"I was born the year the Turks invaded Cyprus. It was all black back then. I grew up in my father's grocery store on Imvros, among spices, dried red peppers and okras threaded on small ropes. I kept my Greek nationality". Musician Stelios Berberis came to Greece in order to study economics and learn traditional music under Domna Samiou. When he finished his studies he came back to Constantinople.

He belongs to the East

“In Greece I discovered that I am not Greek in the narrow,western sense. Even though I chose the Hellenic citizenship, at the same time I felt that I belonged to the Orient. National and racial discrimination destroy people and unfortunately, to a point, they also exist in Greece".

Stelios is married to Peline, a 29year-old Turk. "It is my choice. I made my parents understand that it's not superficial. We struggled, always respecting one another, and fought against prejudice. Our love passed between Symplegades and it is enormous". Peline is a musician too, with good studies under her belt and along with Stelios she gives Greek music and dance seminars in an avant-garde art school, located in the gallery of Romylia's Market of Peran.

They have given some concerts in Greece at the Athens’ Festival, while they have participated in some very important music productions, such as the chants of the great cantor, Iakovos Nafpliotis, and an Οttoman folk songs collection sang by Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Hebrews.

Stelios, as a deep connoisseur of Βyzantine and Οttoman music, is a consultant at the Turkish record label named KALAN. "Turks learned the music from the Byzantines and took it to a higher level. The Greeks are now asking them to give us back our lost music, the kanun, the kemence, the ney, the lute" he says, and adds: "It is crucial for Constantinople's Hellenism not to vanish. The Turks, who will lose so much if the Greeks leave, should help solve the ‘riddle’ and understand that we, the salt of Constantinople, can't be absent".  

His philhellene boss

One of the owners of the school in which Stelios and Peline teach, Tzedin Akyurt, adores the modern Greek civilization. "The Greek element is a ‘flower’ continuously dying in Istanbul, even though it is a very important piece of its mosaic. We are eager to find Greek books and poems. The Turks find their other half when blending with the Greeks, while their absence costs us a lot. If the two worlds work together then something perfect will come out this cooperation".

When Tzedin first heard the music of Manos Chatzidakis he was shocked. "I was in Athens in 1974 and I was sitting in a bar, where the DJ put on a song of Chatzidakis. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I was also fascinated in 1984 when I watched Rebetiko, a movie by Costas Ferris. I thought I had died and been resurrected. Since that moment I always play these kinds of songs (rebetika) on my saz (a Turkish and Iranian musical instrument)".
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

MORE PHOTOS

Along with Tzedin Akyurt, the owner of the school (on the left).

He teaches the origins of the Greek music.

The gallery of Romylia's Market at Peran.

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