News Snippets: Tarkan Sentiments

Posted by Hatice Soylu from Istanbul, Turkey and Steffan Matrak from Moscow, Russia

Tarkan has shared his condolences today over the passing of Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Güler.

One of Turkey's best known photojournalists, and nicknamed The Eye of Istanbul, Güler has died at the age of 90. He died in hospital in Istanbul on Wednesday after suffering heart failure.

Tarkan wrote his condolences, saying: "World renowned photographer and a national artistic treasure, Ara Güler will remain in our hearts forever. He and his exquisite photography will always be remembered. With love and respect... Rest in peace dear Ara Güler".

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The photograph Tarkan shared today was during a surprise visit Güler made to Tarkan's album photo shoot for Ahde Vefa in 2016. Tarkan also used photographs by Güler in his music video to "Verme" off his 2001 album Karma.

Güler is best known for his chronicles of Istanbul with melancholic black-and-white pictures taken mostly with a Leica camera, but his work took him around the world.

Güler photographed many world figures including British wartime leader Winston Churchill, Indian stateswoman Indira Gandhi, philosopher Bertrand Russell, film director Alfred Hitchcock and the artist Pablo Picasso.

From Russia With Love

Elsewhere, Russian language internet portal eg.ru published an article on the eve of Tarkan's birthday yesterday, to celebrate why the charismatic "prince of Turkish pop" is loved so much.

The article writes that the "prince of Turkish pop music managed to achieve popularity in Europe, by incredibly not having sung a single song in English" describing it as "a unique case".

"Tarkan's ancestors were folk singers and musicians, so there is nothing surprising in the fact that the boy was attracted to music since childhood... Even living in Germany, his large Turkish family managed to preserve national traditions: the children grew up, absorbing Turkish tunes, which were constantly heard in the house," the Russian piece goes on to say.

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It also notes that thanks to his "voice and charm" he began his career as a wedding singer, and was able to make enough money to support himself, once his father had relocated the family back to Turkey in 1986.

Meanwhile, another Russian language news site has described Tarkan as the German-Turk "who conquered Russia".

"The dream of millions of girls, the dreamy prince of the East, initially earned his living in tea gardens. But after only a couple of years he was attracting thousands of spectators at his venues," the article writes, while adding that "at the same time, his songs in English did not become popular".

Tarkan Striptease "Shakes Social Media"

In other news, concert footage taken over 20 years ago of Tarkan on stage, has "shook social media" to the core, according to news wires today.

Tarkan's footage at a concert 23 years ago has reportedly attracted great interest thanks to Tarkan's striptease dance during his stage performance of "Seviş Benimle" (Make Love to Me) from his 1994 album A-acayipsin.

The video shows Tarkan strip down to his underwear as a naked girl shadow dances behind a screen in the background. The footage is from the old İnönü Stadium in Istanbul, where Tarkan had performed to capacity crowds in the Nineties on tour with his second album, before he found fame outside of Turkish borders.

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Footage from those early 90s stadium shows were used for the music video to "Şeytan Azapta" from his 1994 album, with the moment Tarkan is stripped on stage by his dancers edited down now to a few seconds.

Of the footage doing the rounds today, while some social media users commented that "Tarkan had put on a spectacular show", others said that the footage had "put them off" Tarkan.

And Finally...

And last up, other Turkish pop artists have talked about Tarkan - one on the podium to congratulate the icon, while another has dissed the singer's concerts for not being good enough for a megastar.

Forty-two year old pop singer Aylin Coşkun, also German born, has attacked Tarkan by saying if he is going to be called a "megastar", she has a right to expect more from his concerts.

But Sixties' pop star Ersan Erdura, known in his heyday as the Turkish Elvis, had only good things to say about Tarkan during an opening to a hall named after himself.

"I love Tarkan's voice," Erdura said, "but not everyone in pop music can sing, although they think it's easy to do".

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