Renowned Turkish Poet ÂŞik Veysel Celebrated Throughout The Year In Unesco 2023 Commemoration Progra

DUBAI MEDIA CITY, UAE - Jan. 4, 2023 - PRLog -- Anatolian ashik, a versatile art blending improvisational poetry and music, has been practiced in Anatolia for more than five hundred years and is an important expression of cultural memory and richness in Türkiye. The world-class folk poet Âşık Veysel (Şatıroğlu) is among the most renowned of these folk artists and, even after his death, his artistry continues to illuminate humanity and future generations through plainly composed verses filled with messages of tolerance, love and patriotism.

With the decision taken at the 41^st General Conference held in Paris, UNESCO included Âşık Veysel in its celebration of anniversaries in 2022-2023, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death. Within the scope of the program, Âşık Veysel will be commemorated throughout the year with events such as meetings, exhibitions and concerts held both in Türkiye and abroad.

Âşık Veysel: The Last Great Representative of the Ashik Tradition

Born in 1894, in the village of Sivrialan in the Sivas' Şarkışla district, Âşık Veysel lost both his eyes at the age of seven years, due to smallpox. He started playing the saz (a plucked string instrument used in Turkish folk music) when he was ten years old and in 1933 began traveling across Türkiye as a performer, sometimes also teaching saz.

Âşık Veysel's poems, which build a bridge between the public and the intellectuals, cover a variety of themes. Although his singing was influenced by the Turkish Sufi poet Yunus – and there are traces of Sufism in Veysel's compositions, Veysel is also considered a successor to another great Turkish poet, Karacaoğlan, particularly with regard to his love poems.

Âşık Veysel's first poem was an epic he sang for Atatürk on the 10^th anniversary of the Republic. His first volume of poetry was Deyişler, published in 1944 and his last was Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın (1970), in which he brought all his poems together. Other poems were collected in an earlier volume, Sazımdan Sesler, published in 1949.

Âşık Veysel will always be remembered as one who embraces and strives to understand and make sense of humans and life. He is still evoked today as an important folk poet who bestowed precious verses on the love of nature and philanthropy, friendship, unity and solidarity to future generations.

https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/turkiye/sivas/gezilecekyer/asik-veysel-muzes