ISTANBUL, — Kurdish singer Aynur was heavily attacked while performing at the 18th Istanbul Jazz Festival. The singer had just begun to sing in Kurdish when a group of people started to insult her and throw things on the stage to protest against the death of 13 Turkish soldiers on Thursday.
Other people started to sing the Turkish national anthem as chaos spread. The organizers of the festival, Istanbul Cultural Foundation, took the stage and said that music is a universal language.
A group of people started to chant slogans like “Long live the brotherhood of peoples”. At that point Aynur was forced to live the stage in order to avoid being physically harassed.
The security personnel then managed to single out the provokers while the crowd warmly called for Aynur to take to the stage again.