Zaman, Turkey
Aug 15 2004

Armenians Tune into Tarkan, Arabs Sibel Can

Turkish songs are quite the rage in Halep, Syria’s second largest
city.

Savt-ul Suleymaniye/The Sound of Suleymaniye is a unique music store
that has been selling Turkish music in Halep’s Armenian Suleymaniye
district since 1976. When compared to the Turkmen districts of Halep,
the streets of Suleymaniye are modern and clean. It is as we were
walking down these streets that we happened up a music store covered
with posters of Turkish singers such as Tarkan, Sibel Can, and Nazan
Oncel.

Turkmen courier Fadi guessed that the owner is Turkmen; so it must be
in one of the villages near Kilis. We entered the small store and
were greeted by CDs and cassettes stacked to the ceiling. Whatever
you could possibly want, the store has. Gülden Karaböcek, Zeki Müren,
Emel Sayýn, Ümit Besen, Müslüm Gürses, Candan Erçetin, Tarkan, and
Davut Güloðlu to name a few.

Arab singers frequent Savt-ul Suleymaniye. Lebanese singer Iyad Sakar
reportedly asked the store to send a Serdar Ortac album to Beirut two
days ago.

Many Arab singers such as Sakar translate the Turkish songs they like
into Arabic. The Turkmen owner has an order list in front of him. An
Armenian planning to visit his daughter in America ordered 23 Turkish
albums. The owner, who enjoys introducing Turkish music to the
country, said, “I have lots to do, such as packing these after
copying.”