Turkish Forum

Tag: Turkish national anthem

  • PEACE LOOKS LIKE THIS

    PEACE LOOKS LIKE THIS

    Peter FitzSimons
    Peter FitzSimons

    When the actual Lone Pine service finishes in the early afternoon of Anzac Day, the problem for so many Australian attendees, who haven’t slept for the previous 36 hours is that it takes as long as – and I’m not making this up – EIGHT HOURS for the jam of buses to clear. Finally, though, most of the last lot get to the wharves where a ferry awaits to take them across the straits of the Dardanelles to Cannakale. They’re all, not to put too fine a point on it, buggered, and slump in their seats. At least most of them do. Not, however, the Barker Choir and Band, some 200 strong. Even as the ferry waits for the last stragglers to arrive, the young’uns assemble on the foredeck and start to sing and play. Oh, how they sing and play. The ethereal harmonies of Waltzing Matilda, Run To You, Nearer My God To Thee, the Australian and New Zealand National anthems rise rich and beautiful into the Turkish twilight, as even the passengers on other ferries come out to watch on their verandas. They clap, they join in, some dance ‘neath the diamond sky, with one handwaving free, silhouetted by the sea. And now, the final touch. As the last stragglers arrive and the Turkish guides who have been so good to them all start to wave goodbye and walk to the bus that is to take them back to Istanbul, the Barker choir instantly switches into a fabulous rendition of the Turkish national anthem. The guides stop, the wharf workers and security guards stare open-mouthed, the police and soldiers snap to attention. At the end, the Turks, the Australians and New Zealanders all together – 100 years on to the day since the beginning of the devastating battle that killed over 100,000 of our citizens – cheer and clap wildly.

    Peace between our fine nations. It looks like this.

    smh.com.au, May 3, 2015

    Here is a footage from the occasion

  • Turkey Looks To Copyright Its National Anthem After German Collection Society Tries To Collect Royalties For It

    Turkey Looks To Copyright Its National Anthem After German Collection Society Tries To Collect Royalties For It

    from the copyright-gone-wrong dept

    In general, we’re no fan of collection societies, which have some pretty serious unintended consequences, often harming up and coming musicians while funneling money to the largest acts. However, I can’t recall a collection society as aggressive and as expansionist as GEMA in Germany. When I was in Germany earlier this year, I had multiple musicians tell me how all-controlling GEMA is. Basically, if you want to use GEMA for just about anything, you effectively abdicate pretty much all of your rights to your music to GEMA. Two separate musicians showed me how they had secret websites where fans could download their music, because GEMA wouldn’t let them give away their own music for free under a Creative Commons license.

    So, I’m not too surprised to hear reports that the Turkish government is now scrambling to try to copyright its own national anthem after hearing that GEMA tried to collect royalties on it. The story is a bit confusing but it appears that GEMA, in standard collection society fashion, demanded that a Turkish school in Germany pay up for performing music. The school responded that the only music that was performed was the Turkish national anthem. This is where some of the dispute comes in. It appears that GEMA believes other covered music was also performed, and its asking for royalties from that and saying it never meant to collect for the Turkish national anthem. However, the school insists that was the only song performed — so it went to the Turkish Culture Minister to ask for help. At that point, the Turkish government realized that there simply was no copyright on the song.

    Now, here’s where the Turkish government also went wrong. It could have just declared the Turkish national anthem in the public domain and told GEMA to shove off. But, instead, it took the backwards-looking step of trying to retroactively copyright the national anthem. Of course, that may open up a different can of worms. The report at Spiegel notes that, technically, the heirs of the songwriter (who died in 1958) might actually be more entitled to the copyright and any royalties than the Turkish government.

    So, by rushing to secure the copyright, Turkey may end up with more trouble on its hands. It’s difficult to believe that a copyright makes sense for any national anthem. Just put it in the public domain and let anyone sing it.

    via Turkey Looks To Copyright Its National Anthem After German Collection Society Tries To Collect Royalties For It | Techdirt.

  • Turkey fights to protect national anthem from German royalty claims

    Turkey fights to protect national anthem from German royalty claims

    ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

    national anthem to be made public property 2010 12 07 lA German musical group is demanding compensation for copyright infringement for İstiklal Marşı.

    The discovery that the Turkish national anthem, “İstiklal Marşı,” may be unprotected by copyright has sparked legislative efforts to make the song public property.

    A proposed bylaw to do so was opened for signatures during Monday’s Council of Ministers meeting, headed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

    Turkey’s Culture Ministry is scrambling to legally protect the country’s national anthem after a German musical society demanded compensation for copyright infringement from a Turkish school in the European country that played the song.

    GEMA, a society for composers, songwriters and music publishers that focuses on music licensing, had demanded the royalties from a Turkish school in Germany that played the “İstiklal Marşı” during its Turkish National Sovereignty and Children’s Day celebrations in April 2007.

    When their initial objections to GEMA’s demand proved unsuccessful, school administrators contacted the Turkish Culture Ministry for help. At this point, it became clear that despite having been the Turkish national anthem for the past 89 years, “İstiklal Marşı” had never been put under legal copyright protection.

    Turkey’s Law on Intellectual Property states that a work is protected for 70 years after the death of the person who created it.

    The poet who penned the words to the Turkish anthem, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, died in 1936, while the score’s composer, Zeki Üngör, died in 1958. This means that if the intellectual property rights are applicable to national anthems, rights to the song would still belong to Üngör’s estate.

    In order for GEMA to demand royalty payments for the song, the request would have to come from Üngör’s heirs, said lawyer Hakan Hanlı, the legal consultant for the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

    “If the request came from the inheritors, than GEMA can legally demand the payments,” he said Hanlı. “If an existing law does not exist protecting the anthem, then it must be added to the Law on Intellectual Property as soon as possible.”

    The lawyer added that a Council of Ministers decision would not be enough to legally protect the anthem.

    Abdurrahman Çelik, the Culture Ministry’s director for copyright and cinema, told the Anatolia news agency last week that the issue should have been taken care of earlier, but had been either neglected or forgotten until now.

    “If foreigners ask us to whom the national anthem belongs, nobody would understand us if we said that it is ‘our national anthem,’” Çelik said. “The main point of the proposed bylaw is to define the rights to it, so no one can illegitimately demand royalties.”