Children playing with a pop can on Istiklal street in Beyoğlu district of  Istanbul, Turkey.

Sounds of children playing with a pop can - 2017

On July 15, 2016, a military coup organized by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, allegedly under the order of the US-based cleric Fetullah Gülen and his Hizmet (Service) Movement, formerly in collaboration with but now at odds with the Turkish government, attempted to take control of the state. At that time, I was in Toronto and started to receive phone calls and voice messages from close friends and family in Turkey. They felt that the urgency of the situation would only be conveyed through hearing the horrifying, confusing, clashing acoustic space in Ankara and Istanbul created by the battling power centers. I received several audio recordings of this soundscape: a juxtaposition of a form of Islamic call known as Sala followed by announcements coming from mosques, amidst the deafening sonic booms of the F16 fighter jets flying over the city. This recording is a short collage of some of these audio messages.  

In this recording, we first hear the clashing sounds of the F16 fighter jets and the Sala recitation. Then, we hear the following announcements. "To defend our democracy against this traitorous coup attempt, our president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asks our people to go out and reclaim public squares and show disapproval of such intervention, for the sake of Allah and our democracy.” These recited Salas, and following announcements were under the direction of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, shortly known as the Diyanet, a state institution in charge of administering and controlling over 90.000 mosques in Turkey.

*The image from: YeniAkit. "Diyanet ’15 Temmuz’ etkinliğine hazır." July 5, 2018. https://www.yeniakit.com.tr/haber/diyanet-15-temmuz-etkinligine-hazir-489390.html

July 15 Coup Attempt - F16 fighter jets vs. Sala and announcements - 2016

Nil Basdurak is a PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology at University of Toronto. Her research explores the everyday politics of soundscape in Beyoğlu district in Istanbul, Turkey.