"Talking Turkey: Cultural Ambassador 'Defects' [Michael Rubin]
Fazil Say, one of Turkey's most famous musicians, now in Germany as a cultural ambassador to the EU, has announced that he will not return to Turkey in the face of growing Islamism in Turkey:
I am opposed to Turkey returning to the darkness of the Middle Ages, for I am of a culture that supports contemporary civilisation. Although as a composer and pianist I represent European musical culture, I have never disaffiliated myself with my native Anatolian culture. Everybody knows this. All my work incorporates folk culture. This is why I think the European Union chose me as ‘ambassador’ in the year of ‘intercultural dialogue’."
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