Gendarmerie arrest Syrian singer Omar Souleyman in Urfa

Syrian singer Omar Souleyman has been arrested in his adoptive city, Urfa. What led to the arrest of the singer was an investigation into terrorist allegations. The authorities accuse the 55-year-old of being a member of a “terrorist organization”. In other words, he is accused of being a member of the People’s Defense Units (YPG).

The arrest took place on Wednesday morning as part of a raid by the Turkish military police (gendarmerie) on the singer’s apartment in the Pira Reş district (Karaköprü). Omar Souleyman was taken to the provincial gendarmerie headquarters in Urfa after the house raid. Until last night there was still no information available about the exact charges.

Omar Souleyman is an Arab and was born in 1966 in the western Kurdish city of Serêkaniyê in northern Syria. The trained bricklayer has been active as a wedding singer since 1994 and is one of the best-known representatives of the Dabke sound, wedding music in the Levant. He sings mainly about love and heartbroken lovers. He sings many of his songs in Kurdish. Most of his over 500 records that have appeared so far are bootlegs.

Omar Souleyman has lived in North Kurdistan for around ten years, mainly in Urfa. The province is directly across from his native Serêkaniyê, which has been occupied by Turkey and its jihadist allies in October 2019. Omar Souleyman left in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian crisis. He earns his living with a bakery that he runs in Urfa.