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19 octobre 2004

The Istanbul Concert of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from Yerevan, October 15, 2004

The Armenian community and their friends were treated to a wonderful concert in Istanbul Friday night at the spectacular Lutfi Kirdar Concert Hall overlooking the Bosphorous. The two hour concert was presented by the 160 member of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra and State Chorus directed by the Istanbul born Ohannes Cekicyan.

This was the first concert of the Orchestra in Istanbul staged as part of the 30th anniversary of the Armenian Sahakyan School under the sponsorship of the Municipality of Sisli. The colorful Mayor of Sisli, Mustafa Sarigul, was also present who received a present along with others who contributed to the realization of the concert.

The concert opened with the ’’Prologue’’ of Dikranyan’s ’’Anus’’ opera and ended with pieces from the ’’Leblebici’’ opera of Cuhaciyan. In between, the orchestra presented the finale of ’’Carmina Burana’’, Haendel’s ’’Messiah’’ and Mozart’s the sad ’’Requiem’’, among others with the beautiful singing by the members of the chorus. Some one among the 2,000 or so audience yelled in Armenian, which the person next to me translated, ’’Bravo Cekic.’’

The opening statements were in Armenian, followed by Turkish translation and everyone around me was speaking Armenian. No one was complaining or protesting. A colorful brochure was distributed on the program with a beautiful photograph of Ataturk in the inside cover with one of his sayings : ’’ A nation without art is like having one of its life arteries missing.’’

In 2000, another concert was presented by a different group from Armenia, the Armenian State Folk Dancers, directed by Suren Cancuryan. The beautiful concert where many of the folk dances were if they were performed by Turks was sponsored by the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council.

These are positive developments which many feel will bring the two people together and convince their government to take the right decisions to eliminate the never ending frictions. There was no mention of the ’’Mythical genocide’’ before or after the concert, which has no place in the Armenian Constitution and must be removed.

Another effort by a group of Armenian and Turkish women who just published the first issue of a new magazine, WM Women’s Magazine, in Turkish, Armenian and English, is also a development of worthy praise.

Yuksel Oktay, Civil Engineer