A traditional Turkish piece was featured in the music program that was aired on Formosa TV, one of Taiwan’s largest television channels. A music group performed the Katibim folk song known as “Üsküdar’a gider iken”. The presenter of the program, Li Zhiyi, stated that Turkey is a very special country and emphasized the richness of intonation and uses such as equal temperament in Turkish music. Expressing that the orchestra was specially prepared for the song, Li announced the song to be played in the program, saying, “Now we are taking you to a love song that belongs to a very different world.”
Taiwan’s Representative to Turkey Volkan Huang said about the program, “Turkish history and culture is very rich, we can see the effect of this in traditional Turkish music. The song “Üsküdar’a gider iken” has a completely different background from Taiwanese musical tones. Although they sing this song, as soon as you close your eyes, you can feel the view of Turkey and experience that special feeling brought by the melody.”
The friendship between Taiwan and the Turkish people started with the 1999 Gölcük earthquake in northwestern Turkey, and at that time, Taiwanese started an aid campaign to support Turkey. Right after the earthquake in Turkey, on September 21, Taiwan’s Nantou city was shaken by a 7.3-magnitude earthquake and the Turkish rescue and search team, which set out right after the disaster, participated in the search and rescue work in Taiwan. The rescue of a Taiwanese woman alive from the rubble by the Turkish teams had great repercussions in Taiwan and Turkish media at that time.