoned bandmates and an end to the censorship of the group's songs. She died in Istanbul on 3 April 2020, on the 288th day of the strike. Her death drew wide coverage in Turkish and international media, and she has continued to be remembered in connection with both her music and her activism.