The Diplomat
The 530th anniversary of the arrival of the Sephardic Jews in Ottoman lands is being commemorated and the Turkish Embassy has wanted to play a leading role by organising various cultural and musical activities.
Last Monday, these events began with the inauguration of the exhibition The Jews of Turkey, by the photographer Izzet Keribar (in the photo) and the documents provided by the Presidency of the State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic in the Centro Eduardo Úrculo Cultural, an event in which the Turkish ambassador, Burak Akçapar, welcomed the attendees.
This was followed by a short play in Ladino by the Moiz Theatre Group, and ended with a concert by the group Los Pasharos Sefaradis.
Today, Wednesday, the Centro Sefarad-Israel will be the venue for these commemorative events, with a seminar at 6 p.m. moderated by Dr. Ersin Adıgüzel, director of the Yunus Emre Institute, Turkish Cultural Centre, in which Dr. Miguel Angel de Bunes, research professor at the Institute of History of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), will speak on the Ottoman Empire and the Monarchy of the Catholic Monarchs in the second half of the 15th century, the birth of two Mediterranean Empires. He will be followed by Dr. Aitor Garcia Moreno, researcher and vice-director of the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and Near East of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), with a lecture on Judeo-Spanish, language of the Sephardim of the Ottoman Empire, to finish with the dissertation of Dr. Emre Özmen, researcher, University of Cordoba on The Sephardic world in the works of Beki L. Bahar. To attend this seminar please send your name and email to embajada.madrid@mfa.gov.tr.
