100th Anniversary of Turkish Secular State

Hackney and Haringey in the 1980s and 1990s were home to many exiled artists, writersand intellectuals, persona non grata in their own country, and we involved them (and the wider community) in several milestone projects. Among them was a great baglama (saz) player and teacher Cemal Akkiraz. Through Cemal we met, worked with and recorded with his sister Sabahat Akkiraz, a best-selling singer who had remained in Turkey. She was later an MP for the Republican People’s Party for several years.

We were delighted therefore to receive this message from Sabahat on the occasion of this significant centenary:

“First of all, thank you very much for your sensitivity regarding the 100th anniversary of our republic. We had built a bridge between western culture and our republic through our joint projects with you. The existence of these bridges is very important for the development and strengthening of our republic and our way of life. I would like to thank the Grand Union musicians and community who contributed to this. We must also strive to build new bridges and come together for peace in the future. I embrace you all and send my love”

Tony Haynes writes about our collaboration with Sabahat in this Blog Post Echoes from Anatolia. Tony has a close family connection with Turkey too: his late brother-in-law Cengiz Saner was a fine actor, mime and director who produced many of the Grand Union’s large- scale stage shows; and in The Voice of Anatolia you can read more about Sabahat and Cemal themselves.

It’s good that 40 years on we seem to have come full circle, collaborating now with another fine Anatolian singer Bingul Adan, baglama maestro Firat Kaya and Hasret Community Arts, also in North London!

Here is a video link to Göç Göç Oldu Göçler - a song from Anatolia, sung by Turkish singer Günes Cerit, accompanying herself on baglama (an instrument from the saz family). From Undream'd Shores at the Hackney Empire Theatre, London. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suELCniO-60