Two countries. One sea. Centuries of shared songs, words, flavours and memories. Yet how well do Greeks and Turks really understand one another?
Is it language that separates us—or the stories we have learned to tell about each other?
This episode of “Infinitely Curious”, the English-language program of Voice of Greece, takes us to Tenedos/Bozcaada, where journalist Katerina Batzaki welcomes Altug Yilmaz, translator, editor, researcher and artistic director, joining us from the Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary (BIFED).
A founding member of the groundbreaking musical collective Kardeş Türküler (Songs of Fraternity), Yilmaz has spent decades building bridges between languages, cultures and identities.
Together, they explore what gets lost—and what can be rediscovered—in translation: from Greek and Turkish literature to censorship, minority voices, shared musical traditions and the powerful role of the media in shaping how neighbours see one another.
Can a song cross a border more easily than the truth? And can translation bring two societies closer—or reinforce the distance between them?
Perhaps understanding begins not with agreement, but with curiosity.
Produced and presented by Katerina Batzaki
Sound editing: Nikos Savorginakis