Statue of famous folk singer vandalized
KIRŞEHİR - İhlas News Agency
The statue of Neşet Ertaş, a legendary folk singer and poet, who died in 2012, has been attacked in the Central Anatolian province of Kırşehir.
While it has not yet been determined who attacked the statue, the police launched a large-scale investigation into the incident.
The people in Kırşehir’s Kaman district demanded that the bust be removed and taken to a safe area as some parts of it shed after the attack.
The bust of Ertaş, known as a “halk ozanı,” meaning means “folk poet,” which was placed in the district square by the former mayor, was temporarily removed during the construction of the new building of the municipality.
After the local elections, the bust was placed in the Sarıuşağı neighborhood, known as the place where the “abdals,” a name referred to groups dealing with music in his hometown, live.
The singer was born in 1938 in Kırtıllar, a village in the Central Anatolian province of Kırşehir, to his folk poet father, Muharrem Ertaş, and mother, Döne Koç.
Fondly remembered as “bozkırın tezenesi” (voice of prairie), “türkülerin babası” (father of songs), “Anadolu efsanesi” (legend of Anatolia), and abdal müzisyen (wandering dervish musician), Ertaş died in 2012 in the western province of İzmir at the age of 74 after battling cancer.
