Scores of people rushed to the city center in Izmir on Friday morning, hours before a Turkish “mega star” started a rare public concert, commemorating the Turkish nationalist victory against Greek occupying forces a hundred years ago.
Tarkan, whose recent song “Geccek” (This will pass) became hugely popular among secular opposition as it is thought to symbolize the end of the reign of President Tayyip Erdogan, stayed on scene for two and a half hours.
The concert which Turkish media claimed as the 5th largest free event ever in the world, felt like an opposition meeting, as CHP (Republican People’s Party) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu posed for cameras with a Turkish flag in his hands.
The concert goers also unfurled a flag that was 350 meters long.
Before the concert, the symbolic events of the nationalist struggle against the Greek forces were reenacted by the stage performers for 40 minutes.
Izmir was occupied in 1919 by the Greek forces backed by the British government after WWI. But when the British cut its support, Greek forces had to retreat after a heavy defeat in 1922.
Source: Gerçek News
