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KT Report:
Civilizations Choir of Antakya
The Civilizations Choir of Antakya has been forced to cancel a special performance for the Turkish parliament on Wednesday due to objections that it was going to sing one song in Kurdish.
The performance was meant to celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish parliament on 23rd April. The choir, which has toured the world promoting tolerance through its multicultural and multilingual songs, had been preparing for three months, reports Hurriyet Daily News.
The Kurdish song was one of seven songs chosen to represent the seven regions of Turkey. Choir director Yılmaz Özfırat said: “These seven songs were added to our repertoire for the first time, we were working on them together. There are Kurdish, Zazaki and Arabic songs”.
“We are not professional musicians; we are priests, imams, teachers, doctors, Alevis, Sunnis, Catholics, Armenians, Jews – in short, we are citizens of the Turkish Republic and we represent our culture of coexistence,” he said.
“Before the opening process began, we said that ‘if we don’t do something for our brothers, somebody else will.’ We duly added Kurdish songs to our repertoire. There are no Kurds in our choir, but we learned Kurdish.”
Of the ban of a Kurdish song, he said: “This is disappointing for us …We were surprised when they said we couldn’t do it”.
