Perhaps you’ve noticed the numerous posters on campus about Barış Manço. Savaş Manço, his brother, has been working for the last three years to make January 1 “Barış ve Sevgi Günü” (A Day of Peace and Love). Barış Manço’s birthday was on January 2. However, the reason January 1 was chosen was because he himself always celebrated his birthday on January 1; whether because it is the first day of the year or because it is a holiday, no one knows for sure. Barış Manço was born on January 2, 1943, in the middle of the Second World War. To express the general desires of the time, he was named Barış, meaning peace. He was above all a world-renowned pop singer, was also prominent as a journalist, TV producer and traveller. He composed over 200 songs, many of which were translated into Greek, Japanese, Hebrew, English, French and Dutch, as well as sung and recorded by many other artists. Barış Manço was one of the most popular personalities of Turkey, and his sudden, untimely death on January 31, 1999 deeply affected all his fans.
Savaş Manço believes that commemorating a loved one on the anniversary of his death, is a way of making sure that his memory is not forgotten. Therefore, he proposes to commemorate his beloved brother on the day of his birth and not his death. At Bilkent, Yeni Ufuklar Kulübü has joined forces with Savaş Manço in order to achieve his goal. His projects include renaming a street in Liege, Belgium after Barış Manço, the place where he had made a second home for 36 years. If this is accomplished, it will be the first time that a street in Western Europe has been named after a Turkish artist. He also aims to turn his house into a Barış Manço Museum and a Turkish Art and Culture House. Savaş Manço says: “On January 1, between 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., more and more people will commemorate Barış Manço and wish each other a peaceful and loving year, because this is what people need most these days.”