Tuncboyajyan joins voices with Kardes Turkuler

Today’s Zaman
June 26 2009
Turkey

Kardes Turkuler, a well-known folk music ensemble praised for its
wide repertoire of ethnic music compiled from throughout Anatolia,
is readying itself for a major concert next week in Istanbul.

The ensemble will be joined by internationally acclaimed
Turkish-Armenian avant-garde folk musician Arto Tuncboyacıyan and
famous Palestinian-British musician-radio broadcaster-activist Reem
Kelani in the Turkcell KuruceÅ~_me Arena next Tuesday.

Singer Fehmiye Celik and dancer Banu Acıkdeniz of KardeÅ~_ Turkuler,
joined by Tuncboyacıyan, shared their goals and intentions about the
concert in a news conference this week. "We want to send the message
that we want to live altogether with all our differences and that we
want freedom and peace," said Celik, pointing out that the concert
comes at a time of high expectations of a solution to the Kurdish
issue in Turkey. Noting the importance of bringing Tuncboyacıyan and
Kelani together on the same stage, Celik said: "We all know that the
Middle East needs peace. There’s no difference between Arab hostility
and anti-Semitism; both are dreadful. We wanted to create an occasion
to perform Arabic and Hebrew songs together on the same stage."

The first part of the concert will be called "Ä°stanbul with KardeÅ~_
Turkuler" in which the various aspects of city will be depicted
through songs, such as the many "identities, cultures and beliefs"
it houses, explained Celik. The second part will feature a selection
of songs from the wide-ranging repertoire of KardeÅ~_ Turkuler.

The June 30 concert will come just days after the release of two
new albums by the ensemble on Friday: one of them, "Kajar" (City),
is a collection of songs depicting the transformations in the lives
of Kurds and the second is "Gayrı İstanbul," a compilation of
Balkan songs. The ensemble, which has a history of over 15 years,
is set to start work on its upcoming album during the summer.

Living as a human being "They make me say that I’m an Armenian because
they leave me no other choice; they don’t see me as [solely] a human
being," complains Tuncboyacıyan about the imposing of ethnicities
in Turkey. Tuncboyacıyan, who launched his musical career in the US,
has many friends who are musicians in Turkey, but next week’s concert
with KardeÅ~_ Turkuler was the first offer of collaboration he had
received from Turkey, and the percussionist-singer says he is very
glad to work with the ensemble. "Nobody should look for a grudge and
hate inside me. It’s nonsense. I wasn’t brought up like that; I won’t
die like that either," says Tuncboyacıyan about his feelings toward
Turkish society as an Anatolian Armenian. "If I leave Turkey, I’ll
have to leave myself, too," says the 52-year-old Tuncboyacıyan during
an interview with Today’s Zaman following Wednesday’s news conference.

One of your albums was banned in Turkey. Why?

That was the album "Turkce Sözlu Hafif Anadolu Muzigi" (Soft Anatolian
Music) I released in 2000. The lyrics were promising lyrics. There
are so many issues [in Turkey], you know. … Nobody cares about your
heart, about your humanity, but they evaluate each other according to
what they wear, their headscarves or their religions or races. It’s
always us who create these. We attribute some features to God according
to ourselves. Religions have become business sectors; they have been
estranged from their essential meanings. That’s why, for me, my belief
has no difference to yours. Love, honesty, respect — these words all
have the same meanings in English, Turkish or in Arabic. My songs were
about all these. There is paranoia here: "Will people unite?" That’s
why there was a great pressure. Later on, they released my album. One
song was about humanity, another was about senectitude and one song
was about the black clouds — representing ideas — over Anatolia. I
can’t comprehend the reason why people prefer to live suffering. As
human beings, we create something, we attribute some values to that
and then we quarrel over it with each other.

How do you feel when people talk about your identity and the issues
between Turkey and Armenia?

If people are talking about these issues all the time, this shows how
underdeveloped they are. But someone has to speak out against these
so that the quarrel ends. I’m [seen as an] infidel here, a Turkish
fink in Armenia and a terrorist in the United States. I can’t live
merely as a human being. We are all born as human beings, then we
are all tagged, but those children are not born with tags. Why are
children born in Turkey, Armenia, Palestine and Israel enemies of
each other? Because we create the hostilities since we have interests
in it. Now that I’m here, journalists ask me about Armenia, Turkey,
about sensational issues. But I’m not living as an Armenian or a Turk;
I’m living as a human being. The other [aspects] are flavors. It’s
the same with girls who wear a headscarf. They are always excluded
because of their clothes. … Today, for example, people who damage
Islam the most are Muslims themselves because they are not sincere
with each other, they don’t have purity in themselves and they exploit
Islam. And other people use these people who damage Islam.

Maybe people need time to get over these kinds of ideas?

One day! The mentality has to change. What’s essential here [is that]
you have to accept the thing that you don’t like with respect. Because
quarrelling about land issues, like which place is ours, which
is yours, I’m not that kind of a person. We are not the owners of
these lands; these lands own us. … What I’m fighting against is the
mentality. In this Armenia-Turkey issue, when the mentality changes,
all these debates about borders, etc., will become irrational. That’s a
shame, isn’t it? It is as if we don’t have anything else to talk about;
everything has been solved, but the only problem is the headscarf. It’s
an opprobrium for me, evaluating people according to their clothes. I
even wrote a song about that.

So, this is why you are in this project with KardeÅ~_ Turkuler…

Yes, the message that they [KardeÅ~_ Turkuler] want to give to
humanity, their love, attracted me a lot because there’s no difference
among us. But if you are excluded, how will you be able to have the
feeling of belonging?

What are your future plans for this project?

This is not a project for me; it’s a beginning. This project in fact
interests all of us [citizens of Turkey] because it’s something that
all of us dream of. They [KardeÅ~_ Turkuler] started it. But I don’t
believe in coincidences; everything has a meaning. This is a beginning,
and I don’t want it to end.