Artists fleeing the grinding conflict in Ukraine have found refuge in the resort city of Antalya on Türkiye's south coast, where they have created a new musical scene.
Most of them did not have time to pack anything but their instruments — a violin, a cello, or dancing shoes. Now, almost no musical evening in the buoyant hotels and cafes of the Turkish Riviera goes on without Ukrainian songs on the programme.
"It's a place where people can find peace and quiet amid the beauty of the Mediterranean, that inspires them for the creation of something new, of something freer," Alexandra Dmitrienko, a ballet dancer, told TRT World.
Dmitrienko came to Alanya, a district in Antalya, last March along with her daughter while the war was raging just 30 kilometres from her hometown of Odessa, one of the main targets of the Russian offensive. Her husband stayed back, as men were not allowed to leave Ukraine.
"Our relatives were here. They invited us to Alanya because of the warm sea climate that would be better for the child at this difficult time," she recalls.
As a dancer, Dmitrienko now performs in several dance groups in Antalya, utilising her prowess to combine local dance moves with Western and Ukrainian traditions. When the summer season ends, she gives private dance lessons to children.
"It's a thriving centre of opportunities for artists. The local hotels and restaurants offer a wide range of shows. It’s definitely easier to find a job for a creative person,” she says.
The Mediterranean resorts of the Turkish Riviera have boasted a thriving cultural scene for decades.
Antalya is home to dozens of world-famous cultural events, such as the Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival, the first of its kind in Türkiye. Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is the oldest and the most prestigious international film festival in the country. Local media refers to this festival as the “Oscars of Turkish cinema”.
Since the Russian offensive started last February, Antalya has become a haven for Ukrainian musicians and artists as well. Many of them found jobs at hotels and restaurants, so they could afford food and shelter while they pursued their careers. Some started their own art studios in Antalya, where they sold their artwork and provided for themselves while pursuing their creative ambitions.
Despite the hardships of starting a new life, Ukrainian artists have found ways to succeed. According to Dmitrienko, Ukrainians give concerts and participate in all local fairs, performing both Ukrainian and Turkish traditional dance and music.
"In Türkiye, it seems to me almost everyone dances and practically everyone sings. Wherever you look there will be music playing in a cafe, a passer-by will just come in and start dancing folk dances," Dmitrienko notes. "It seems to me that this national spirit, such an attachment to one's identity, has a lot in common with the Ukrainian attitude".
Those living in Antalya have organised a Ukrainian youth community, she says. They promote all kinds of creative evenings — not only for children, but for adults too.
“We're not just here to entertain the kids. We ourselves also need to be distracted from the news coming from our country", she nods.
“At first, it was very challenging to play the violin when everything around me was captured by the war,” said Ekaterina, a 27-year-old Ukrainian who studied at the Moscow School of Music, in an interview with TRT World.
She fled Russia through Belarus shortly after the war broke out. Border officials there almost repatriated her to Russia, but she had booked a hotel from Türkiye. That convinced authorities she was just going for a vacation.
“That saved me from returning to Moscow, and I could escape to Türkiye,” Ekaterina said. She settled in Alanya last March, hoping to avoid the fallout of the conflict.
To distract herself from the tragic news coming out of Ukraine, Ekaterina found a music store where local musicians were gathering for jam sessions and joined in. Not long after she created an instrumental ensemble with her co-players, performing Ukrainian and Turkish music.
Now her musical group — made up of citizens of Ukraine, Türkiye and Russia — performs at most tourist attractions in the coastal region. This is in addition to her performances at five-star hotels and in a local orchestra, as well as teaching.
For now, she is trying to introduce a culture of jam sessions to the musical life of Alanya. She also plans to create a classical string quartet.
Ekaterina, however, feels it is limiting to talk of just the community of Ukrainian musicians.
“The unifying effect of music is that it does not require a passport. You're just playing — whoever you are,” she said.
At the moment she is recording an album with a pianist and composer from Rostov-on-Don, a Russian city just a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine. He fled to Türkiye because of his strong anti-war stance and found refuge in Alanya.
"I would also like to mention the Turkish musicians who, at my request, learned the songs of the popular Ukrainian group Okean Elzy so that we could perform them at our concerts. I, in turn, learned Turkish songs so that we could add them to our programme as well," Ekaterina added.
Burak Yagar, a guitarist from Alanya, said the influx of Ukrainians into the city will "100 percent have a positive effect on the local culture,” and believes that Ukrainian and Russian artists are already influencing the performance level in the province.
"We just need more time to feel it, maybe in the next five years we will be able to see the changes more clearly,” Burak told TRT World.
In September, the governor of Antalya province said the number of foreigners in the region had more than doubled in two years to over 177,000. Among them are more than 50,000 Russians and 18,000 Ukrainians. In a statement to TRT World, the Alanya Municipality said the city “hosts people from 130 nationalities, offering a peaceful life to over 50,000 foreigners.”
Ekaterina recalls one especially moving moment last summer, when Ukrainians worked on charity music shows in Antalya.
"Those were the days when Ukraine was heavily bombed. We sat in the dressing room, cried after reading the news and hugged, bracing for something worse,” she recalls.
"Then we just put on makeup and went on stage to show that Ukraine is strong and our soul — our music — cannot be defeated.”
Source: TRTworld.com