Turkish singer Jiyan was arrested and jailed on June 18, 2018 after singing lyrics that used the word “Kurdistan” during a concert in support of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) held in the Kurdish province of Agri. She has since been charged with “creating propaganda for a terrorist organization.”

Jiyan, the Kurdish frontwoman for the band Rosîda, was supporting the HDP—an opposition party challenging President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP)—ahead of national elections held on June 24. Her lyrical references to Kurdistan ran afoul of regional law enforcement, who also detained one of the event’s presenters, Ali Umran Daskaya, for saluting “martyrs of democracy.” Authorities present at the event took this phrase as a reference to the hundreds of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels killed in a now decades-long conflict with the Turkish government. Daskaya was charged with the same propaganda-related accusation, but regional authorities decided to conditionally release him.

The PKK is regarded as terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States, but the pro-Kurdish HDP—for whom the event in question was campaigning—is not. At one point Erdoğan himself freely used the term Kurdistan to refer to the region comprising eastern Turkey as well as parts of Syria, Iraq, Armenia, and Iran. However, with the resumption of violent conflict in 2015 and following a wide crackdown on free speech since a failed 2016 coup aimed at Erdoğan himself, Kurdistan has again become a forbidden topic of discussion.

Jiyan was arrested after her song concluded, and was immediately transferred to a detention facility in the city of Patnos. Two days after her arrest, Jiyan appeared before a prosecutor who deemed her detention, pending trial, “necessary.” No date has yet been set.

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