Omer Zulfu Livaneli (b. 1946 Ilgin, Turkey) is a popular Turkish folk musician (singer and composer), a novelist, newspaper columnist and a film director who is highly popular since decades. He is also a prominent left-wing and liberal politician and was a member of the Turkish parliament for one term.He is most known for his fusion of Turkish folk music with contemporary music, in much the same way as Pete Seeger and his contemporaries in the United States. His collaborations with Mikis Theodorakis of Greece have been noted as a gesture of bringing together the two countries. Livaneli has been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 1996.Political lifeIn the 2002 Turkish elections, Livaneli was elected to the Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) as the Deputy for Istanbul from the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP). Livaneli resigned from the CHP in early 2005, however, in protest at "CHP's non-democratic and authoritarian system of politics", or as a result of the party congress of CHP which was held on January 29, 2005 where he run for the leadership, and had to step out from the race after seeing the results of the first stage of voting, as he suffered a heavy loss. Following his resignation from the party membership, Livaneli has continued in his position in the Grand National Assembly as an independent until the end of this term. He was not elected again.Livaneli is a daily contributor as a columnist in the newspaper Vatan.
