Balkans | The Turks of Western Thrace continue to keep their culture alive through classical Turkish music.

The Turks of Western Thrace try to keep their culture alive by performing classical Turkish music under the umbrella of the association they founded.

The Turks of Western Thrace, who see that keeping Turkish culture alive as the most important factor that maintains their presence here, play an important role in transmitting this culture from generation to generation with the associations they have created.

The Turkish Classical Music Choir, which was founded about 50 years ago in order to keep classical Turkish music, which is part of its culture, alive in Western Thrace, has started to function as the Association of Friends of Turkish Classical Music in August 2022.

The members of the association gather once a week in the hall of the Western Thrace Turkish Teachers’ Union (BTTÖB), on the wall of which are portraits of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and former Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, and try to maintain the spirit. Classical Turkish music is alive in Western Thrace, accompanied by tea sipped in waist-tight cups.

The artists of Western Thrace, who take the listeners on a journey through time with the most popular songs of Turkish classical music, highly regarded in every period, are highly appreciated especially with the concerts they organize in Turkey and the Balkan countries where the Turkish population lives.

In his statement to the AA reporter, Galip Galib, Chairman of the Association of Friends of Turkish Art Music, stated that the association’s goal is to keep Turkish classical music alive and popular in Western Thrace, and said that he joined the choir 60 years ago. since.

“We feel obligated to do something to keep the songs in our mother tongue alive”

“We feel obligated to do something to keep the songs in our mother tongue, which we hear from our parents and grandparents and listen to on the radio, alive,” said Ghalib. Use the phrase.

Recalling that when the choir was first established, Turkish songs were sung by participating in programs on local radios, Ghalib said that concerts were also organized with the Greek and Armenian communities living in the area.

Ghaleb said, “These concerts attracted a lot of interest. We thought we were on the right track. We were doing music as people living here together.” He said.

Emphasizing that the choir had been operating under the umbrella of the Union of Turkish Teachers of Western Thrace (BTTÖB) before becoming an association, Ghaleb stated that they decided to become an association after facing various difficulties.

Expressing their contact with many musical associations, Ghaleb said that the number of members in the choir sometimes reaches 40.

Ghaleb indicated that they performed successful concerts, especially in the Balkan countries inhabited by Turks, and that they were invited to perform a concert in Edirne and Kuchokavac in the coming days.

“Our associations have been closed because they contain a Turkish word”

Ghalib, in his assessment of the Greek state’s closure or prohibition of associations with a Turkic word in their names in Western Thrace, said:

We started our work under the Syndicate of Turkish Teachers in Western Thrace, but it was banned and closed because the name of the Syndicate had a Turkish word on it. Our associations were closed because there was a Turkish word in them, on the grounds that there were no Turks in Western Thrace, and we were only Muslims. These cases have been taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The cases we have heard about have been won, but Greece still does not show sensitivity on this issue. Our associations are still active, but not officially. They still stand with the efforts of our citizens.”

All members are volunteers in the choir.

One of the founders of the choir, Emine Tahsin, who was the vice-president and general secretary of the Union of Turkish Teachers in Western Thrace, said that all members participated in the choir voluntarily and that they gave concerts in many places, especially in Turkey and the Balkan countries.

Irfan Huseyin, whose main profession is architecture and plays the qanun in the choir, emphasized that he joined the band 50 years ago because of his interest in Turkish music, and said, “We had a high school teacher who played the qanun. At that time, I liked the sound of the qanun so much that That after years I became the owner of the law. I learned to play this instrument on my own without training. He said.

Hussein added that he is looking forward to the day the choir performs.

AA