from the Netherlands, came to Istanbul and performed at the legendary jazz club Babylon. Afterwards, they gave concerts in Anatolian cities like Malatya, Kayseri, in the Kurdish town of Diyarbakir, even in the easternmost province of Kars. Avantgarde, Tango, Balkan-Beat, Tarantella - all styles were represented. The audience was passionate, and the Turkish media covered the Accordion Days with great interest.

In 2006, when Finland took over the EU presidency at a time when actual negotiations over Turkey’s EU membership were underway, Hazar organized the festival „Finland and Turkey - Partners in Tango“ on behalf of the Finnish Embassy of Turkey. Local authorities granted special permission for the five-hour live programme with over 25 musicians from Finland, a dozen musicians from Turkey and hundreds of dancers on the square in front of Istanbul’s historic Galata Tower, where otherwise loud music was not permitted. The condition was that the music stops when the muezzin calls for prayer. Well, the reigning AKP was also flirting with the EU at the time.

This festival was a huge success too because tango is a popular music style and dance in Turkey. There are dozens of tango songs in the Turkish language. The same is true for the Finnish people, who take tango like a sport for young and old and love romantic tango songs in Finnish.

A few days later CNN-Türk broadcast a 1.5-hour excerpt from the festival. The Finnish and Turkish musicians performed in Ankara and Izmir afterwards.