No:95 MAY/JUNE'07 - S&M Publication ltd

A long-running project to establisha Turkish music museum, which willbe the first of its kind in Turkey, iscurrently in its final stages in Istanbul.Preliminary problems have beenrectified and the museum is likely toopen toward the end of June. BayramBilge Tokel, the Culture and TourismMinistry’s Director General of FineArts, said that Turkish music would getthe attention it deserves for its notationand form, already appreciated by internationalmusic and art authorities.Tokel said that the Turkish instrumentssuch as the baglama, kanun and oudare introduced as Greek instruments inGreece. “We are going to put an endto these arguments by revealing our musicalidentity at this museum,” he stated.To prepare for the project a numberof museums in places such as Rome,Paris and Bremen were examined.The Finance Ministry provided therequired budget of YTL 2 million tothe Directorate General of Fine Arts.The museum will feature instruments, books,magazines, other publications andaudio and video materials documentingthe historical development of Turkishmusic. Pieces collected from TopkapiPalace ( Istanbul ), the Mevlana Museum( Konya ) and a numberof other Anatolian museumswill also be displayed.The maintenance of the instrumentswill be handledby the instructors of the IstanbulTechnical UniversityState Conservatory InstrumentMaking Department.Special experts will alsocontribute to the project.Although the museum hasnot yet opened, the Universityof Vienna has calledon Turkey to send a representative toa conference regarding the world’s musicmuseums, which will take place onAug. 16 in Vienna. Huge demand forthe museum by tourists is expected. TheMinistry of Culture and Tourism will organizespecial tours to the museum andadvise tour operators about assisting thetourists on these visits. An informationkiosk at Topkapi Palace will provide touristswith details of the music museum.The project was resumed last yearupon a government decision, anda storehouse in Üsküdar was transferredto the Ministry of Cultureand Tourism to host the museum.A special research team of 13 expertswas established within the bodyof the museum. The team’s memberswere assigned from within the IstanbulState Turkish Music Ensemble. Artistswho are veterans of their fieldswill be working within the group.The museum will periodically host artactivities and concerts open to the public.For two years now, the DirectorateGeneral of Fine Arts has been classifyingand publishing series of books inall categories of Turkish music includingclassical, folk, sufi, mehter, symphonic,contemporary and polyphonic.Turkey was promoted at the 30th InternationalBudapest Tourism Fair - UTA-ZAS, inaugurated in Hungarian capital.Turkey was presented to the visitorswith thousands of brochures and bookletspublished in Hungarian, duringthe fair which hosts a total of920 companies from 54 countries.Participating in the inauguration ofthe fair, Turkey’s Counsellor for CulturalAffairs in Vienna Ozcan Hergulsaid that they expected to attractmore Hungarian tourists to Turkeythis year, thanks to the publicitycampaigns launched in Hungary.“Commercials on Turkey will be broadcaston 3 national channels. Besides,Turkey will be promoted via 500billboards in Hungarian metropols,particularly Budapest,” Hergul added.Meanwhile, visitors showed great interestto the Turkish companies at thefair. Turkish promoters offered Turkishcoffee, Turkish delight and sundried fruitsto the guests who visited their stands.Ofer Group and Global Investment Holdinghave started construction of theirnew investment in Kusadasi, Turkey. TheUS$300 million tourism investment thatwill cover a hotel, residential, and marinahas started with cleaning the landwhich was a French Holiday Village before.Global Investment Board member;Gregor Kiez said that the new hotel theywill open will be the only brand hotel inKusadasi. The land was purchased byOfer – Global consortium in 2005 forUS$30 million. Ofer that has majoritystakes in Istanbul Park Hotel will build aresidence and a hotel here.The public is being encouraged to participatein a tourism development processdue to the Anatolian Tourism Daysevent, which is due to kick off on May.9. The event, which is marking its secondyear, will be held in 18 provincesas well as northern Cyprus and is aimedat encouraging public involvement in tourismactivities, as well as developingand expanding tourism activities acrossTurkey. A series of activities includingfilm screenings promoting holiday culturewill be held and brochures will behanded out as part of the event, scheduledto run from May 9 to June 9. Thetarget audience, the general public,will be given a message that holidaysin Turkey meet world standards and areactually accessible and easily purchased.The activities this year have beenextended to include northern Cyprus.The organizers said the event was originallyplanned as a long term projectstretching over 10 years and that it aimsto enliven the internal market expandingtourism throughout world.They saidanother of the projects goals was to raisepublic awareness on the natural, culturaland historical heritage of Anatoliaand to enable cities involved in the projectto take a larger share from tourismrevenues. Supported by the Culture andTourism Ministry, the Turkish Union ofChambers and Commodities Exchanges(TOBB), the Turkish Hotels Federationand the Ekin Group; the project involvesand includes the cities of Izmir, Aydin,Denizli, Bursa, Izmit, Eskisehir, Kütahya,Afyon, Konya, Kayseri, Mersin, Adana,Gaziantep,Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Trabzon,Samsun and Ankara.