During the 1990s it was dangerous in Turkey to sing or own recordings of the melancholic songs of Kurdish poet and singer Sivan Perwer.

His army of fans in southeastern Kurdistan risked prosecution listening to bootleg tapes of his melodies about Kurdish identity, love and loss, often accompanied by a lute.

Now aged 57, he has been back to Turkey for a brief visit after some four decades in self-imposed exile in Germany, hoping to convince Western powers that the cause of Kurdish nationalism is like the struggle in South Africa against apartheid.

"This issue needs to be taken very seriously, and, like the many other political and human right issues in the world, it should be discussed in the same way as Palestine, the Basques, Quebec, South Africa apartheid or any other political issue," Perwer told Reuters in an emailed response sent from Arbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.