http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06403055.htm

Kazim Koyuncu
The restless and tall Kazim Koyuncu hailed from the Laz region of Turkey’s Black Sea. This beautiful province alternates stunning green mountains with a rugged coastline not far from the Georgian frontier. Unfortunately, the 250,000 people who speak Laz are the relentless butt of Turkish jokes, paying dearly for their independent and abrasive nature. Since Koyuncu set off on his music career in 1992, he was an enthusiastic ambassador of Laz folklore and traditions. Describing himself as a “revolutionary” devoted to alternative music, he nevertheless included in his repertory traditional instruments, such as the tulum bagpipes and the kemenc violin. Koyuncu attributed his growing success to a rare ability to sing in five of Turkey’s languages, an attribute which appealed to all generations. In his short but meteoric career Koyuncu stamped himself as one of the leading cultural icons for the Laz people. He died of testicular cancer in June 2005. Many believe he contracted it following the Tchernobyl disaster of 1986

Istanbul"u Dinliyorum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5AF9Fyk8js&mode=related&search

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjfeQvNxzbQ&mode=related&search=

You made my day, qdemir!!!!!!! Sen cok iyisin. Roswitha

My heart goes out to you, Jannie! Hang in there!

Turkey boasts nine historical sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including Troy, Cappadocia, Hattusha, and Pamukalle, each noted for its outstanding value to humanity and global history. Currently, work has begun to add the Seljuk Cemetery, located in the Bitlis Ahlat province on the western shore of Lake Van, to the list of properties on the World Heritage List, reported the Doğan News Agency.

The Seljuk Cemetery is home to 8,000 4-meter-high tombstones dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Ahlat Mayor Mevlüt Gülmez said the ministry was carrying out work in the region for the world's largest Muslim cemetery, now an open-air museum, to be included on the World Heritage List and that a 10-person scientific committee from UNESCO had come to the province to complete their evaluation of this southeastern site.

Noting that the old settlement and tombstones of the Seljuk city Ahlat deserved to be on the World Heritage List, Gülmez said, “This effort is not only for the good of Ahlat but for Turkey and the world. To know Ahlat means to know Turkey. Our ministers attach great importance to Ahlat and have put together many projects for the city.”

Selimiye Mosque

Mimar Sinan, born of Christian parents in Anatolia, lived an astonishingly long life of ninety-nine years (1489-1588), and rose to become the greatest architect in the history of the Ottoman Empire. Taking up architecture exactly half way through his life, Sinan still had time to design countless mosques, palaces, government buildings and bridges. In Istanbul, Sinan’s unrivaled masterpiece is the familiar Süleymaniye Mosque (1550-1557), commissioned by the Sultan, “Süleyman the Magnificent,” known in Turkey as “Kanuni Sultan Süleyman” (or the Law Giver).

Three hundred kilometers (180 miles) west of Istanbul, in the City of Edirne (Roman Adrianople), however, Sinan built his defining masterpiece, the Selimiye Mosque (1569-1575), commissioned by Sultan Selim II, the son of Süleyman According to Sinan’s poet friend, Sai, the great architect had been inspired in designing Selimiye’s dome by the Hagia Sophia, built a thousand years earlier in Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The effect of “a floating dome,” is indeed reminiscent of the floating dome concept that the builders of the Hagia Sophia had also achieved all those years earlier. Among all the domes I've seen from outside and inside - Brunelesschi's (Florence), Saint Peter's (Rome), St. Paul's (London), Hagia Sophia (Istanbul), and the Selimiye, I was personally impressed most by the last two.

Sinan, in designing the four slender minarets flanking the main building, incorporated a pair of spiral staircases that are wound in the same direction, and never cross each other, eliminating the possibility of an individual ascending to become wedged in by someone else descending

Ayni Cem (Ayni Jem) is a gathering of musicians and semazens (turners) for sacred music and dance. The dance is the moving meditation and prayer of the Whirling Dervishes, the Sufi Mystics who follow the teachings of Hz. Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi.

Rumi was the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi order, a leading mystical brotherhood of Islam. He was born in 1207 to a family of learned theologians. When his father Bahaduddin Valad passed away, Rumi succeeded his father in 1231 as professor in religious sciences. Rumi 24 years old, was an already accomplished scholar in religious and positive sciences. He was introduced into the mystical path by a wandering dervish, Shamsuddin of Tabriz. His love and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in a surge of music, dance and lyric poems, `Divani Shamsi Tabrizi'. Rumi is the author of six volume didactic epic work, the `Mathnawi', called as the 'Koran in Persian' by Jami, and discourses, `Fihi ma Fihi', written to introduce his disciples into metaphysics. If there is any general idea underlying Rumi's poetry, it is the absolute love of God. His influence on thought, literature and all forms of aesthetic expression in the world of Islam cannot be overrated.

Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi died on December 17, 1273. Men of five faiths followed his bier. That night was named Sebul Arus (Night of Union). Ever since, the Mevlevi dervishes have kept that date as a festival. The Ashland performance is part of a tour from San Francisco to Seattle undertaken by the Mevlevi Order of America under the spiritual direction of Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras.

Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras trained from birth as a dervish and semazen. With his father Suleyman Dede, he travelled to Europe and England teaching the Mevlevi tradition in the West. In the mid-1970’s, Dede brought the Mevlevi teachings to North America, then sent Jelaluddin as his successor to found the Mevlevi Order of America. In 1994 and 1999, with Mustafa Yilmaz as Semazenbashi, Postneshin Loras led historic sema ceremonies in the courtyard and semahane of Rumi’s tomb in Konya, with male and female semazens turning together again for the first time in centuries.

Born in 1955 in the province of Konya, home of the Mevlevi order,Necati Celik learned to play the baglama, a folkloric long-necked lute at the age of 7. The early 1970's marked the beginning of his acquaintance with the oud, and in 1973, he participated in the Mevlevi rituals of, Konya as an oud player for the first time over. Here, he meet some of Turkey`s for most oud masters, who contributed to the development of his command over the instrument.

Havin experienced difficulty in obtaining quality instruction while learning how to play the oud, Mr. Celik decided to establish his,own private school of music 'in l975 in Konya, where he taught oud to hundreds of students.

In 1983, he founded the Konya Municipal Türkish Music Choir. Two years later, he became an oud instructor in the Music Department of Konya's Seljuk University, where he remained for a year. Later, in 1986, he became an oud artist in the Turkish Ministry of Culture's State
Classical Music Ensemble; and at the same time, taught oud at the State Conservatory of Aegean University.

In 1987, he gave 8 concerts in Tunisia. 1989 was the year when Mr.Celik joined the Istanbul State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble. He also became the primary oud artist of the Necdet-Yashar ensemble, with whom he performed an a monthly basis in Istanbul, as well as in many provinces of Turkey.

Mr. Celik is a frequent guest on Turkish national television and radio programs, and he has performed in many of the universities of France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland,Tunisia, Morocco, Malaysia, Canada, and the U.S.A. Acting on an invitation received in 1993, he journeyed to the U.S. for solo performances.Since then he has given oud lessons and recitals every year in California and New Mexico, and teaches and performs every August at the Middle Eastern Music Camp held in in Mendocino, California. In 1997, he was invited to partcipate in a workshop at the University of Israel in Jerusalem, where he taught oud and Turkish classical music.At the end of the workshop Mr.Celik gave 2 concerts with his students.