Episodes

  • Episode 2, Part 4 - Music: “...I am a Murat, Mercedes I can’t be.”

    Episode 2, Part 4 - Music: “...I am a Murat, Mercedes I can’t be.”
    Jul 3 2026
    In 1966, Fiat produced one of its most influential cars: the Fiat 124. Fiat had high expectations for the vehicle, so it launched an ambitious publicity campaign to introduce it. In the famous advertisement, a Fiat 124 was dropped by parachute from a plane along with five crew members. The car became so influential that it almost immediately attracted the attention of several states seeking to develop national automobile industries. One of them was the Soviet Union.

    The Soviet Union entered bilateral talks with Fiat in 1966 and signed an agreement for Fiat to establish a massive automobile manufacturing plant in Samara Oblast under the name VAZ—the Russian acronym for Volga Automotive Plant. The first car produced under this collaboration was based on the design of the Fiat 124 and was named the VAZ-2101.

    The name VAZ-2101, however, underwent two important modifications for marketing purposes. The first concerned the domestic market: a robotic designation such as VAZ-2101 simply would have failed to resonate with people. VAZ designer A. M. Cherny proposed a name inspired by the strong winds sweeping across the hills surrounding Tolyatti—the Zhiguli Hills. Thus, the model name “Zhiguli” was born, evoking speed and movement.

    The second modification addressed foreign markets. Exports to Western countries, especially non-Slavic ones, presented a linguistic challenge. The pronunciation of “Zhiguli” coincidentally sounded awkwardly similar to the word “gigolo.” As a result, the name “Lada” was chosen as a more suitable export brand, drawing inspiration from the Slavic goddess of beauty and love.

    Zhiguli would go on to dominate the Soviet market, enjoying a level of popularity that arguably no other automobile achieved in the Soviet Union and beyond. Yet this name is rarely known in Turkey through the car; but rather through an accordionist…

    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.Join us as we follow the footsteps of the winds of Zhiguli Mountains and the storms it bestowed upon the Balkans!

    Because this is Skala / Iskele!

    Follow, listen, contact!
    Webpage: skalaiskele.com
    Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
    Spreaker: /radioskalaiskele
    Spotify: /radioskalaiskeleLinktree: /collectiveskalaiskele
    Info: radio.skala-iskele@protonmail.com

    Narration: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
    Editing - Production: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
    Dubbing: Kavel, Lara

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

    List of Apperance:

    Arion Fırat Doğan
    Hüseyin Kaya Çavuş
    Ozan Kurt
    Praksis 1
    Praksis 2

    Music List in Appearance (Artist - Song):

    Ciguli - Yugoslav Köçek
    Brenna McCrimmon and Selim Sesler - Kalamatya
    Praksis - Açlık Ordusu
    Leopold Gad - Πηραν Τα Φρυγανα Φοτια, Πολη
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Episode 2, Part 3 - Music: “...and by sheer luck, we happened to be in its path.”

    Episode 2, Part 3 - Music: “...and by sheer luck, we happened to be in its path.”
    Jun 24 2026
    Episode 2, Part 3 - Music: “...and by sheer luck, we happened to be in its path.”

    In a 2019 television appearance, Ertan Saban shared an anecdote about the renaming of his homeland to North Macedonia, reflecting on history through the words of his father. During the negotiations between Greece and Macedonia, both states reached an agreement regarding their respective claims over the heritage of historical Macedonia, ultimately resolving one of the lingering disputes following the collapse of Yugoslavia through the adoption of the name “North Macedonia.”

    As the name change became official, Saban recalls seeing his father—a man of few words, a karate master, a no-nonsense figure—quietly absorbed in the news on television. Curious, Saban asked what he thought about it. His father’s response did not disappoint:

    “Son, I was born in Yugoslavia, in Skopje. Then I raised you in FYROM—the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Then I continued my life in Macedonia. And now I live in North Macedonia. I travelled through four different countries without ever leaving my home.”

    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.

    After a long pause, we still invite you to join our journey in seeking to understand “the music that carries us away.”

    Because this is Skala / Iskele!

    Follow, listen, contact!

    Webpage: skalaiskele.com
    Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
    Spreaker: /radioskalaiskele
    Spotify: /radioskalaiskele

    Linktree: /collectiveskalaiskele
    Info: radio.skala-iskele@protonmail.com

    Narration: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
    Editing - Production: Ozan Mirkan Balpetek
    Dubbing: Kavel

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

    List of Apperance:
    Arion Fırat Doğan
    Hüseyin Kaya Çavuş

    Music List in Appearance (Artist - Song):
    Achileas Poulos - Chakiji Zeibek
    Markos Melkon - To Dervisaki
    Achilleas Poulos - Neden Geldim Amerika’ya
    Murmurrica - Promo
    Müzisyen Kahvesi Çamdibi Müzisyenleri (Taken from: ToneGeo Musicmap / YouTube)
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • Episode 2, Part 2 - Music: “...and the Slow Everlasting Groan of Overburdened Stone”

    Episode 2, Part 2 - Music: “...and the Slow Everlasting Groan of Overburdened Stone”
    Dec 14 2025
    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: radio.skala-iskele@protonmail.com

    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
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • Episode 2, Part 1 - Music: "...My Dialogue With that Which I Perceive to be Sacred"

    Episode 2, Part 1 - Music: "...My Dialogue With that Which I Perceive to be Sacred"
    Dec 5 2025
    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: radio.skala-iskele@protonmail.com

    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
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins
  • Episode 1, Part 2 - Memory: "...the Gaps Left Within Us by the Secrets of Others"

    Episode 1, Part 2 - Memory: "...the Gaps Left Within Us by the Secrets of Others"
    Nov 17 2025
    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: radio.skala-iskele@protonmail.com

    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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Episode 1, Part 1 - Memory: “...the Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting”

    Episode 1, Part 1 - Memory: “...the Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting”
    Nov 7 2025
    Episode 1, Part 1 - Memory: “The Struggle of Man Against Power is the Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting”

    30th of January, 1923. Signatures were made regarding the Exchange of Populations between Turkey and Greece.

    Both parties started their agreement with ARTICLE Number 1:

    Beginning on 1 May 1923, a compulsory exchange (obligatoire) shall be undertaken between Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox religion settled in Turkish territory and Greek nationals of the Muslim religion settled in Greek territory. None of these persons shall be permitted to return to Turkey without the authorisation of the Turkish Government or to Greece without the authorisation of the Greek Government.

    In 65 words, roughly 2 million people’s fate was sealed. They would soon be driven from their land, where they can’t protest. The French word “Obligatoire” was used specifically due to the diplomatic language of the era being French: but moreso, to not leave any space for misinterpretation. The departure had to take place not by choice, but by obligation.

    Today, the exchangees and the migrants of that era are not around us much. But does that mean their memory also vanished? What if the ghosts of the past still surround us, haunting the present with the past's demand for justice? What if they reappear in other shapes and forms? What if they can be an abandoned church, a demolished hamam, a boat carrying migrants, or a scream from Palestine?

    And if so, what do we do with this memory? How can we mourn for a past through a memory? How can we reconcile with it for a better future?

    Or maybe, the fact that both in Turkey and in Greece the simple dessert of Lokma / Loukouma is given away during the funerals is just a coincidence…

    Our first episode, "Memory," will dive deep into these questions in two parts.
    Because this is Skala / Iskele!

    Follow, listen, contact!
    Instagram: @collectiveskalaiskele
    Spotify: /radioskalaiskele
    Info: radio.skala-iskele@protonmail.com

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

    Theme Song: Onur Şentürk (@zermosi )
    Music: Praksis - Eman Eman (@praksismuzik)
    Logo Design: Roni Batte (@ronikkoo )

    List of appereance:
    Dimitris Kamouzis
    Kostis Karpozilos
    Leonidas Karakatsanis
    Serhat Güvenç
    Esat Ergelen
    Andreas Kılçıksız
    Spyros Tsouvanopoulos
    Fatma Inci
    Olga Lafazani
    Ezgi Koman
    Burak Kanmaz
    Gizem Metindağ
    Fotini Tsibiridou
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins