He was born in 1957 in Malatya, Turkey, to a Kurdish family. Singer, poet, composer, and musician Ahmad Kaya moved to Istanbul with his family as a young man, dreaming of finding a different world due to poverty.
Kaya's father worked in a car showroom and washed cars. Seeing this attractive scene, Kaya promised himself to buy a car for his father when he grew up. Unfortunately, Kaya's wish never came true. His father died soon after.
In March of 1999, Kurdish artist Ahmet Kaya said at a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, attended by many journalists that he wanted to sing in Kurdish, and that his next album would contain a few Kurdish songs. Kaya also said that he was looking for a television station that would broadcast his Kurdish music videos.
Meanwhile, a number of the Turkish artists who attended the meeting, became angry with Ahmad Kaya's words, they could not hold themselves and attacked him there and called him a traitor.
Facing attacks and pressure from the Turkish people due to him wanting to sing in Kurdish, Kaya was later forced to leave Turkey and to move to France and he ultimately settled in Paris.
Ahmet Kaya had to move away from his country and loved ones because of the culture of oppression and chauvinism that existed in Turkey agaist the Kurdish movement.
However, he was able to keep the love and memory of the country in his heart and because of the pain of that love, on #16-11-2000#, he passed away in Paris, and he was buried there.[1]