TURKISH LABEL TO RELEASE CD TITLED ‘MEDZ YEGHERN: 1915 ORATORIO’

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Jun 11, 2009

ISTANBUL-A music label in Turkey is preparing to release an album
by world-renowned Armenian composer Khacadur Avedisyan, titled Medz
Yeghern-1915 Oratorio, dedicated to the Armenian Genocide of 1915,
the Turkish Hurriyet Daily reported on Thursday.

"I have attempted to release the album in Turkey for many years,"
Hasan Saltuk, the owner of Kalan Music, told Hurriyet. "It was not
easy to reach the composer’s family. Also, there were no original
records of the album."

Saltuk accidentally found the original records during a trip to
Paris. With the help of a friend’s son from the Netherlands, Saltuk
reached Avedisyan’s son, Mikayel Avedisyan. He then encountered another
problem. The composer willed that the album should be released only
with the title "Genocide – 1915 Oratorio."

That would not have worked in Turkey, where it is illegal to describe
as Genocide the systematic massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by the
Ottoman Turkish government between 1915 and 1923. Saltuk said he was
able to persuade Avedisyan’s son to allow the album to be released
with the title "Medz Yeghern – 1915 Oratorio" rather than "Genocide –
1915 Oratorio."

"I was sued many times because we released music belonging to different
Anatolian ethnic cultures in their original languages," he said.

Khachadur Avedisyan was born in 1926 in Armenian’s second largest town,
Gyumri. At 25, he was the first Armenian artist to win gold medals at
international competitions in Berlin and Moscow. As well as classical
music, he worked on Armenian folk music and played traditional folk
instruments. He formed the folk music unit at the Gomidas National
Conservatory in Yerevan in 1978. He worked as the art director of
the National Dance Group and later for Tatul Altunyan Music and Dance
Group in 1958. He continued composing music at the same time.