Aynur Aydan
Minister's Nightmare
Here's a figurative translation of the article above (written by Ergun Turgut for Hürriyet Gazetesi in the late 1990s) -- which takes a nostalgic look at two of Aynur Aydan's most famous and notorious scandals...
In 1978, Aynur Aydan became known as the woman who brought down a Minister -- because she was caught with Interior Minister Hasan Fehmi Guneş in very compromising circumstances. (Ed. Note: The married Interior Minister and Ms. Aydan were discovered by paparazzi shacked up in a private home owned by the Minister.)
After Guneş was forced to resign his post, Aydan's popularity sky-rocketed -- and lucrative offers for singing gigs poured in from bars, cafes, and night clubs. Some of her performances were actually very good, but she slowly slipped from the news -- as people forgot about the scandal and her.
Eventually, Aydan couldn't find work -- and she had to take action or slip into poverty. After considering a number of alternatives, she hit upon the idea of performing onstage in Mevlana Whirling Dervish costume. But (in 1984) when she and two male musicians formed a troupe and staged their first performance, they got an unexpected negative reaction. The general public view was that "Artists and singers should stick to their own metiers and not mix their work with religious affairs.
One of the persons most critical of Aydan was Konya's Culture and Tourism General Secretary Mehdi Halıcı. Halıcı said, "It's a sad day for the world when our great thinker Mevlana is used for crass entertainment. The sema dance has great significance -- and Mevlana would never approve a sema performance with women. It's not pleasant seeing people dressed in Mevlana style, and making money from it in a stage show. No one has a right to do this, Mevlana would turn over in his grave if he saw it...We want this commercial stage show stopped right away."
As a result of Halıcı's criticism, Aydan realized the error of her ways and immediately stopped the shows -- and gave up her Mevlana act. Since that day no performing artist has used our holy religious things to make money commercially. This was a highly sensitive subject in 1984 and it remains so today [1997]. We hope that no artist tries such a thing ever again.
Naughty naughty Aynur Aydan...
She gets a popularity boost for shacking up with the Interior Minister in 1978, but a heavy-handed slap on the wrist for 'commercialism' of Mevlana's Whirling Dervishes in 1984.
And, go figure.... Barely 20 years later, Mevlana's Whirling Dervishes were used in Konya to lure tourists to Turkey during the 2006 Eclipse of the Sun. Hmmm. Wasn't that an obvious 'commercial' use of the Dervishes too? Sure seems that way to us. But, such is life in Türkiye. Just when you think you've got the Turks all figured out and pigeonholed, they surprise you with something new.
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