Composer Mikis Theodorakis dies at 96: 'I have lost a great friend in life and arts'
Musician Zülfü Livaneli, who founded the Turkish-Greek Friendship Association with Theodorakis in 1986, reflects on the passing away of "Zorba the Greek."
Composer, songwriter, activist and politician Mikos Theodorakis has passed away at the age of 96.
Having composed more than 1,000 songs, he was most renowned for the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning movie "Zorba the Greek."
His musical activities were always accompanied by his political struggle, especially against the Colonels' Junta, which made him a symbol of the worldwide anti-fascist resistance.
Musician and writer Zülfü Livaneli, who first met Theodorakis in 1983 and founded the Turkish-Greek Friendship Association with him in 1986, talked about the death of his long-time friend.
"I have lost a great friend in life and arts," he said. "My sorrow is deep. We met Mikis Theodorakis in 1983. He had come to our concert with Maria Farantouri in Athens. After becoming friends there, our lives continued like older and younger brothers. There are too many memories to tell.
"He had given his last concert together with me. It was in Berlin in 1997. We were on tour. He got sick there and had to cut the tour short.
"We founded the Turkish-Greek Friendship Association in 1986. It was very important. Aziz Nesin, Ekrem Akurgal and Zeynep Oral were also there. There were many important people from Athens as well.
"We visited political leaders at the time. [Turgut] Özal was the prime minister. We asked Özal to lift visas for Greek citizens. Visas were lifted at the time. The opposite side had given the same promise but they didn't do it.
"Now I'm preparing to go to the funeral. He couldn't move over the last years, he was always in bed. He would say to me, 'You'll come to see me once a month.' I did. He was in bed, but he would have Greek appetizers prepared for me even if he couldn't eat, he would offer me ouzo. A kind person..."
Comrades and brothers
"When we were in prison in Ankara after March 12 [1971 military memorandum], we would find distant stations from transistor radios and listen to Theodorakis' music. We would have unbelievable enthusiasm. We would say, 'We are not in prison for nothing, there are all these brothers and comrades.' It would give us great power.
"He gave power to the world. He put up a great struggle against the Greek junta and the German occupation before that. He put up a great struggle for the Turkish-Greek friendship. At the time, they declared him the enemy of the Greeks because of our joint work.
"He gave a tremendous musicality to the world by molding the essence he took from Greek folk music. He had symphonies, concertos as well. But what made him world-famous was the 'Zorba' music.
"The Zorba music emerged in a very interesting way. In the novel of Kazancakis, Zorba sings 'Two partridges sing in a rock, I would say don't sing of partridge, this is enough for me' and dances with this. And Mikis works on this but the song emerges after the director says 'the character should dance by jumping like this.'
"Actually, it wasn't a piece that he cared about at all. But it exploded all across the world. It made its mark in the 20th century. He was a very important figure who made his mark with his music and personality."
Home of Theodorakis in Athens
"I won't shake hands with Bush"
"When Andreas Papandreou was the prime minister, he was angry that he treated Turkey as an enemy and became a minister from the New Democracy Party. But it didn't last long, he said, 'I was bored.'
"At one point, he was offered the presidency by all the parties. He said, 'I have one condition.' George Bush was the president of the USA at the time. He said, 'I won't shake his hand.' They thanked him and left.
"He was anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist. He lived as a communist until the end of his life. He was also patriotic. These are not contradictory things actually." (AÖ/VK)
Cumhuriyet gazetesinde kültür-sanat muhabirliği, haber merkezi ve yazı işlerinde editörlük yaptı. Kurum içi iletişim ve sektör dergilerinde çalıştı. Sözlü tarih belgesellerinin yapım aşamalarında görev aldı....
Cumhuriyet gazetesinde kültür-sanat muhabirliği, haber merkezi ve yazı işlerinde editörlük yaptı. Kurum içi iletişim ve sektör dergilerinde çalıştı. Sözlü tarih belgesellerinin yapım aşamalarında görev aldı. Marmara Üniversitesi Gazetecilik Bölümü mezunu. 2019-Haziran 2024 arasında bianet'te editör ve muhabirdi.
One of the leading figures of arabesk music in Turkey and Yeşilçam film actor, Ferdi Tayfur passed away on 2 January 2025 in Antalya at the hospital where he was being treated.
Composer, lyricist, singer and film actor, one of the leading figures of arabesk music in Turkey, Ferdi Tayfur was born in the Hürriyet Neighbourhood of Adana in 1945. His full name is Ferdi Tayfur Turanbayburt.
He developed an interest in music at an early age. He began singing at wedding halls during his youth, and then took part in a music competition organized by Adana Radio. He came second, made a name for himself and began work at the Lunapark Casino in Istanbul.
He began to be known with the records he brought out in the early 1970s, yet his true breakthrough came in 1975 with the album “Çeşme [Fountain]”. The eponymous film he starred in the following year was watched by 12 million viewers.
With the albums that followed, including “Bırak Şu Gurbeti [Leave the Foreign Land]” and “Derbeder [Vagrant]”, he became one of the leading representatives of arabesk music. He became known with unforgettable songs including “Emmoğlu [My Uncle’s Son]”, “Ben de Özledim [I, Too, Yearn]”, “Huzurum Kalmadı [I Have No Peace Left]”.
His 1992 album, “Prangalar [Shackles]” sold five million copies to become one of the best-selling albums of all time in Turkey.
His concert at Gülhane Park in Istanbul in the year 1993 was attended by a crowd of 200 thousand people.
He starred in many Yeşilçam films, for which he also composed the soundtrack. He published books, among them “The Price of Fame” and “I Once Was a Tree”.
Derya Bengi, writer and editorial director of Roll magazine from 1996 to 2009, wrote the following regarding the origin of Ferdi Tayfur’s name:
“His father named him after Ferdi Tayfur, the acclaimed actor and dubbing artist whom he admired... Little Ferdi loved Raj Kapoor’s films the most, he loved Awara, and the touching voice of Mukesh, who sang in the film.” (TY/NHRD)
A press meeting was organized on 16 December 2024 within the scope of the solidarity campaign for the documentary directed by Çayan Demirel and Ayşe Çetinbaş, which focuses on Turkey’s multilingual collective memory.
The musical and political journey of Kardeş Türküler [lit. “Sibling Songs”], a project that began in 1993 as part of the Boğaziçi University Folklore Club, is being made into a documentary film.
The Surela Film team has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Germany-based Startnext platform for the final, post-production process of the documentary.
A press meeting was held at the Aynalı Geçit cultural events center in Beyoğlu within the scope of the solidarity campaign for the documentary directed by Çayan Demirel and Ayşe Çetinbaş.
Both the Surela Film and Kardeş Türküler teams were present at the meeting where a call was made for a strong solidarity campaign to complete the documentary due to the difficulties suffered by independent documentary-making in Turkey.
Bearing Witness
Speaking first at the press meeting, filmmaker Ayşe Çetinbaş stated that the project began 12 years ago under the directorship of Çayan Demirel, yet remained unfinished due to the health problems the director suffered. Initially the producer of the documentary, Çetinbaş stated that she assumed also director’s duties for the project.
During this period, the team formed a comprehensive archive by documenting Kardeş Türküler’s concerts, tours and interviews.
The documentary holds a mirror to Turkey’s multilingual cultural and political history. According to Çetinbaş, the documentary contains witness accounts from the 1993 Madımak Massacre to the memories of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist murdered in 2007. “This documentary is not only the story of a musical band, but also that of Turkey’s cultural transformation,” adds Çetinbaş.
Archival footage in the documentary display the power of both music and solidarity.
Tomasyan’s table
Musician Feryal Öney, a founding member of the Kardeş Türküler project, also spoke of the witness accounts Çetinbaş mentioned, referring to the dinner table set at the home of writer and publisher and her friend Yetvart Tomasyan who recently passed away on the night of 13 December 2024:
“That table was not only a place where we gathered to eat. It was a meeting point where young people who had come to study at university in Istanbul learned about Turkey on the one hand, while they shared cultural elements on the other hand. We were all quite young, most of us were still in our 20s. Tomo was someone who added depth to the conversation at the table, and thanks to his passion for archiving, often brought either an old newspaper or a now-forgotten newspaper cutting from the back room.
Hrant Dink would tell us about his hometown Malatya, while Tomo would share stories from his childhood. Hrant Dink’s multilingual songs that began in Kurdish, continued in Armenian and tied into Turkish still echo in our ears to this day. Everyone would bring home-cooked food. That dinner table became a school where culture and arts were blended with friendship. That’s where its metaphorical meaning lies.”
N. Evrim Şerifoğlu, the documentary’s campaign director, stated that the call for solidarity was an important step in overcoming the economic difficulties faced by independent art.
The campaign will continue until 24 January 2025 with the aim of collecting the 30 thousand Euros necessary to complete the final process of the documentary.
You can access detailed information regarding the documentary and supporting the campaign here.
bianet LGBTİ+ haberleri editörü. "1 Mayıs 1977 Kayıplarını Yakınları Anlatıyor/1 Mayıs 1977 ve Cezasızlık" dosyasını hazırladı. Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe bölümü mezunu. 2019 yılından...
bianet LGBTİ+ haberleri editörü. "1 Mayıs 1977 Kayıplarını Yakınları Anlatıyor/1 Mayıs 1977 ve Cezasızlık" dosyasını hazırladı. Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe bölümü mezunu. 2019 yılından beri "Küba" isimli köpekle ev arkadaşı.
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