Bergen

Throughout her successful yet brief career, Turkish pop singer Bergen became both one of the most celebrated pop singers of her generation and one of the most representative cases of violence against women in her native Turkey. Born Belgin Sarılmışer on July 15, 1958, in the city of Mersin, she began singing and playing mandolin during her primary school days in Ankara. After studying piano and cello for two years at the Ankara State Conservatory, she was forced to abandon her studies due to financial difficulties. In the late 70s, she relocated to Adana and took a job as a singer in a nightclub where she became romantically involved with a man named Halis Serbes. Upon finding out that Serbes was a violent man who was already married and had three children, Sarılmışer decided to return to Ankara and began performing under the moniker Bergen as a homage to the Norwegian city of the same name. Şikayetim Var, her studio debut, appeared in 1982. During this time, she also remarried Serbes but ended up filing for divorce shortly after. In October of that year, Bergen was thrown nitric acid on her face by an attacker hired by Serbes, resulting in loss of sight in her right eye and burns all over her body. Despite the physical damage inflicted by the attack, Bergen continued recording and performing, delivering several albums that enjoyed unparalelled popularity in Turkey, including Kardeşiz Kader (1983), Acıların Kadını (1986), Sevgimin Bedeli (1987), İstemiyorum (1988), and Yıllar Affetmez (1989), which contained the massive hit "Seni Kalbimden Kovdum." Her burgeoning career was tragically cut short after Halis Serbes shot and killer her on August 14, 1989. In 2022, her life was the subject of the biopic Bergen, with Farah Zeynep Abdullah playing the lead role.