During the ceremony Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeted the Turkish soldiers, lining up in anticipation of the king's arrival, as the orchestra played the pre-revolutionary Russian march "Toska po rodine" ("Longing for home").
There is still vivid debate over the authorship of the march. While old gramophone records specify different names of Russian composers, like Trifonov D., Frolov V. and Kroup F., a number of music historians confirm that the music was first recorded by Kroup in St. Petersburg in 1905.
This musical surprise is not the first of its kind in Turkey. For instance, in January 2015,
Earlier, it was reported that the Turkish government's administration rented 500 Mercedes-Benz cars and reserved an entire luxury hotel for the Saudi king and his entourage. The Saudi leader is staying in a new five-star hotel located in a trendy district of Ankara and he even had his personal toilet specially delivered before his visit.
