In 1962, Mikis Theodorakis found himself in Cuba as part of a mission of the then EDA (United Democratic Left), visiting the island three years after the Cuban Revolution. During their trip, a feast was organized on the top floor of the “Havana Libre Hotel”, formerly known as the Hilton.

There, Theodorakis found himself surrounded by Cuban revolutionaries: Fidel Castro, ministers of the revolutionary cabinet, and various figures of the movement. Their conversations revolved around Cuba’s current political climate and the global geopolitical landscape.

Although the Cubans were deeply familiar with Ancient Greece, Theodorakis notes that they knew little about Modern Greece: “Homer”, “Aristotle”, and “Acropolis” were the three words he kept hearing directed toward him.

As the dinner neared its end, the orchestra began playing a song — a song that would not only mark the beginning of a great friendship, but whose story would also gift us an earworm...

It would have been a disservice to this project — which encapsulates the Population Exchange and migration — not to touch upon the topic of music.We continue from where we left off, moving further into the ways music binds identity, home, and migration together.

And the understanding of people, nation, and land.Across three parts, we invite you to join our journey in seeking to understand “the music that carries us away.

”Because this is Skala / Iskele!

Follow, listen, contact!

Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
Spotify: /radioskalaiskeleLinktree: /collectiveskalaiskele
Info: [email protected]

Narration: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
Editing - Production: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek, Dirk Tobias Reijne
Dubbing: Kavel

Theme Song: Onur Şentürk (@zermosi)
Logo Design: Roni Batte (@ronikkoo)

List of Apperance:

Andreas Kilciksiz
Loukas Metaxas
Onur Şentürk

Music List in Appearance (Artist - Song):

Mikis Theodorakis -  An Thimithis to Oniro Mou (Covered by: Stamatis Stabos)
Pontic Firebird - Yietierre
Urban Modal - Karşıyaka’da İzmir’in Gülü
Hariçten Gazelciler - Yollar
Siamidis K. & Kourtidis G. - Tikia Touloum
Kotsari (Κότσαρι)
Urban Modal - I Maritsa I Smyrnia
Urban Modal - Hovarda Zeybek / Αιβαλιώτικο Ζειμπέκικο

Episode 2, Part 1 - Music:  “Music is the language of my dialogue with that which I perceive to be sacred.”

When Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem “Perfume Exotique” was translated into Turkish by Orhan Veli Kanık, Kanık made a particularly crafty choice. As a poet himself, instead of repeating the word “exotic,” he tenderly rendered it as “Alıp Götüren Koku” — “The Scent That Carries You Away.”

And don’t we do get carried away when “that music” plays? It is very common to hear from people in both Turkey and Greece that they are transported the moment they hear each other’s music.

Take rebetiko, for instance: Why is it that every time someone from Turkey hears a rebetiko song from Piraeus, even if the words are unintelligible, the feeling is not? The yearning, the joy, the sorrow, the violence — how is it so easy to understand “The Music That Carries You Away” ?

It would have been a disservice to this project — which encapsulates the Population Exchange and migration — not to touch upon the topic of music.

So we dove headfirst into the matter and traversed the Aegean, seeking to understand why this music carries us away. And as often happens, the journey itself became more meaningful than the mountaintop. Our exploration led us not only into the realms of the Population Exchange and music, but also toward questions of modernity, nation-building, and the political projections of musical traditions around the Aegean.

Across three parts, we invite you to join our journey in seeking to understand “the music that carries us away.”

Because this is Skala / Iskele!

Follow, listen, contact!

Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
Spotify: /radioskalaiskele
Linktree: /collectiveskalaiskele
Info: [email protected]

Narration: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
Editing - Production: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek, Dirk Tobias Reijne
Dubbing: Kavel

Theme Song: Onur Şentürk (@zermosi)
Logo Design: Roni Batte (@ronikkoo)

List of Apperance:

Haris Sarris

Music List in Appearance (Artist - Song):

Nomads of the Silk Road - Uskudar’a Giderken
Yasin Xidir, Mihemmed Hemud - Kul Alhana
Koliadnyky of Kryvorivnia - Duda
Thrax Punx - Pses Eida
Sex, Drugs & Rebetiko - REBETIKO A1
Maria Papagika - Manaki Mou
Ehl-i Keyif - Hicazkar “Yağcılar” Zeybek

Episode 1, Part 2 - Memory: “"What haunts are not the dead, but the gaps left within us by the secrets of others"

Magnificent memories and amazing fears!

In 2017, Kerem Soyyılmaz and his family decided to renovate their grandparents’ house in their village of Karacaköy, located in Çatalca, Istanbul.

That summer, a gravestone was discovered beneath the foundation of the house: “Here lies the servant of God, Chrysoula Rodaki.” They were only able to understand the date — March 1887 — as the inscription was in Greek. Kerem then embarked on a personal journey to uncover the story of the gravestone, hoping to find its rightful owners. What he witnessed along the way eventually became a documentary that intertwines questions of past and identity, but, more importantly, brings forth a story of closure, reconciliation, and friendship. He uncovered many of the “known secrets” of his hometown, along with ghost and treasure stories woven around the gravestone and the village itself.

Of course, who believes in ghosts? They are nothing but fairy tales. And treasure hunts belong only in novels and myths.

But what if some ghosts and treasures do exist? What if the people who swore they saw them — on everything they hold sacred — are telling the truth?

What if the ghosts of the past still surround us, haunting the present with their unresolved demands for justice? What if they reappear in other shapes and forms? What if they are an abandoned church, a demolished hamam, a boat carrying migrants, or a scream from Palestine?

Or the final remnants of a violent tragedy we have never managed to overcome?

Well, we believe we have a word or two to say about that in the Part 2 of our Episode "Memory"!

Because this is Skala / Iskele!

Follow, listen, contact!
Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
Spotify: /radioskalaiskele
Linktree: /collectiveskalaiskele
Info: [email protected]

Narration: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
Editing - Production: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek, Dirk Tobias Reijne
Dubbing: Kavel, Fotini, Kostis, Tobi, Christina K., and Christina S. t

Theme Song: Onur Şentürk (@zermosi)
Music: Praksis – Düş, Gezgin, Bu Daha Başlangıç! (@praksismuzik)
Logo Design: Roni Batte (@ronikkoo)

List of Appearance:
Tuba Emiroglu
Berrin Akın Akbüber
Michalis Nikolau
Fırat Doğan
Lülüfer Körükmez
Kerem Soyyılmaz
Maria Megalopoulou
Cundalı Tanju
Nicola Sacco
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Serhat Güvenç
Fatih Aydın
Mert Kaya
Elmas Köçkün
Ürün Perçin Boyacıoğlu
Panos Tzouvelekis
Leonidas Karakatsanis
Haris Sarris

Where to begin... Maybe, why we believed to look at the Population Exchange that took place between Turkey and Greece almost 100 years ago is still meaningful to understand migration today.

Migrants are becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. In the rush of our urban lives, the presence of the migrants as “the other” is becoming more present yet invisible at the same time. In Izmir, once the flourishing Greek neighborhood of Basmane which witnessed massive depopulation between ‘22 and ‘23, today hosts thousands of migrants from all over the world. In Athens, housing projects such as Prosfigika, which was designed to host the exchanged Greeks of Asia Minor a hundred years ago, are hosting migrants today yet again. It is very evident that these are not mere coincidences, however, one begs the question: What relationship do they possess with each other? What can we learn from the memory of the Population Exchange and project that experience to work on a better future today? Through which practices do migrants reproduce the cities that we live in today and how did they do it in the past? Can life itself become a form of resistance through cultural reproduction tools for migrants such as music, food, and coexistence, wherein their name almost became synonymous with hatred and exclusion today? 

“Skala / İskele: A Transnational Podcast Project” aims to pursue these questions by following the trail of diversity and richness of migration 100 years ago and today.

With more than 60 guests from 6 different cities, we took a journey, believing that "Fighting for a better past means fighting for a better future". And this is the begining of our story.

Follow and contact us!
Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
Info: [email protected]