The Emperor: İbrahim Tatlıses, now fighting for his life. (Wikimedia Commons)
In the scheme of things Middle Eastern, the shooting of a crooner in an Istanbul drive-by may be more fitting for an Orhan Pamuk novel than newsy note outside of Turkey. But Ibrahim Tatlises is not just any crooner. He is the equivalent of Turkey's Frank Sinatra. And not just Turkey, where he has millions of fans. They love him in Greece, too, and in the rest of the Middle East. They especially love him in all places Kurdish, since he is himself a Kurd.
Tatlises (the name means "sweet voice") was shot in the head by unidentified gunmen wielding AK-47s on March 12. The shooting has gripped Turkey since. The man the country calls The Emperor is not just a singer. He owns restaurants, construction concerns, his has his own bus line. There's been talk of the murder being reprisals over a sour deal in Iraq. There was also talk about him being targeted by Kurdish separatists, who don't like it when Kurds in Turkey (about 8 million of the population) get cozy with the establishment. Whatever the case may be, this is the sort of man who commands a visit from the prime minister to his hospital bed: A week after the shooting, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan was at the Emperor's bedside, paying his respects.
Ten days ago, Turkish police raided 40 addresses and arrested 20 people after people's cell and land phones were tapped (turkey has rather lax laws on that sort of thing). The Kalashnikov used in the shooting was allegedly found at the home of the shootist's girlfriend: Abdullah Ucmak was a former aide to an ex-manager of Tatlises. "We have more than enough evidence directly linking Abdullah Ucmak to the incident," Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the governor of Istanbul, told reporters. "All those who were in the car used in the attack have been arrested."
The vendetta goes back to the 1990s. The National summed up the case this way: "According to press reports, Mr Ucmak used to work as an aide to Hasan Bora, who managed Tatlises in the 1990s. Shortly after Mr Bora and Tatlises parted ways in 1998, the manager's office in Istanbul was attacked by gunmen. Mr Ucmak was injured in the attack, which he blamed on Tatlises, and he vowed to take revenge. "His blood has to flow as well," the daily Radikal newspaper quoted Mr Ucmak as telling a television interviewer in 1998. Asked when the feud would end, Mr Ucmak replied: "Only God knows that. It will go on until the blood of Ibrahim Tatlises flows." Mr Ucmak reportedly received monetary compensation from Tatlises after the office attack, but was not satisfied with the amount."
Tatlises' name would elicit nothing more than bemusement in most western circles. But western circles aren't the standard of who matters and who doesn't, let alone what matters. Google Ibrahim Tatlises, and you get almost 24 million results--one result for every three people in Turkey. He's all over YouTube, too. Check him out. The least we can do is wish him well.
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