Zülfü Livaneli
Ömer Zülfü Livanelioğlu (born 20 June 1946), better known as Zülfü Livaneli, is a Turkish musician, author, poet, and politician.
Livaneli was imprisoned several times following the 1971 Turkish military memorandum due to his political views, leading to his exile from Turkey in 1972. While in exile, he lived in several cities such as Stockholm, Paris, Athens, and New York City, where he met and collaborated with artists and intellectuals such as Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, James Baldwin, and Peter Ustinov. Livaneli returned to Turkey in 1984.
In 1995, UNESCO appointed him as a Goodwill Ambassador in recognition of his cultural works, political activities, and contributions to world peace. He resigned from this position in 2016 to protest against what he described as the damage by the Turkish State to the historic Kurdish Old Town of Diyarbakir.
Livaneli served as a member of the Grand National Assembly and as part of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
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