Outrage in Greece over Cypriot singer’s ‘provocative’ song

A song performed by British Cypriot singer Isin Karaca at a festival in Greece provoked outrage in the country.

Karaca had taken to the stage at the Young Academics’ Association (Gat) festival in the northeastern Greek town of Komotini on Sunday evening, but while some observers lauded her presence, others criticised her choice to sing the song Izmir Marsi.

The song’s lyrics refer to the entry of Mustafa Kemal’s forces into Izmir during the Greco-Turkish war in 1922. Shortly after the Turkish forces’ arrival in the city, much of it was on fire.

Izmir had been under Greek rule since it was taken from the Ottoman Empire in 1919, when it was called Smyrna, but formally came under the control of Mustafa Kemal’s Grand National Assembly, the predecessor to the Republic of Turkey, on September 9, 1922.

After Kemal’s forces took over the city, there was a forced exodus of Greeks from the city, many of whom had lost most if not all of their possessions in the fire.

For this reason, the song is deemed offensive by many Greeks, and so it proved after Karaca’s performance on Sunday night.

Local media was outraged by the performance, with news website Evros News describing Karaca’s performance as an “unacceptable provocation”.

Another news website, Komotini Press, said Karaca had “committed an indecency on Greek soil by insulting even her Greek co-funders”.

“The public must be informed about tonight’s disgrace, which was developed at the headquarters of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace regional government,” it said.

Additionally, it claimed that Karaca “is known to survive thanks to her connections to the deep state in Turkey”, though this is thus far unsubstantiated.

It also claimed the performance was a “response” on the part of the Turkish government for Greek singer Despina Vandi’s “aborted concert in Izmir”.

Vandi had been due to perform at a charity concert in the town of Cesme, near Izmir, last month, but pulled out after local authorities refused to take down a Turkish flag and a poster of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from the stage.

These reports were then picked up by opposition party Syriza MP Rena Dourou, who described the concert as “Turkish revisionism in action in Thrace”, and also called on Topsides and the Greek foreign ministry to respond.

“Otherwise, silence means acceptance and all that it implies,” she said.

Isin Karaca is a British Turkish Cypriot singer, having been born in London to Turkish Cypriot parents in 1973. She represented Turkey at the Eurovision song contest in 2000.