Members of popular Turkish folk collective approach death on hunger strike
Turkey's iconic Grup Yorum has not been able to perform since 2016 and a number of its members have been jailed on dubious terror charges.
Throughout its 35-year existence, the folk music collective Grup Yorum has become one of the most iconic and popular groups of its kind in Turkey. With its rotating cast of members, they have played massive concerts throughout the country and abroad while enjoying consistently strong album sales.
The group's defiant left-wing stance has resulted in no small amount of persecution over the years, culminating in an outright ban of its concerts by the ruling Justice and Development Party, which has not allowed the band to perform since 2016, and has jailed a number of its members on dubious terror charges.
A cultural center linked to the group in the Istanbul neighborhood of Okmeydani has been raided more than 10 times in recent years, and Grup Yorum's instruments have been destroyed in the process.
The government claims that Grup Yorum is linked to the banned leftist militant group, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), which is officially designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
