Kâzım Koyuncu

Kâzım Koyuncu — Biography

Kâzım Koyuncu (November 7, 1971, Hopa, Artvin – June 25, 2005, Istanbul) was a Turkish musician, songwriter and environmental activist of Laz descent who forged a distinctive style blending eastern Black Sea and Laz folk music with rock.

After moving to Istanbul and playing in amateur rock bands in the early 1990s, Koyuncu co-founded the group Zuğaşi Berepe in 1994, which released the albums Va Mişkunan (1995) and İgzas (1998) before disbanding. Following military service he launched a solo career, releasing Viya! in 2001 and the commercially successful Hayde in 2004; his profile rose further in 2002 when he wrote the music for, and appeared in, the television series Gülbeyaz.

An outspoken environmentalist, Koyuncu opposed a planned nuclear power plant at Sinop and continued performing after being diagnosed with cancer in late 2004, giving his final concert at Karadeniz Technical University in 2005. He died in Istanbul on June 25, 2005, at the age of 33; some on Turkey's Black Sea coast have linked his illness to regional Chernobyl fallout, though this has not been officially confirmed. Known by the nickname "the poet in the jacket," Koyuncu's life became the subject of a feature film directed by Özcan Alper that entered production in 2026.