Hasret Gültekin

Who was Hasret Gültekin?

Hasret Gültekin was a Alevi musician and poet who was murdered, along with 37 other people, in the Sivas Province of Turkey when a fundemantalist Islamist mob set fire to the hotel at which he was staying.

He was born in the Han village of Sivas as the third child of Süleyman and Hacıhanım Gültekin. He started playing bağlama at the age of six and dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music. He completed his first album Gün Olaydı when he was only sixteen years old. In 1989, he demonstrated his mastery of the şelpe technique of bağlama on his second album Gece ile Gündüz Arasında. His third album Rüzgarın Kanatları was released in 1991. Later that year he married Yeter Gültekin. On July 2, 1993, he went to Sivas to take part in the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Festival alongside many other musicians, authors, poets and intellectuals. He died at the age of 21 during the arson attack on the Madimak Hotel where he was staying. His wife gave birth to their son, Roni Hasret Gültekin, three months after his death.