Kâzım Koyuncu

Who was Kâzım Koyuncu?

Kâzım Koyuncu was a Turkish singer-songwriter, and activist of Laz ethnicity.

Koyuncu recorded songs in a number of languages spoken along the northeastern Black Sea coast of Turkey, as well as the language of Laz. He was the founder and singer of Zuğaşi Berepe, a folk rock group founded in 1993. Following the group's break-up in 2000, Koyuncu went on to record two solo albums, Viya! in 2001 and Hayde in 2004, which proved to be popular across Turkey and also in Georgia.

He died during treatment for lung cancer in 2005. Although strongly denied by Health Minister Recep Akdağ, it is popularly thought that the Chernobyl disaster was the cause of Koyuncu's cancer, a sentiment shared by many locals on Turkey's Black Sea coast.

Although he primarily sang in Turkish, he is most famous for having sung in Lazuri. His albums also contain several songs in Armenian, Homshetsi, Georgian and Megrelian.

He fought for nature and was against the construction of a nuclear reactor at Sinop on the northern Black Sea coast of Turkey. He was a well-known activist in environmental and cultural issues.