On February 21 the Turkish revolutionary music group Grup Yorum, waging an irreconcilable struggle against Turkish fascism and world imperialism since 1985, gave its first concert in Moscow.
For the collective of Grup Yorum this concert was very important and significant, as they performed their fighting songs in the hero city of Moscow, the capital of the destroyed but not annihilated Soviet Union. For them Soviet Union is an example that they follow in their struggle.
At the concert Grup Yorum not only performed its revolutionary songs, known around the world, but also made political speeches, which were greeted with applause and words of support.
Among the audience of the concert was a group of Turkish people who chanted words of support for Grup Yorum. At the end of its concert Grup Yorum musicians invited everyone to the national Turkish dance.
After the concert the audience approached the musicians and expressed thanks to them for their songs and their speeches. Many people took pictures with them. Then Grup Yorum, along with Turkish and Russian comrades continued to dance, sing and take pictures on the street.
At the beginning of the concert the Russian-speaking comrade of Grup Yorum introduced the musical group and briefly told about the history of its struggle. We give the text of this speech.
Grup Yorum was founded in 1985 after the fascist coup in Turkey in 1980. For 35 years we have released 23 albums, 22 books and 1 film.
At the last concert in Istanbul in 2015 we gathered 1 million people. In Izmir there were 700 thousand people at the concert. After that the fascist government in Turkey banned Grup Yorum concerts in Turkey.
-A total of 170 concerts were banned.
-400 members of Grup Yorum were arrested.
-500 court cases were brought against us.
-40 people were in prison.
-Now 11 people are in prison.
But what could the fascist Turkish government do? Nothing! Because we are here and we will sing for you!
Now two our comrades Helin Bölek and İbrahim Gökçek are on the death fasts. We may die, but we won’t stop. We will win because we are right! We are here now. Today we are fighting. Tomorrow others will fight.
Turkish fascism, German and American imperialism calls us terrorists. But the biggest terrorist is America and imperialism!
We are a folk music group. We sing against imperialism.
One of the members of Grup Yorum, İbrahim Gökçek, is on the 249th day of the death fast, Helin Bölek is on 246th. The first song of Grup Yorum will be performed in support of these comrades.
Meet Grup Yorum!
Greetings from Grup Yorum at its first concert in Moscow
After performing the first song in support of Grup Yorum members, Helin Bölek and Ibrahim Gökçek, who are on the death fast, Grup Yorum soloist Özgür gave a greeting speech in Turkish. After him his speech was read from the stage in Russian. We give a text of this speech.
Greetings, dear comrades!
We are very happy to perform here today. We feel ourselves here at home. Why? Because this is the country of our leaders Lenin and Stalin. Because this is the country of the Russian people and peoples of other nationalities who were the first in the world to make the Bolshevik revolution.
We are honored to perform here as a musical group, following the path of Lenin and Stalin, the leaders of our revolution.
We regard this concert as a bridge between the revolution in Turkey and the revolutionary struggle of the Russians and the entire Russian people.
We are saluting the heroes of Stalingrad, the heroes of the Moscow Front. We are saluting the heroic Soviet people who defeated fascism. We respect our heroes who sacrificed themselves for the sake of socialism on this earth.
In February the Red Army celebrates its birthday, the day of honoring the martyr heroes of the Red Army, who defeated the German invaders on February 23, 1918 near Pskov and Narva.
We respect the leaders of the revolution, primarily Lenin and Stalin, who dedicated their lives to the liberation of the peoples of the world.
Our folk songs are hope.
Revolution is hope.
Socialism is hope.
Author: N. Sablina
This article is also available in Russian
