Former San Francisco singer/teacher Alexandra Ivanoff, has been reporting about music from Turkey (she has now moved to Berlin). Her recent column is about the Atatürk Cultural Center on Taksim Square, formerly home to the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, Istanbul State Symphony, and Istanbul State Theater, but now used by police to guard the center of protests against the government:
Now it's the symbol of dysfunction, disgrace and the de facto destruction of everything Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, stood for in his embrace of Western democracy and artistic life. The AKM is presently a makeshift karakul — barracks for riot police — and the facade is covered with a red advertising banner that completely obliterates the words “Atatürk Kültür Merkezi.” No wonder the new generation here has no idea what it is.
Another, related item from Turkey is that the Opera and Ballet are now under Islamic dress code, banning "sleeveless cotton, shorts, tights, stretch jeans, sandals, slippers, nail-heeled shoes, evening dresses, and so on." That "so on" could cover a lot of ground.