SIBIL’S STRAINS ECHO ACROSS CITY AS TURKISH TV AIRS FIRST ARMENIAN MUSIC VIDEO
Hurriyet
May 26 2011
Turkey
The first Armenian music video is airing on Turkey’s leading music
channels and the state-run TRT. Well-known artists provided support
for artist Sibil Pektorosoglu’s album, which was released a few months
ago on the Ossi Music label. The Istanbul-born Armenian singer says
it was a dream to release her album and broadcast her music video on
Turkish TV
‘Namag’ (Letter) by Sibil Pektorosoglu, an Istanbul Armenian, has
been gaining mainstream popularity.
Turkey’s leading private music TV channels as well as the country’s
state-run broadcaster have broken new ground in airing the first
Armenian music video on popular stations in the nation’s history.
“Namag” (Letter) by Sibil Pektorosoglu, an Istanbul Armenian, has been
gaining mainstream popularity and can now be heard echoing from shops
along the city’s iconic Ä°stiklal Avenue. The lyrics were written by
master Armenian poet Hovhannes Å~^iraz while the singer’s music video
was produced by one of Turkey’s most famous directors in the field,
Ozkan Aksular.
Pektorosoglu said it was like a dream to release her album and
broadcast her music video on Turkish television. “When I hear my
songs on Ä°stiklal Avenue, I cry,” she recently told the Hurriyet
Daily News & Economic Review.
“Music is universal, it is above all identities. I can’t breathe
without singing; this is why this album is loved that much by my
listeners,” she said.
The song was the result of collaboration between Armenian and Turkish
artists, including Mercan Dede, an international star famous for mixing
Sufi music and ambient electronica, as well as Göksel Baktagir, a
master of the “kanun,” a zither-like stringed instrument. Released
on the Ossi Music label, the Pektorosoglu’s album was arranged by
Cenk TaÅ~_kan, an important figure on the Turkish pop music scene
for more than 40 years.
“I made the most of my 40-year experience for this album and it has
reached its goal,” TaÅ~_kan, who recently returned to Turkey on a
visit from his current home in Canada, told the Daily News. “I am
very pleased to be a part of this first-time work in Turkey, too.”
The works of TaÅ~_kan, who was one of the leading names in the revival
of Western-style Turkish pop music at the end of the 1960s and the
beginning of 1970s, have represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song
Contest many times.
Istanbul is inescapable
Even though he moved to Canada during the difficult aftermath of the
1980 coup, TaÅ~_kan said he often came to Istanbul and continued
working with Turkish artists, adding that he had created many new
grounds for the country’s pop music.
“Istanbul is my life, my everything; I can’t imagine a life without
it. I have even composed a song titled ‘Istanbul Istanbul,'”
TaÅ~_kan said.
Also an Istanbul Armenian, TaÅ~_kan’s real name is Majak ToÅ~_ikyan;
asked why he chose to use a Turkish name rather than his birth name,
he said: “Turkish artists, as well as many foreign artists, do not
use their own name. Changing my name does not mean that I have changed
my soul.”
Referring to events between the Turkish and Armenian people in the
past, TaÅ~_kan said: “We have lived together for thousands of years. As
a life philosophy, I’m interested in the future; it can remove the
traces of the past. It is necessary to open a new page. Otherwise,
even in 3050, people will still be talking about the same things.”
Addressing the arguments between Turkish and Armenian people as
to the artistic ownership of a number of Anatolian songs that are
now sung by both nations, TaÅ~_kan said: “We have been the people
of Anatolia for thousands of years. No nation has its own music;
instead the land has its own music.”