Aynur Doğan was born in
Çemişgezek, a small mountain town in
Tunceli Province in
Turkey and fled to
Istanbul in 1992. She studied
saz and
türkü singing in an influential music school in Istanbul, the
Arif Sağ Müzik Okulu. She gained great popularity after releasing the albums 'Keça Kurdan' in 2004 and 'Nûpel' in 2005, and also won the hearts of Turkish listeners with the Kurdish song she sang in Yavûz Turgûl's film
Gönül Yarası (Kurdish:
Birîna Dil), in which she had a small role as herself. She gained great attention in the international press with her performance in the documentary film
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005) by
Fatih Akin. In 2010, Aynur released her album
Rewend on the
Sony Music label and shot a video clip for the song
Rewend in
Hasankeyf with famous director Fatih Akin. In July 2011, she was invited to perform for IKSV Jazz Festival, however her performance was cut short after the first song when a group in the audience started protesting and shouted at her to sing in Turkish. Following repeated threats by
anti-Kurdish Turkish nationalist groups, she relocated to
Amsterdam,
Netherlands in 2012. In 2014, Aynur joined Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on a trip to Istanbul, and their performance was featured in Oscar-winning director
Morgan Neville's documentary film
The Music of the Strangers. In 2015, she performed with Yo-Yo Ma at the film's premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival. (2014).
Joachim Gauck, president of Germany (centre) and
Hardy Krüger (right, dark glasses). == Awards And Recognition ==