JIVAN GASPARIAN PLAYS FOR TURKISH-ARMENIAN FRIENDSHIP
ARMENPRESS
Sep 7, 2007
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS; Back from another trip to Turkey
world-famous Armenian duduk player Jivan Gasparian lauded today in
Yerevan the Turkish audience for giving him a very warm welcome during
concerts in Istanbul and Ankara.
He said during a concert in Istanbul on September 1 that was dedicated
to the International Peace Day he shared the stage with a famous
Turkish saz player Yavuz Bingol.
Gasparian said that was his sixth concert in Turkey. The Istanbul
concert attracted 6,000 people including many foreigners. He dedicated
one of his performances to the prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Agos weekly, who was killed
earlier this year in Istanbul.
Gasparian said during an interview with a Turkish TV channel he
stressed that he does not deal with politics and represents only
Armenian music when playing abroad.
He said in response to a Turkish journalist’s question whether
the Armenian Diaspora organizations hamper normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relationships he said the Diaspora can not hamper
the friendship between Turkish and Armenian peoples. He further said
that their relations were deteriorated by the massacre of Armenians
in the Ottoman empire nearly a century ago.
Gasparian said he had also managed to record a musical piece with a
Turkish musician and play for a Turkish film about an earthquake.