Cenk Taşkan, whose real name is Majak Toşikyan, is a leading figure on the Turkish music scene. During his professional career, which spans more than 40 years, he has composed hundreds of unforgettable songs and worked with many important singers, including Nükhet Duru, Hümeyra, Sezen Aksu, Tanju Okan, Aşkın Nur Yengi and Nilüfer.
More recently, he worked on Sibil Pektorosoğlu’s album, which was released in Armenian.
Taşkan started his professional music career as a guitarist in Yavuz Özışık’s orchestra in 1965. In 1966 he met Erol Büyükburç and worked with him until he left to complete his military service. He started to compose while he was serving in the military, after which he met lyricist Mehmet Teoman and singer Duru, with whom he composed songs with Turkish lyrics at a time when arrangements were very popular in Turkey. His album “Bir Nefes Gibi” (Like a Breath) is cited by critics as being among the best albums of all time in Turkish pop music history.
‘I dragged my heels’
During the most successful years of his career Taşkan suddenly decided to migrate to Canada. He said that the reason for this was the chaotic pre-1980 coup period. The Turkish-Armenian musician tells about the incident that led him to emigrate from his beloved country, saying: “Before the coup, a bank next to my apartment was bombed and my son’s school bus drove up while the building was still in flames. If the school bus had arrived 10 minutes earlier, my son would have been dead. In those days, not only minorities but everyone was concerned about ‘what was to happen next.’ I had relatives in Canada, so I decided to go there.”
Stressing that he is a Turk and expressing his admiration for Turkey at every opportunity, Taşkan said that migration was difficult for him. “I am a person who admires Turkey, İstanbul in particular. This is my hometown. I dragged my heels. However, since I had concerns about the future of my family, I had to go. During the time of Turgut Özal I thought of coming back, but could not leave my family.”
‘My greatest fear was being forgotten’
Taşkan decided to return to Turkey in 1997 after living in Canada for 16 years. “A person who dies in his homeland is the luckiest person in the world,” he said. “My greatest fear was being forgotten. I was quite afraid of that because in Turkey, the agenda constantly changes and people are forgotten very quickly, but it was not as I had feared. When I returned to Turkey, all the doors opened before me. It seems that I had left good memories behind.”
After returning to Turkey, Taşkan started to work with Duru and undertook many important projects, including “Sevgiyle El Ele” (Hand in Hand with Love), a series of concerts that he held in support of Turkey’s EU accession process, soundtracks for TRT documentaries and music that was used during the opening ceremony of the Türk Telekom Arena in İstanbul.
One of the most common questions people ask about Taşkan is why he changed his name. The veteran songwriter said that he changed it mainly for political reasons.
“At that time, if I did not change my name, my work would have been censured by TRT because of it. I changed my name when we started to send our work to TRT, so it would not cause trouble for my friends. Someone from TRT might reject our songs just because of that name,” he says, recalling: “We wrote a song called ‘Harp ve Sulh’ (War and Peace). The lyrics read, ‘Give flowers to children, not guns.’ Because of that song, Nükhet Duru and Mehmet Teoman were detained for two days on charges of spreading communist propaganda. So I thought my friends would be harmed because of my name. Fortunately, today there are no such problems.”
Nowadays, the musician who changed his name to bypass TRT’s censorship is composing music for TRT. Watching Turkey’s progress very closely, Taşkan is very pleased and optimistic about the future of the country. “In recent years, Turkey has made great progress in every field. People and ideas are changing. People are no longer interested in your identity. They are now interested in the quality of your work. This is a considerably important development for our country.”
Taşkan says he has two big projects in mind: “Nuhun Gemisi” (Noah’s Ark) and “Semavi.” He said that although foreigners have shown great interest in these projects, he wants to carry them out in Turkey.
“I am tired of pop music. If I could find a good singer, I would consider it, but I am now thinking about the world. I want to realize projects that will make an impression on the world. I want to carry out the projects in which I aim to unite the three divine religions on the same platform. I want this project to be completely in Turkish. There are offers from many foreign countries. However, I want to do this in Turkey because these projects tell stories from this land. I hope the state will support them,” he says.
‘Music made for money angers me’
Taşkan, who has composed over 300 songs, is not pleased with the current situation of Turkish pop. Still, he does not want to be so cruel and, although they are few in number, there is still some quality work.
He criticizes the music industry, saying: “[Turkey’s] is a pop music industry where much poor quality and absurd work is done for money. This makes me angry. The same things are being repeated over and over again. Unfortunately, there is nothing new. In the past, audiences in Turkey used to listen to music from all around the world. Now, a certain Turkish style has been created. It is so limited; everybody is doing the same thing. There is a certain pattern, a uniform, and the same uniform is worn by everyone.”
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