Choir of Civilizations to perform Armenian songs in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Choir of Civilizations will give concerts in seven provinces in the seven geographical regions of Turkey.

Formed by Muslim, Christian and Jewish people, the choir gives message of peace, unity and solidarity with their songs and hymns. The 120-member choir was established by the Hatay Governor’s Office in southern Turkey in 2007. Songs and hymns are preformed in the Turkish, Armenian, Hebrew, Arab, Latin and Italian languages.

Concerts by the choir have been heard in Brussels by European Parliament members and in New York after Turkey’s election to the U.N. Security Council. “We have also taken the stage in Germany, Greece and Austria,” said Yılmaz Özfırat, chairman of the Choir of Civilizations Association.

In December the Choir of Civilizations is expected to be announced as a nominee for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. “We hope that we can win the prize,” the choir chairman said, speaking about a project to combine a church, a synagogue and a mosque in one location in Hatay. “We are going to prove to the whole world that adherents of different faiths can co-exist peacefully.” Özfirat said they submitted their project to give concerts in seven provinces to the Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency, or DOĞAKA.

“We plan to give concerts in Istanbul, Erzincan, Diyarbakir, Trabzon, Izmir, Antalya and Konya,” he said, Hurriyet Daily News reported.