> The universe begins ~14 billion years ago

> Billions upon billions of years go by and the particles released from the origin of the universe cool down and begin to float around one another

> Heavier particles / particle clusters attract more particles (due to gravity) and the clusters build up in pressure. Once pressures are high enough, particles begin to fuse and bring out a lot of energy. 

> This is how we got our Sun (and all other stars) which enabled there to be life on Earth.

> Speaking of Earth, we’re here now. It used to be very molten and hot. It cooled down and then rained bareeeessssss. This is how we got our oceans. A few hundreds of millions of years go by and then we get life from our oceans.

> Another few hundred million years allows this ocean life to evolve to land life. We then get land animals. Bam, humanity is born (after hundreds of millions of years again!!). Remember the molten Earth? It made mountains and valleys in the Middle East (Central Eurasia) as well! This is where my people come from.

> We exist for hundreds / thousands of years as descendants of Rêya Heqî / Alevism. Loads of good things happen, a bunch of bad things as well 🙁

> Family move to London and boom. Man’s just here now. We’re fuckin w/ grime, art, politics, bikes, and all things made of love and beauty frfr. I began drawing as a child, first drawing mountains.

> Growing up, I’d consistently draw as well as doing whatever else I was doing, and during my Art GCSEs is when I really began to fall in love with the process of art. It was during these lessons I began to love ink as a medium. Fast forward a few years to uni and I’m beginning to make custom shoes for myself and friends and this is where my doodle style began. 

> I wanted to begin testing my abilities as an artist and I realised I had never made a full piece practicing my patience and skill. And so in my attempt of doing just that, I created my first doodle piece. A few months later I created the colour bomb off of it. A few months after that, my stickers began selling internationally and a few of my prints found homes. I got reached out to by Tom and I jumped straight onto Fleet Studios with a shared aim with the team to make creativity as accessible as possible for people. Done some modelling, done some parties, etc. Man’s just here innit.

> ty for reading. longer version available on the other tab <3

So, obviously man is from Hackney “where we Hack Knees” – CEO of the Pow**** Posse, but how did we get here?

Well ~14 billion years ago, there was a big event that spawned our universe. Billions of years go by and the particles that were formed in this event kinda cool down and began to float around one another. Gravitational forces then begin to attract particles into clusters, and heavier clusters attracted more particles. The pressure in these clusters would grow and force particles to collide and fuse together. The energy released in these fusions is enormous and this is the process of how stars are created, from the sustained processes of nuclear fusion. This is how we got our Sun.

Within our solar system, most of the mass is held by our Sun (accounting for ~99% of the mass in our solar system), but there were some particles left over. These left over particles became our planets (and moons), with the heaviest being Jupiter.

Speaking of planets (and moons), we live on one. Our Earth is estimated to be born 4 billion years ago. Another planet similar to the size of Mars, named Thea, crashed into the Earth. The debris left in that collision became our Moon, and just like that the Earth and Moon were born.

The molten Earth was cooling down across a loooooong time, going through extreme temperature ranges. During the cooling process, our Earth saw a great period of rain in which created what we know as our oceans. From our oceans, life began and made its way onto land. For hundreds of millions of years, vegetation was all across the Earth, and one day little fishy friends from the ocean began to venture out onto the land.




Fast forward a few hundred million years of evolution, and Homosapiens (us) are now alive and thriving. We evolved to be in communities quite marvellously. We actually couldn’t do much on our own despite the ability we possess as individuals to grow to great capacities – no persons capacity can ever be unlocked alone. You may have heard that an individual is the most powerless unit within a society, and that’s because an individual can never leverage anything of their own. We were born to be in collectives and love. Truly a social species, humanity was born. And things were going well! Until they weren’t :(

But let me tell you about when things were well and how I came into the mix!



Remember that period I mentioned where the Earth was molten? Well once it cooled, mountains and valleys had formed with nutrient rich soil teeming with life. Regions of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East (read: Central Eurasia), contained practically everything and were amongst the most beautiful, abundant and intellectual regions of the world. As a result, our people were the most loving and giving, and it is reflected in all of our cultural practices <3.

My people lived via the way of nature, back when it was still possible. Our indigenous populations lived in harmony with all around them. Love and abundance was our normality.

It’s believed that around 5-6 thousand years ago, my ancestors got named by ancient Sumerians. They used the term ‘Kur’ to refer to us – their word for mountains, however there are other theories for where we got the term Kurd from. Indigenous to the Middle East and Caucus regions, my ancestors used to live in the beautiful mountain ranges of Kurdistan and Caucasia. 

I am Kurdish and (a small part) Armenian, but this is not the full picture. In fact the term Kurdish is oftentimes rejected by members of our community for reasons relating to modernity, g*nocide, trauma and assimilation projects we were forced to endure (more on that later). And so I am a Kurdish/Armenian descendant of Rêya Heqî. Some people know us by the term ‘Alevi’. No we are not Turkish (however a small population of Turkish Alevis exist). We are a distinct ethnoreligious group from the Caucus and Kurdish mountains. Our ways of life have been practiced for a few centuries minimum and we descend from one of the oldest indigenous groups on the planet. 

Another reason some of us, especially elders, have an aversion to the term Kurdish aside the fuckeries that occured is due to the fact that back then, was that we had never really drawn a distinction between genetic ethnic groups. A lot of us are Armenian too. People across Central Eurasia would come to and fro to our region and historically in Sêwas / Sivas, the silk road ran through it! Essentially, we didn’t operate by categorising different identity groups / ethnic groups in the same capacity that exists today, and so when the term Kurdish would be placed upon us as a monolithic identity, it wouldn’t readily be accepted. Some of us aren’t even Kurdish! However we are all Alevi :D. This line of thinking by my elders is understandable to me and I’m sure to many people of the global majority, makes bare sense considering all that has happened. 

We were key groups in our areas and would love to share and live. As Alevi’s, we became renowned for our ways of life and philosophy. But yes, as a matter of fact we are genetically Kurdish, Armenian, and more, and we still take great pride in these identities despite the past. No we are not Muslim, this is a colonial artif- nvm bro i’ll touch on this another time.

To be an Alevi, you must be born one or accepted as one. A lot of emphasis is placed onto our heritage and where we come from. We worship nature and our ancestry. Without these two forces in tandem there would be no mandem. 

Really and truly, all of our lives revolve back into the things nature provides to us and the steps taken by those before us. This is the view countless indigenous groups around the world have held, all with their own unique celebrations but all unified under love and care for those around them. We believe that we do not have the ‘right’ (haq) to impose, cause harm or live in a way detrimental to anything, especially living beings.
This manifests itself in a lot of ways, but I’ll name you three for now:

> We do not believe in the form of the body but rather the existence of the soul. Like many cultures globally, we had an awareness of our spirit and mental health (before colonialism went brrrr) and so we believe that the body is purely a home for a soul. This knowledge manifested itself in a community that would not disparage against gender, sexual orientation or looks in its highest form but unfortunately this view is getting increasingly lost within our communities. Lets bring it back please??!?!!11//1?

> We would have rituals known as ‘Cem’ (pronounced Jem (and no, it’s not Turkish (in fact this is another point I must get onto in the future)) in which all members of our villages would come together for matters of importance. We could not begin these until everyone spoke out their differences (if any) in front of the village, which should be seen as an extended family. The effect of speaking about personal issues in front of quite literally everyone that knew and loved you, from the young to the elderly, is how our culture survived orally for centuries.


Can you imagine how much easier it is to resolve issues with someone within the cradle of love and care from everyone that knows the both of you? This was and is how communities should be. To begin the ceremony, we would go through a door which we must show respect to for it to start.

> We only ate our own domesticated livestock when the seasons allowed for it. Our people would not hunt outside of these stocks as we saw it to be pointless killing of life. What for shall we hunt if everyone is already fed? We also had banging veggie and vegan options too as any groups who lived on land harmoniously would!

I’m still learning more and more about my background and identity. As I hope you go onto learn more about us, you’ll see just how difficult this process is made to be – but it’s not impossible and there is a lot I’ve excluded (still need to verify somethings hehe). Tbh most of the ‘turks’ u man know in London are not Turkish at all – but these are conversations and pains to be discussed another day.

As you can imagine, our people have suffered greatly as indigenous people in resource abundant regions. Where these riches were so common in our earth, our mountains and our fields, we’d walk all over it. The beauties of this Earth was made for everything upon it, humanity never had the right to claim it. For us, the greatest gift was life itself. A life in which food was about, water was fresh from the mountain streams and the kids knew nothing but play in our villages. Go a few villages over and the elders there would recognise your ancestry from a glimpse of your face. Our dede’s would travel all over in order to learn what they could from the world to bring it back to us. Such a peaceful and loving life, it is an incredible philosophy. 


The wider world didn’t think the same. Hell even some of us didn’t think the same. Some of our elders and ‘leaders’ would preach one way to the community and not practice what they say behind closed doors. 

A lot of bad stuff happened. A lot, but i’ll keep it brief. Let’s jump straight to the 1910s – 30s!

We would get murdered in our tens of thousands at a time by colonial powers. From Persia to Armenia to Turkey, our people were hunted down for our culture, knowledge and resources. We were amongst some of the first groups ‘Turkified’ in the assimilation projects set out by the Turkish empire at the time. Kurdish groups would also help these powers, including some Alevi groups who thought they were safe from what would eventually transpire.

Just to name one of the atrocities we faced, the father of chemical warfare – H****r’s right hand man would sell chemical weapons which would be used against us. How did they use them against us you ask?

Well u know how I mentioned we love life, the mountains, the Earth, etc? We used to pray in caves. They’re sacred places for us, within the mountains where we would go and pray for peace, prosperity and fertility from the Mother Earth.





In our retreat to mountains and caves for safety from our persecution, they would seal the ends and fill them with gas.




It hurts to think about.

Britain and France were also involved in our predicament :O (what a surprise amiright???) and as is the case for most places, colonial powers who colonise typically siphon the people they colonised back into their own regions. A lot of us came to the UK, Switzerland, France, Germany, etc. We came as ‘Turkish’ people fleeing instability as we weren’t given any routes to actually claim our identity. I mean fucking hell most of us can’t even speak our Mother’s tongue. A lot of us set up shop in London (shout out to Hackney, Dalston, Haringey, Enfield, Tottenham, and everywhere else I’m forgetting rn) under the guise of a Turkish identity. Why? Safety of course, but also remember that colonial powers receive a double win once they remove us. Once we assimilated as Turkish people, we would set up ‘Turkish’ restaurants, barbers, travel agencies, etc, only improving the stance of the colonial power who displaced us, giving them both social and economic gains whilst deepening the hole dug for our identity. 

I often think back to how our martyrs feel when they live on through us and see what things have become. I wonder if they understand why we move the way we do. Colonialism and Patriarchy came and did a number on our people, especially the women. But not all we experienced led to bad things, nor have we given up! Our people are some of the most resilient, intelligent and caring people on the planet (shoutout to all Alevi women out there (especially my sisters!!)) for continuing on no matter what has happened, and for supporting us to continue forth. We wouldn’t be here without you, not a single one of us <3.


We integrated into our diverse communities/the ends in London, and despite there being tensions (moretime systemic, not personal) between groups, we didn’t falter. We remained strong and adamant about our identity where we could, and would set up places of communion to meet up. We would share food with our neighbours, educate one another on backgrounds, and become friends with those surrounding us. Without these connections, I couldn’t be who I am today. From my love of Grime cause of the Alevi communities hearing and sharing it from the Black communities we lived with in Tottenham, through to my macro/micro perspectives due to the practices of my passed and living peoples. I am who I am because of everything that has happened. So who am I?

And I was born! 2002 will be marked in history (srry to anyone who felt old af reading that). As the youngest of 3 kids, some would argue I was born purely to be loud and annoying. Those would be my family members. Others know me to be a creative and slightly cool person. However, all people know I don’t stop chatting about politics — and if you’re curious as to why, everything is political!!

I began drawing from the second I could hold essentially, and my first memories of drawing are from when I was 4-5 years old at my Grandmother’s house. I was drawing mountains, I never knew why, although it took me growing up to realise why and where these drawings were coming from. Some would say it was innate within me hehe.

My interests in school was typical lowkey (or maybe im being judgy about myself who knows) which was mainly the sciences and arts. But when it came around time for sixth form is really when I could explore.

Studying Maths, Physics and Sociology really helped widen my eyes and changed me fundamentally I’d say. Especially sociology – typically boys are socialised away from studying subjects like this (I’d argue this socialisation is done on purpose) and with my ‘technical’ background, It was doubly not as expected. But it was with Sociology that I was finally given the tools I needed to break social elements down and understand things further. My studies of physics showed me that we are just specks of atoms in a universe, and yet here we still are with all of our complexities. I mean, just think about the beauty of an atom, let alone your existence. How lucky we got to exist together right?

Fast forward to KCL for uni studying CompSci. I had moved out during COVID (L move, wouldn’t recommend) and boy oh boy was I in for a treat. The accom I had lived in was filled with rich people. When I say rich, I’m chatting 9 figure bigotry. Having come from Hackney with the history of all things mentioned above, this was a completely new field for me. It was these experiences that lead me to learn so much about my identity and how I get perceived by people from backgrounds that have typically come from privilege. Often times the parents of these yutes were the same people that had a vested interest in keeping people from Hackney to Central Eurasia broke as fuck and so u can image. From a ‘man’ to a Middle Easterner, to being a Kurd, but more specifically an Alevi, and also being raised in class struggle, it was a difficult period as it is for most who come across such a reflective mirror and harsh systems of oppression. I really had to sit down and learn and see things in a wider picture. Having grown, I don’t think many people were expecting to be stuck inside a building 18-19 with a global pandemic during the time they thought they were gonna be living it up. I also don’t really harbour too much anger or pain towards most of those lot either – all young, silly and uninformed innit. There are actually much deeper problems in this world to worry about.

I didn’t stop creating during these years. I had been gifted an iPad from my dad (shoutout to him) to begin my digital drawing which I got into at 17 properly. Before that I had an Intuos tablet (RIP) and so that gift was a big transition and symbol of faith in me. I had studied art GCSE which compounded my love of art as a kid even though I almost stopped studying it (my mum convinced me to continue, shoutout to her). It was this period that made me fall in love with ink art as a young boy.
I got into making custom shoes for myself and friends a few years later, and this marked the beginning of my style of art with my doodles (s/o to the Doodle Forces, ifykyk). I would make my first doodles on paper, but began practicing renders on my iPad for customs.



In my second year of uni I really began to practice my patience as an artist. It was all well and good I was creating but I had never truly tested myself in creating a single piece. It took me 9 months but bam, the Doodle Piece was created. A few weeks pass and I make a coloured version to release on my birthday and I had no expectations on what was to come once I released them.

And my expectations were not this. People began to buy my stickers internationally, my friends would take them across Accra to the Alps. My pieces began to get hung in peoples homes. People I look up to recognising me for where I am/what I’ve done. You lot who show me the love and appreciation from my art. Since my pieces being sold, I got contacted by Tom for some advice on a new place he had been offered with his intention to make it a place for creatives. I then jumped into things deeper than anyone expected and off of that, I became one of 7 founders and Fleet Studios was born! I had been offered exhibitions for my art before, but I had rejected them as I had a feeling I could do something big for my first exhibition – which a few years later ended up with me curating a group exhibition highlight artists from London & the global majority in a gallery I helped found in the City of London at 21. Not bad for a yute from the ends ahlie.



As an artist now, I’m currently studying my own style, aiming to improve my techniques and trying to reach new heights. I want to open doors for more creatives from within the SWANA world and especially for us Alevis. I want myself and more of us to get into music, fashion, compsci, society and politics. Those man that try box us in are real haters. In a place where potential just means ‘this is what is possible of this person with them having the right support’, all of us have the ability to change the world, especially together if we help one another.

I believe creativity is innate in all of us, it is just made inaccessible to us by the same systems of power who remove us from our humanity. It is the duty of us living today to ensure the yutes of tomorrow can explore their creative self. Without the nurturing of the beauty that exists within us, we will not get anywhere. We as a whole will regress. And so those of us that are in a position where we can aid, support and supply that nurture has the requirement to help out. 

In a world which can be so painful and ruthless, love and care for others become revolutionary acts. This one world we all share is absolutely filled in abundance with pure beauty and blessings, and it is my appreciation and understanding of the beauty that exists which makes me as passionate as I am about everything.



There is no art without politics. There is no politics that doesn’t effect art.

There is a reason they kill the arts with systematic underfunding, a lack of care and gatekeeping. They even make kids think ‘why should I be an artist, it’s an awful career!’ – how sad is it that they’ve even got our kids, literal children and our futures, valuing their own creativity by how much money it will make them as an adult in these made up systems. 

Everything is made by design, and all design requires art. And if everything is made by design, then that means we, the people, have the power to change these systems for it to benefit us.
They convince us they we do not have this capacity for change — yet it is from us that these systems draw their power from so how can we sit by and think we are powerless? We can and will do better 🙂 <3

For any artists reading, stay independent to the T fam, and never remove the message from what ur doing. You got this even if the world tells you no. And if u don’t got this, well at least you’re breathing. And if you’re not breathing, I hope we meet again. 

Remember, 
Stay Safe and 3USALL 🙂
Love, Erdem