In 2007, the town of Sibiu in Romania will be Europe's Cultural Capital for the year. The town is preparing for this momentous occasion- the municipality, sponsors and the town theatre, which is gaining quite a reputation in Europe, are all in a frenzy getting ready for this event. They are fully aware that this will be an important contribution to Romania's being accepted as a member of the EU.

Romanians are surrounded by Slavic languages with their neighbors on all sides and they, on the contrary, speak a Romance language. They consider this to be a sign of their ‘euroepanness' (It is interesting to note that there are many Turkish words in the everyday vocabulary of Romanians- kapak (lid), fil (elephant), sarma (rolls), çorba (soup) bahşiş (tip)- are just some examples. A fellow Turk, a businessman I met in Briala, has been compiling a list of these words and he says that he has pinpointed more then 200 thus far).

My friend Radu Alexandru Nica, who is a director, happened to mention something very interesting that I think is worth noting. Before the Chavushesku regime many people from different ethnic and national backgrounds (most of which were European by the way) used to live in Romania, which was then a peaceful country. The country was consequently oppressed with the change in regime and many foreigners chose to depart for other parts of Europe. But, the Turks residing in Romania, for reasons unknown, chose to stay behind and even today there are many Turk living in the southeastern part of Romania. There are even two Turks who work in the National Theatre- as staff carpenters!

In the last few years because of the downward trend in the economy Romania has become a cheap country for many foreigners, thus there has been an influx of foreigners. Especially Germans and Hungarians have moved to Romania- not only do these new arrivals happen to buy up land and acquire prestige they also seem to have a large influence in many regions, there is even a Hungarian political party. Romanians are not in any way wary of these developments.

Constantin Chiriac, the General Director of Art of the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibui successfully accomplished the 12. Sibui International Theatre Festival this year in May. It is unbelievable that this man put together this festival from scratch and with willpower as his driving force. Once again Europe's theatre elite gathered in Sibui and watched exceptional performances. A jazz festival, open air stagings and dance performances were realized in the town during the festival. Sibui, which in some respects seems to resemble a German town, ate, drank and breathed art for 11 days.

It seems a shame that a Turkish play has never been staged or a play directed by a Turkish director has never been produced during this festival. The saddest thing is that there don't seem to be many people who are trying to rectify this or many who understand the significance of saying ‘We are European through our approach to art'

But isn't the path to Europeanization paved with art, which brings together diverse cultures? That is a thought worth considering...

Kemal Basar

Editor
Director, Ankara State Theatre

kemalbasar@tiyatrokeyfi.com

Translated by Sirin Yener

"SO, WHO WILL REAP THE BENEFITS?"

"ON THE STATEMENT THAT "WE JUST CAN'T PRODUCE WRITERS"