Lebanese Armenian musician Eileen Khatchadourian has been recently in Turkey on April 24, for the Memorial Concert. This time she came for the Hrant Dink Award Ceremony to İstanbul. At this special evening she sang songs from her latest album ‘Titernig’ (Butterfly). We came together with her and talked about her identity shaped in various lands, her authentic interpretation of traditional Armenian songs and her feelings arising while being in Turkey.

Every single day, some terrible news about the immigrants from Syria comes to the fore. So, in these days, we would like to share the visual diary of the forced migration that the father and grandparents of our photography editor Berge Arabian went through. In 1930, they hit the road from Diyarbakir to Aleppo. The exhibition that was opened in Diyarbakir on May 23 will visit Istanbul and Erivan, and the book that is based on this exhibition is being prepared now. Armenians are one of the communities that history challenged with migrations and they had always been migrating in the Middle East which is stirred by civil wars. This story, which is like a reversed migration, is rather an expression of longing. It is like a gloomy “uzun hava” to the lost home, Diyarbakir.

The press conference of 14th Istanbul Biennial, which will open its doors to visitors on next Saturday, was held at Italian High School on September 2. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the curator of the biennial, made a long opening speech in Turkish and by this way, we understood that not only the artworks, but also Bakargiev’s energy will spread all over the city.

As the opening of Istanbul Biennial gets closer, it turns out that there are a lot of works that refer to the Armenian Genocide and the developments that followed it.

Last week, renowned Canadian film director Atom Egoyan was in Turkey for the first time. Although he had received many invitations from film festivals before, he had preferred not to come. He had legitimate reasons, fears and concerns. ‘Ararat’, the film he shot 13 years ago, had faced intense reaction and repression in Turkey; and could not be screened.

Tigran Hamasyan begun his tour with the Yerevan State Chamber Choir led by conductor Harutyun Topikyan titled ‘Luys i Luso (Light of Light)’, blending Armenian Churh Music with jazz, in June. Within the scope of this tour, Hamasyan has given concerts at Ani and Akhtamar, and will come to Istanbul after giving concerts in Diyarbakır, Kayseri and Vakıflı.

Known as the greatest living Armenian composer, Tigran Mansurian was in Istanbul for a special occasion. Although I was initially overwhelmed by his presence, thanks to his kindness and sincerity, our interview soon turned into a sweet conversation.

Eileen Khatchadourian, who achieved great popularity with her first album ‘Midan’ published in 2007, was also one of the most talked about artists of the ‘In Memoriam April 24’ concert.