- published: 15 Jan 2015
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Muhtar Cem Karaca (April 5, 1945 – February 8, 2004) was a prominent Turkish rock musician and one of the most important figures in the Anatolian rock movement. He is a graduate of Robert College.
He was the only child of Mehmet İbrahim Karaca, a theatre actor of Azerbaijani origin, and İrma Felekyan (Toto Karaca), a popular opera, theatre and movie actress of Armenian origin. His first group was called Dynamites and was a classic rock cover band. Later he joined Jaguars, an Elvis Presley cover band. In 1967, he started to write his own music, joining the band Apaşlar (The Rowdies), his first Turkish-language group. The same year, he participated in the Golden Microphone (Turkish: Altın Mikrofon) contest, a popular music contest in which he won second place with his song Emrah. In 1969, Karaca and bass-player Serhan Karabay left Apaşlar and started an original Anatolian group called Kardaşlar (The Brothers).
In 1972, Karaca joined the group Moğollar (The Mongols) and wrote one of his best-known songs, "Namus Belası". However, Cahit Berkay, the leader of Moğollar, wanted an international name for his band, and he left for France to take the group to the next level. Karaca, who wanted to continue his Anatolian beat sound, left Moğollar and started his own band Dervişan (Dervishes) in 1974. Karaca and Dervişan sang poetic and progressive songs.