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Wells of Knowledge:
Streams of poetry, music and resistance in Turkey
+
Merve Kılıçer
+
“If history writing does not emancipate, it must be serving tyranny.”
+Cemal Kafadar, ‘Kendine ait bir Roma’, pg.1
+
+In 2012, rumors started about a shopping mall to be built in the place of Gezi Park 1 near Taksim
+Square in İstanbul. This park had not necessarily been in good shape for a while, but it offered a
+shaded passage way for passersby, benches for the homeless, a playground for children and most
+importantly, it was the last bit of green space in the concrete face of our cosmopolitan home. The
+whole project was called ‘Taksim Yayalaştırma Projesi' (Project for The Pedestrianization of Tak-
+sim) and the ruling government of AKP was insistent on realizing it despite the oppositions from
+TMMOB (the chamber of architects) and solidarity organizations against gentrification like İstanb-
+ul Kent Savunması (Istanbul City Defence) and Taksim Dayanışması (Taksim Solidarity). In fact,
+many people had already been protesting and showing resistance against such projects that demol-
+ished historic buildings of the area in the name of ‘urban transformation’. At first, protests evolving
+around such projects were small scale and the police were aggressive enough to diffuse the crowd.
+Things started to intensify when Emek Cinema, a historic cinema theatre, was demolished to be-
+come a shopping mall in the spring of 2013. Following this event, more people started joining envi-
+ronmentalist groups camping and organizing small concerts at Gezi park to raise awareness. On
+29th of May, many people including myself were notified through friends and social media that the
+trees of the park were being uprooted by the construction company and that police forces attacked
+people who tried to resist them. When the police blocked all entrances to the Taksim Square and
+the park, it marked the beginning of the biggest protest in the history of the Republic of Turkey.
+Demonstrations started in Istanbul, around Taksim and spread across the country with the slogan
+‘Her yer Taksim Her yer Direniş’, translating ‘Everywhere is Taksim, Resistance Everywhere’.
+I was also with the protestors as I had spent most of my youth in Taksim and the Beyoğlu neigh-
+borhood and I wasn't going to sit behind while they destroyed my home town. After two days of
+protests and battle with the police, security forces finally stepped out of the square, hence starting
+the 2 week long-occupation of Taksim Square. In the days of occupation, the park and square be-came fully pedestrianized because all the roads were blocked with barricades, and money exchange
+was not necessary due to the donations the movement had received with emerging solidarity prac-
+tices.
+The occupation was a historic event for all of the country. It was like falling in love. It was terrify-
+ing. It was traumatizing. It took lives. And it brought lives together. It was hopeful. And fearful. It
+was a reverberation of the un/under/misrepresented multitude of Turkey. And we were clueless
+about where to go from there. I remember an international journalist had asked me if it was a polit-
+ical protest. I said, ‘No, there are no political parties behind this movement’ as my understanding
+of what politics could be was limited. We were just an ‘apolitical generation’ who rebelled out of
+nowhere, surprising the entire country.
+After 7 years, I’m still trying to figure out how and why we managed to come together. Surely pro-
+tecting a green area that belonged to our home, protecting friends and the increasing level of op-
+pression were the instinctive push points but my real question is: how did the spirit of Gezi Park
+come to life?
+
+
+The park brought together people from different economic backgrounds, ethnicities and beliefs,
+manifesting the idea that when we stand together we are heard. And our voice carried all the tunes,
+rhythms and stories of Turkey. To analyze this historic moment, I’ve been listening closely to the
+echoes of this voice through researching cultural and folkloric production in the history of this
+land. I asked myself: Could the accumulation of these voices and words be the forming substances
+of Gezi Spirit? What kind of knowledge do we inherit from the land we feel rooted in? Which are
+the stories we were raised with and how did they shape our perception of the world and ‘other’
+people we share it with?
+
+
+Learning and unlearning the tenets of our upbringing is a process of growth. At the park, we wit-
+nessed the clash of all the false and accurate knowledge we were introduced to throughout our
+lives. This clash brought us a little closer to the understanding of what is political and how we can
+have a voice in it while building an idea of a different future. Starting this research was not easybecause history is always somehow mystified and obscured. It feels like looking down into a well
+with twinkling eyes and trying to see the bottom. Looking at myself on the fluctuating deep dark
+surface, I started to ask simple questions about my own history. I looked at memories and mo-
+ments of growth that could shed light on what direction I should take after the protests. I started
+listening back to the songs of my childhood which I had memorized without questioning their
+meaning or understanding when I heard people chanting them. I realized that most of them were
+originally poems and that by following such cultural productions I had accessed an abundance of
+alternative streams of knowledge that were previously hidden to me.
+Poetry and music start their journey together and develop in parallel with each other, rooting into
+the culture. The first Turkish poets were shamans, of the nomad Turkish communities, whom were
+called Kam, Baksı, Ozan alongside many other names. These shamanic figures were often wander-
+ers or minstrels who traveled with their instruments from land to land, chanting their own poems
+and those of their predecessor. They were storytellers who narrated with poetry, music, dance and
+plays. Such practices are common in many cultures around the world and although the societies
+and beliefs went through significant changes over time, this method of carrying knowledge re-
+mained part of everyday life.
+
+
+Kalktı Göç Eyledi Avşar Elleri,
+Ağır Ağır Giden Eller Bizimdir.
+Arap Atlar Yakın Eder ırağı,
+Yüce Dağdan Aşan Yollar Bizimdir.
+/
+Rised and migrated the Avşar tribes,
+The folk slowly moving is ours.
+Arabic horses render the distances close,
+The paths overrunning the mighty mountains are ours.
+
+Dadaloğlu’s (18th cc) epical folk poem was chanted by Ruhi Su in 1960’s
+
+
Islam started spreading through similar traditions of folkloric chanting and poetry migrating from
+regions today known as Iran (Horasan) and Afghanistan. In time, many nomadic tribes of Central
+Asia started abandoning their polytheistic beliefs, like the shamanic belief Tengrism 2 , and started
+joining Islam. In this process Islam became greatly influenced by previous belief systems and
+merged in their ritualistic way of relating with nature and the world beyond. The teachings of the
+Sufi leaders, were being carried through dervish followers and minstrels called Ashik who usedsimilar instruments and poetic forms as old shamans. Through these figures who improvised and
+chanted stories of the past and present, Islamic myths and epic stories started spreading in Anato-
+lia. When Ottoman rule first started spreading through the region (13 th century), they joined forces
+with other Turkic dominions and gradually became a powerful empire. The newly-built Sufi
+schools and trained minstrels had a key role in educating people and spreading the school's specific
+rhetoric. Some of the guiding figures and masters of this process were famous Islamic thinkers and
+folk poets such as Yunus Emre, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi and Hacı Bektaş-i Veli.
+A similar version of this musical chanting practice along with poetry made its way into the Ot-
+toman Palace and helped create the Ottoman classical music with the initiative of Sultans from dif-
+ferent eras. In the palace, men were taught at the Enderun (Palace) School and women received
+musical training at the Harem of Topkapı Palace. These two paths of music and literature, in folk-
+lore production and in palace music, led my curiosity and this research through different parts of
+history. While researching about the history of palace music, I learned about the involvement of
+female musicians, poets and their increased presence in the public sphere with the arrival of mod-
+ernism. For this essay, I follow the path of folkloric production which relates to the current political
+issues and represents different ethnic communities of Anatolia. My family does not belong to a mi-
+nority group of Turkey but growing up in a diverse and historic city like Istanbul, one becomes
+aware of the misinformation we are taught within the education system. This type of history telling,
+which glorifies nationalistic qualities, is common all around the world and eliminates stories of mi-
+norities and critical thinking methods. To emancipate myself and my practice, it is meaningful to
+investigate the past through folkloric production that has reached our present day. Following Ashik
+traditions 3 and practices has been helping me to travel in time and listen to the stories of people
+from different centuries. This tradition which has been taught and transferred through mentoring,
+allows this volatile knowledge 4 to flow and continue reaching different audiences.
+Bize de Banaz'da Pir Sultan derler
+Bizi de kem kişi bellemesinler
+Paşa hademine tembih eylesin
+Kolum çekip elim bağlamasınlar
+Hüseyin Gazi Sultan binsin atına
+Dayanılmaz çarh-ı felek zatına
+Bizden selâm söylen ev külfetineÇıkıp ele karşı ağlamasınlar
+/
+They call me Pir Sultan in Banaz
+Do not suppose I’m the sinister one
+Pasha should advice his servants
+Not to pull my arm and tie my hands
+May Hüseyin Gazi Sultan* ride his horse
+Irresistible to his çarh-ı felek** self
+Send our salutes to the burdened household
+They should not shed tears in presence of strangers
+*An important Islamic war hero celebrated by the Bektaş-i Alevi community)
+**The navy rifle that turns and sparks when lit
+-Pir Sultan Abdal’s poem was chanted by Ashik Veysel in 1961
+
+
+In Anatolian lands, when the majority of people converted to Islam, it influenced the language and
+the way people related to their entourage. Gradually, the Islamic lodges became institutional enti-
+ties with political power within the Ottoman Empire. Specially the lodge of Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli had
+central importance for the Alevi 5 communities with the Ashik tradition playing a key role in com-
+municating their beliefs and world views. For instance, Pir Sultan Abdal, a dervish and poet, fol-
+lower of Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli, became a political figure and defended social equality with a critical
+approach towards the Ottoman Empire. In fact, in Turkey, Alevi culture is often associated with
+socialist ideologies due to the similarities in their approach to commonality and has been systemat-
+ically silenced for expressing critical views or starting riots against authority. The oppressive atti-
+tude of the ruling authorities towards Alevi communities has continued long since the collapse of
+the Empire.
+After this fall of the Ottoman Empire following the 1st World War, folk of Anatolia, with different
+ethnicities and cultures, came together in order to save the land from western colonizers and fight
+the War of Independence with the leadership of Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
+The republic settled after negotiations with the invaders and reforms were made terminating reli-
+gious tariqas 6 in order to start a new secular state. The intention of unifying people, led the new
+state to evolve around nationalistic ideologies which gradually eliminated the diverse fabric of the
+land. This orientation reflected on the themes of anthems and torch songs that narrated epics
+about the independence war and glorified the ‘Turkic’ nation. These ideologies were propagated
+faster around the country with the arrival of new sound recording technologies (gramophones,phonographs) and communication lines (telegraph, radio). However, despite the first radio broad-
+casting starting in 1927, it was only after the 1950’s that radio and the nationalistic propaganda it
+brought along was able to reach all regions of central Anatolia. The westernization in music had
+already started in the last decades of Ottoman Empire with European notation techniques being
+introduced to archive songs composed in the palace. During the first years of the new republic, ra-
+dio broadcasts had an important role in spreading the reforms of westernization and educating the
+rural (folk) population. Even though Turkey was a free republic, the geopolitical position of the
+country alongside its urgent need to catch up with new technologies and the remaining debts of the
+Ottoman rendered it vulnerable towards cultural colonization. With the aim of defining the identity
+of ‘national music’, from 1926 till the end of the 1940’s trips were organized to archive (notate,
+record on vinyl) the folkloric production in Anatolia. The archived content was used to teach west-
+ern educated musicians to perform folkloric tunes on a few of the radio programs that transmitted
+folk music. At times, these programs invited Ashik figures to play live. Ashik Veysel, one of the
+most famous Ashik of the late Ottoman and early Republic times, was the only Ashik with Alevi
+roots to be played on the radio. Even though in the 1930’s he was titled as the national poet of the
+state, his Alevi roots, were still not recognized. In the 1940’s he was teaching to play cura at several
+Village Institutes 7 (1942-1947) where he encountered Ruhi Su and many other musicians and intel-
+lectuals from Istanbul.
+
+The cultural production of those years can serve as a recording of the political climate around the
+country. Starting from the 1950’s the western educated musicians, like Ruhi Su, Tülay German,
+Sümeyra Çakır or Fikret Kızılok, in order to stay connected to their roots, started combining folk-
+loric tunes and themes with popular western instruments and methods. While Tülay German
+adopted folklore songs into jazz tunes and collaborated with Ashiks that migrated to the city, Fikret
+Kızılok went to study with Ashik Veysel in Anatolia and made records with the songs of his mentor.
+
+This new approach was the result of the emigration of Anatolian folk (especially the minorities) to-
+wards big cities to work in factories or study at the universities and technical schools. The universi-
+ties became the meeting point for western educated city youth and the Anatolian youth who were
+brought up with local traditions. This possibility of exchange created a synthesis of ideas, traditions
+and culture which shaped the political solidarity groups. Influenced by neighboring Soviet Union,leftist movements sided with the Kurdish and Alevi people who already had a history of disobedi-
+ence and used their traditional cultural production to propagate ideas of equality. These groups
+were showing resistance to the economic sanctions of the U.S. who had been providing financial
+support to Turkey and to do so, they were using the folkloric language which created a bridge be-
+tween intellectuals, factory workers (in Turkey and in Europe) and farmers of the rural areas.
+
+
+Şenlik dağıldı bir acı yel kaldı bahçede yalnız
+O mahur beste çalar Müjgan’la ben ağlaşırız
+Gitti dostlar şölen bitti ne eski heyecan ne hız
+Yalnız kederli yalnızlığımızda sıralı sırasız
+O mahur beste çalar Müjgan’la ben ağlaşırız
+Bir yangın ormanından püskürmüş genç fidanlardı
+Güneşten ışık yontarlardı sert adamlardı
+Hoyrattı gülüşleri aydınlığı çalkalardı
+Gittiler akşam olmadan ortalık karardı
+Bitmez sazların özlemi daha sonra daha sonra
+Sonranın bilinmezliği bir boyut katar ki onlara
+Simsiyah bir teselli olur belki kalanlara
+Geceler uzar hazırlık sonbahara
+/
+The carnival has dispersed only a bitter breeze remained in the garden
+That Mahur tune plays Müjgan and I keep weeping
+Friends are gone the feast has ended old thrills are no more nor is the haste
+Solely mournful in our loneliness timely untimely
+That Mahur tune plays Müjgan and I keep weeping
+Young saplings they were erupted from a forest of fire
+They would sculpt the light from the sun they were tough men
+Their laughters were wild shaking the brightness of the day
+As they left it all went dark before the evening came
+The longing of the curas will not end then and then
+The obscurity of the afterwards adds a dimension to them
+And perhaps they become a pitch black solace for the ones left behind
+Nights are getting longer preparation is for the fall
+Atilla İlhan’s poem, Mahur 8 (1972) was composed by Ahmet Kaya in 1993
+
+The resistance included many intellectuals and cultural workers who persistently retold the politi-
+cal history of their land through poetry. Musicians who had adopted the folkloric traditions, used
+the same method to pass on this knowledge and started to compose contemporary poetry into
+songs. Poems of leftist intellectuals like Nazım Hikmet, Ahmed Arif, Atilla İlhan and many more
+continued to be composed for decades by famous musicians in response to the local and global pol-itics. Still today young musicians, jazz soloists, rappers and pop singers voice the songs of famous
+Ashik figures or folkloric ballads in various styles and spread the voice of the ‘other’ around the
+world. These songs carry not only the tunes and world view of important intellectuals but also their
+struggle and pain caused by political exiles, imprisonments, tortures and executions in different
+stages in history. The poems telling folkloric stories continue living in songs, and reaching new
+generations of youth that continue chanting them for future generations. I would like to think of it
+as a cycle of growth that happens in our collective consciousness, that suddenly surfaces in mo-
+ments like the Gezi Park Occupation. To contribute to this growth I share my research and through
+my practice I bring forward poems, poets and composers that continue to teach me about this col-
+lective past.
+Gezi Park 1 : In 1806, where Gezi Park is located now, Ottoman Military Barracks were built. In 1939, after a process of
+abandonment of the structure, it was demolished along with the Armenian grave yard that dated back to 1560. The aim of
+this change was to plan a modern, ’healthy’ city with green areas, near the residential districts to be built.
+Tengrism 2 : is a shamanistic religion practiced in Central Asia. It is characterized by shamanism, totemism, and ani-
+mism. It is both monotheistic and polytheistic. Ancestor worship is also a big part of Tengriism. - https://www.discover-mongolia.mn/blogs/the-ancient-religion-of-tengriism -
+Ashik tradition 3 : Ashik are traveling bards with a string instrument. Their knowledge is passed on through mentoring.
+Volatile Knowledge 4 : For further expansion on this term in relation to my practice see Kılıçer, M (2019) ‘Volitional
+Volutions of the Volatile Waters’ on www.mervekilicer.com
+Alevi 5: Alevism is a branch of Shi’a Islam that is practiced in Turkey and the Balkans among ethnic Turks and Kurds.
+Alevis make up 20% of Turkish Muslims and comprise Turkey’s largest religious minority community. - https://rlp.hd-
+s.harvard.edu/faq/alevism
+Village Institute 6 a set of schools in the rural areas of Anatolia, gathered children from near by villages to teach both
+western and eastern/local knowledge. They aimed to develop a basic level of education and raise teachers for the society
+of the newly established republic. These institutes were terminated with the demand of U.S. because of their socialist
+structures.
+Tariqa(t) 7: T he Sufi doctrine or path of spiritual learning.
+Mahur 8 One of the systems of melody types used in Arabic, Persian and Turkish classical music. - Wikipedia -Bibliography
+Books
+Kafadar, C., 2017, Kendine Ait Bir Roma - Diyar-ı Rum’da Kültürel Coğrafya ve Kimlik Üzerine. Istanbul: Metis Publish-
+ing
+Ortaylı, İ., 2008, Tarihimiz ve Biz, 15nd ed., 2018, Istanbul: Timaş Publishing
+Sayın, Z., 2016, Kötülük Cemaatleri. Istanbul: Tekhne Publishing
+Articles, catalogues and compilations
+-Alpyıldız, E., 2012, Yerelden ulusala taşınan müzik belleği ve yurttan sesler. Milli Folklor, year 24, issue 96
+-Ayas, O. G., 2014, Kemalist Oryantalizm ve Osmanlı-Türk Müziği. Muhafazakar Düşünce, pg. 189-212
+-Azar,B., 2007, Sözlü kültür geleceği açışından türk saz şiiri. Fırat University Journal of Social Science, Volume: 17, Nr: 2,
+pg: 119-133. Elazığ
+-Bars, Mehmet Emin, 2018, Şamanizmden Tasavvufa. Türkbilig, Nr. 36, pg: 167-186.
+-Başer, F.A., 2006, Türk halk ve klasik müziklerinin oluşum ve ilişkilerine tarihten bakmak-1. Uluslararası insan bilimleri
+dergisi, ISSN: 1303-5134
+-Erensü, S. and Karaman, O. (2017). The Work of a Few Trees: Gezi, Politics and Space. International Journal of Urban
+and Regional Research, 41(1), pp.19-36.
+-DEPO (Catalogue of exhibition and lecture series), 2012, Kind of Electricity Appeared in Outer Space: Musical Turkey in
+the 1960’s. Istanbul: Anadolu Kültür/Depo
+N., 2016,Pir Sultan Abdal’ın bir mecmuada yer alan şiirleri I, (Pir Sultan Abdal’s poem in a journal I).
+-Kaya, H , Çeti n,
+HUMANITAS - Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi , 4 (8) , 131-156 . DOI: 10.20304/humanitas.277542
+-Koç, N., 2012, Cumhuriyet’in ilk yıllarında radyo. Cumhuriyet Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi, Year:8, Issue: 15.
+ISSN: 1305-1458 E-ISSN: 2147-1592
+-Kuloğlu, Ü., 2009, Müzik: Türklerin anadolu öncesi müzik gelenekleri ve islamiyet etkisi. T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakan-
+lığı Türkiye Kültür Portalı Projesi, Ankara
+-Özdamar, F., 2014, Dede Korkut Kitabı’nın çağdaş müzik sanatçıları üzerindeki tesiri. Mili Folklor, Year 26, Nr: 101.
+ISSN 2146-8087
+-Sarı, Ç.G., 2013, Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e kadın müzisyenler: Taş plak geleceğinde Lale ve Nerkis Hanımlar CD’si.
+Toplumsal Cinsiyet, Nr:6
+-Tarih Magazine, #1, 2014. Stüdyo Yapım-Proje - Gezi 1 year anniversary print
+-Türk Folkloru Araştırmaları Yıllığı, 1975, Ankara University Publishing House, Ankara
+-Uluskan, Seda Bayındır, 2010, Atatürk’ün sosyal ve kültürel politikaları. Ankara: AKDTYK Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi
+Links
+-https://vimeo.com/bibak
+-http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/
+-http://gezimusic.tumblr.com/
+-https://blog.iae.org.tr/sergiler/taksim-gezi-parkinin-tarihcesi-http://www.rusen.org/konargocer-turkler-kim/
+-https://www.alevibektasi.eu/
+-http://www.musikidergisi.net/
+-http://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/asik-veysel-satiroglu
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