TPAO Batman

The band TPAO Batman was founded in 1963 by Ahmet Akman.^[2] Initially, the ensemble was playing dance music and jazz. But they soon became familiar with the folk music of the area around the refinery, called Türkü, and they included arranged folk songs to their repertoire. Although Ahmet Akman left the group, they continued up to 2000.^[2] The band consisted of İlhan Telli (keyboard and vocals), Semih Özmert (drums), Çetin Oral (bass guitar), Ünal Yiğitbaş (saxophone) and Atilla Akman (solo guitar).^[2]

Between 1965 and 1968, newspaper Hürriyet organized annual music contests, Golden Microphone and TPAO Batman participated in 1966, 1967 and 1968. In these contests, the participants were required to play either new creations or arranged folkloric melodies. The TPAO Batman entries were as follows :^[3]

Year	Name of the song	Rank
1966	Kaleden Top Atarlar	(Qualified for the finals)
1976	Karatoprak	(Qualified for the finals)
1968	Meşelidir Enginde Dağlar	Prize

With these melodies, the band, hitherto quite unknown outside the TPAO circles, made a name. In addition to the melodies listed above, Fırat Kenarında Yüzen Kayıklar (“The rowboats sailing in Euphrates”), a melody on the reverse side of 1966 entry record, earned them a nationwide reputation.