Aravot Daily visited Bugra Giritlioglu, who is interested in Armenian, Georgia, Iranian, and Azeri culture. He is ethnically Turkish and was born in Istanbul. He said that he had heard about Armenians and the Armenian culture when he was a child. “My father’s parents abandoned him when he was a baby. He was raised by his aunt and her Armenian husband. I was 1 or 2 years old when we moved to Germany as a family, where we lived for 5 years. Then we moved to the US.”
As far as what age he became interested in culture and what caused this interest, he said, “I became an ethnomusicologist when I returned to Istanbul from the US. My master’s thesis was on Georgian polyphonic choral work. I became interested in choral work when I was a college student in the US. I was a part of a choir there and I also took piano and oboe lessons. I sang in 15 different choirs over the years in the US, England, the Netherlands, and in Turkey.” He said that he established a choir in Istanbul in 2005 that lasted for 5 years. It had two conductors, one of whom was ethnically Armenian.
Regarding the observation that it is natural for him to be more interested in Armenian choral music, Bugra said that, even though he has not yet attended an Armenian choral performance, he researched the works of several Armenian choir groups and was particularly impressed by the Hover Chamber Choir. When he comes to Armenia, he intends to meet with the Hover Chamber Choir conductor, Sona Hovhannisyan.
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Aravot Daily also asked him if there is any interest in the Armenian culture in Turkey. Giritlioglu said, “There has been some notable interest lately. Two of my friends, neither of whom are ethnically Armenian, were involved in genocide studies, which they both spoke to me about.” Bugra Giritlioglu asked us not to delve deeper into the topic of genocide and simply said, “Turkey needs to do something.” As far as what, he said, “It needs to apologize.”
Samvel Danielyan
