It was supposed to be a cultural event for a Turkish educational foundation in the town of Cesme, west of Smyrna featuring one of Greece’s most popular pop singers, Despina Vandi.
The open-air amphitheater in the town was filled with fans. A Turkish flag and a banner of Kemal Ataturk hung at the back of the stage, its entire length from top to bottom.
With the burden of her own family’s history on her shoulders, as well as the weight of an entire nation that was impacted by the actions of Ataturk– Despina Vandi canceled her appearance at the last minute.
The audience booed as the announcement was made by Cesme’s mayor that Vandi refused to perform. The Turkish press vilified Vandi and armies of Turkish social media users left vitriolic messages on her various social media accounts, as well as those of her daughter Melina and even boyfriend.
According to an Instagram post by the singer, the organizers changed the event from a concert into ““a prohibited and non-agreed political connotation.”
The singer, whose family hails from the once-Greek populated Pontos region of Turkey, which experienced a genocide of its Greek population, would later make an additional statement that she could never sing in front of a banner of the butcher of the Greeks.”
Despina Vandi trended on X with Turks and Greeks, respectively, criticizing and congratulating her last minute cancellation.
A Greek singer’s appearance in Turkey isn’t unique. Glykeria has been singing in the country for decades, as have Haris Alexiou, George Dalaras and others. But their shows have always been carefully managed and protected from being politicized.
Vandi’s team must have been caught off guard and local organizers must have withheld the details about the Ataturk banner being placed so prominently on the stage.
Given the historical weight of the 1922 war between the two countries and the massive exchange of populations and massacres and upheaval of an entire generation of Greeks that Kemal Ataturk perpetrated, no logical Greek performer would agree to sing with such a backdrop.
