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On the way to Istanbul, in the area of Tunceli, you come across many troubadours and travelling singers. Carrying their guitars or their luths on their backs, they roam from one village to another. But wherever they go, they will keep in mind the songs of their childhood. In Turkey, whether we talk about music or food, every town has its own recipes that live on for generations.

Ahmet Aslan is back in his hometown, Tunceli (once named Dersim before turkification). Our paths cross as he was travelling towards Diyarbakır for his final tour date. Memories can be a burden, and going back home can be a sweet and sour experience, but Ahmet somehow had to come back.

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"My town is called Dersim. Over there, Turks, Kurds, Alevis and Armenians live together. I am half Kurdish and I speak a special dialect of the area called Zazaki."

"My childhood was sad. I wasn't allowed to speak my mother's tongue because of prohibition. The army were controlling us in the street or in our school."

"I never learnt my own language at school, and to this day, I can't really read nor write it. They only taught us Turkish."

"My songs somewhat express my memories of this horrible time..."

III. A song of melancholia

"Times have changed now" tells me Besime Sen, a Kurdish music specialist. "Fifteen years ago, nobody would have expected the government to open up its stance towards Kurdish culture". "But beware, some boundaries live on and the Kurds know there's a fine line. You can't say what you want, where you want, because tolerance towards Kurdish culture varies from one town to another in Turkey".

Ahmet can freely sing in Zazaki at venues in Diyarbakır, Dersim or Istanbul. During prohibition, like many other banned musicians of the time, he set out for Germany and lived in Cologne. Back in Turkey, the political label branded on Kurdish musicians remains a burden for Ahmet. In the Dersim area, singers are traditionally associated with writing subversive verse. Ahmet owns a different style. He wishes to explore inner peace through his own songs.

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"It's not all about choosing which music, which language to play or sing in. What truly matters is to share an emotion". Ahmet doesn't buy into the schemes and slogans of politics, he prefers expressing himself through sole sound purity. Once we finished chatting away, the silver haired man picks himself and his guitar up, and one farewell handshake later, he is back on the road.

Many miles still remain before reaching Istanbul. The sun sets over the pastel coloured mountains of Dersim.

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"I don't feel like learning more about this protest tradition because I have already lived in it. I want to try new instruments, new musical forms".

Ahmet shows me a photograph dating from the infamous 1937/1938 Dersim rebellion, where Turkish soldiers are surrounding local women and children.

The Dersim rebellion started when Zaza Kurdish tribal leaders protested the takeover of their lands by the Turkish state. The army crushed the insurgents, thousands of deaths followed, and the victims descendants are still counting their dead. To this day, they still fight for the massacre's recognition.

Those dark days are gone. But the singers haven't forgotten. The massacre was the inspirational genesis for new songs, new poems and many of Ahmet's own compositions refer to "Dersim 1937/1938".