Artistic creation and cultural identity are bound to one's origins and roots; whoever loses them withers, and political persecution can violently sever this connection.
The text is an interview with the Turkish folk poetry artist Sıddık Doğan, who was born in 1955 in Adıyaman. He describes his close bond to his home region and the significance of roots for his artistic work. Doğan recounts how he learned to play the bağlama without formal instruction and later made programmes for TRT in Adana and Istanbul. He speaks about the political persecution following the 1980 military coup, his dismissal and imprisonment, and his flight to Germany in 1984. In Germany he took composition lessons and began teaching at the municipal conservatory. The text weaves personal life history with the history of Turkish folk music and the political persecution of artists.
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Full text in English
Dear Professor Sıddık Doğan, welcome. >> Welcome, dear İsmail Can. >> Thank you, professor. You were born in 1955 in the village of Aşağı Nasırlı, Gölbaşı, Adıyaman. You also completed your primary and secondary education in Gölbaşı. Do you still have connections there? Do you still go back and forth between the village and Gölbaşı? >> Yes. Now, I believe this: even if the branches of a tree reach the sky, when you uproot it from the soil, the branches wither. So you need to go back to the place where your childhood passed and nourish yourself, to take that sustenance. That's why I always go. Even if not every year, I definitely go every two years >> and I revisit those mountains, the places I used to roam, and I relive my childhood. I see my relatives, and I come back. That is important to me. >> Yes. What kind of place is Gölbaşı? It's a small place, right? It doesn't have a very large population. It's a small place, but it was really affected by the earthquake. It's not very big, but being by the lake, it's actually a beautiful place. A very beautiful city. It was a beautiful city, but it suffered great damage in the earthquake. >> Mm-hm. >> Because the area is built-up, in places where water filters down from the mountains, and since they didn't build settlements accordingly, it suffered a lot of damage, just like everywhere else. >> Hmm. I understand. Professor, you attended the teachers' college in Gaziantep and then graduated from the Faculty of Education, Mathematics Department, in Diyarbakır. After that, you taught at middle schools and high schools in the Adana region. How many years did you teach in that region? >> I taught for 8 years. Middle school and high school teaching. >> Was it always in Adana? >> I was in Adana. How was the heat? The first year, it was a bit difficult. Then gradually, a person gets used to it. Especially coming from Diyarbakır, where temperatures drop to minus 20 degrees, to Adana, >> of course, >> in the first year in winter, I walked around in a short-sleeved shirt. In the second year, I gradually started wearing a jacket. In the third year, I gradually got used to the climate. People's bodies adapt to it after a while. Yes. >> So there are people who live in the polar regions, in the glaciers. >> Yes. There are also people living in the Arab deserts at 50 degrees. The body gets used to it after a while. >> Exactly, professor. Professor, when did you first encounter the bağlama and music? Do you remember? The first time you picked up the bağlama. >> I got to know the bağlama a bit late. At 13, 13, 14 years old, there was no one playing the bağlama in our area. I was the first one to play in that area, in all those villages. >> Mm >> When I gradually started playing a bit well, now in two houses there's a horse, in the third there's definitely a bağlama, they're pulling it. Also pulling. If it wasn't that widespread, how did you get into this? >> Well, I had a relative, not a relative but a very close friend of my father. He was playing. He lived very far away, but mm-hm. >> He would come once a year or once every two years. Sometimes when he came, he would bring his bağlama. He would play and sing, but he would sing regional things. I got to know it from there, especially after I went to the teachers' high school, I started playing directly there. I got a broken saz, half of the saz was missing. With that, I was breaking it, with a pick, scratching its head and face, and I played. After that, when I went to Diyarbakır, once I got to know the professional players there, it gradually developed. >> Did you receive training, or was it self-taught? >> No, I never received training. I never received any training. Maybe he was luckier. >> Well, you're taking something from everyone. You're taking something from everyone. You start producing something of your own. But >> it's difficult at first, of course, what someone with training would learn in a year, you without training only develop in five years. >> But it went one way or another. >> Mm-hm. >> After that, you also have a TRT Çukurova Radio adventure. You started making programs there. This must have been the first place where you made professional music. >> Well, after I came to Adana, after I came to the inner part of Adana, I started playing bağlama with a choir that was making programs on TRT, the folk choir. After a while, six months later, the professor left. The choir was left to me. I had been writing poetry since childhood. >> Mm >> I was making compilations. Those compilations, from old compilations, you also
You know. Come to Pınara so you can't see my collection. >> H >> come from that yayla, my coal-eyed one, from the yayla, well, Adepe and such, with them, when you say Çukurova, well, I entered the exam as a neighborhood candidate. After that I passed. After that I started the programs. H >> they ended together with TRT. After that it continued and went on. I am still, well, an artist of TRT. A regional artist. I make programs whenever I want. >> So there probably weren't many at that time, right? So many people playing and singing, well, of course it wasn't widespread today, I mean. >> Especially after the 80s, well, this Arif Musağlu, Yavuz Topi, Sakarlı, the conversation cassette series, it really was a cultural revolution in Turkey, I think that period needs to be researched. Hmm. >> It made a cultural revolution. I mean, young people who used to carry the bağlama in their hand and walk around feeling ashamed, especially our young girls. After that they started carrying the bağlama on their back and walking down the street with it in their hand >> walking. >> That period was a cultural revolution, especially in the field of folk music. >> After that it became widespread. >> H. Yes. You also took an interest in regional folk songs at an early age. Well, you started playing and singing them. As you said, you yourself also started writing poems at a very early age. >> Why were you so interested in these regional folk songs? Well, first of all, you are born into a region. That region is your, well, your soil, it forms from there. You've been listening to that region since you were a child. You listen to those regions from this person, from that person. That gives you something, well, what is it? It gives you pleasure. It gives you the pleasure of listening, the pleasure of the ear. Well, it's still like that. When you listen to the folk song of that region, you feel like your blood is boiling. Well, in that sense, you are directly born into it. First your family, then your surroundings, then a wider circle. In that sense, naturally, at first they fill your ears. You grow up with them. >> Yes. >> And you do research accordingly. The first compositions you made were generally close to that. Later, gradually, you started moving towards a more original type. >> Yes. Well, you put these regional folk songs in your bag and actually set off for Istanbul. There, well, you went to this TRT >> radio. Well, did you apply? Did they call you? How did it happen? >> First I started programs on Çukurova Radio. After that, they called me for programs in Istanbul. They called me for television programs. Well >> after that it continued. >> Istanbul, Ankara, well, then all these television and radio programs, well, continued. Yes. Let's listen to a folk song from you now. Then we'll continue our conversation. >> Okay. [music] The lyrics and music are mine. This was a folk song in the previous album. Turnalar (Storks). Anyway, whenever we hear the stork thing, something boils up inside a person. >> That's true. >> On the top of the mountain there is the sound of a stork. >> The lyrics and music are mine. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> On the top of the mountain [singing] there is the sound of a stork. No one knows what this stork has. Perhaps it has separated from its beloved, it has its grief again. [singing] You cry out with a burning voice, stork. You smoke like smoke like me, my stork. Perhaps it has separated from its beloved, it has its grief [singing] again, you cry out with a burning voice, stork [singing] you smoke like smoke like me, stork >> [music] >> I would twist silver threads onto your hands, I would make you wince. I would grind sherbet for your sweet tongues. I would travel from land to land following after you [singing] again with a burning voice. You cry out [music] my stork, smoke like me. You smoke, my stork, following after you [singing] I would travel from land to land again with a burning voice you cry out [music] my stork, smoke like smoke like me [music] my stork >> [music] >> May snow not fall on the mountains where you land. May a painful place [singing] not touch your wing. May the sun not rise for those who upset you. [singing] Again with a burning voice [murmuring] you cry out, my stork. You smoke like smoke like me, my stork. May the sun not rise for those who upset you, again with a burning voice, cry out, smoke like smoke like me, stork. >> Thank you, teacher, may your heart be healthy. >> Thank you. >> You came to Germany in 1984. Well, here you received 4 years of composition education and then you started teaching at the municipal conservatory. From that day to this day, you are still teaching. Continue. On one hand I am playing and singing. Lullabies,
albums, concerts, on the other hand teaching. But I like teaching more. Giving something to children, them creating something. >> I think I met you right around that time. You came in '84. So I first came around '85. I came to your course for a semester but very well now in a moment in a moment I'll give the bağlama >> yes. Very well oh [laughter] because I wasn't a very good student they had kicked me out. The joke of it is but I eee anyway I wasn't a very good musician now I still am not. So in a social setting I play and sing to myself >> that's it. >> How did you struggle coming here, I mean in Turkey, so TRT Çukurova, Radio Television suddenly you just dropped down here. Was there any struggle? The compulsion, they forced me to send me. [laughter] >> Oh of course you came out of necessity. >> Yes. So after September 12th like everyone, like many people, like a democratic person. >> I so there that thing eee especially it started with this. I was a manager in teaching at TÖBDERDERD. >> Hmm. >> On the anniversary of the Kahramanmaraş massacre we called the teachers to a boycott. After that they dismissed all of us from our positions. They put us in prison for two months. >> After that I couldn't return. Other investigations started. I had also been a founding member of a cinema. That southern region. >> H >> from there my investigation. I was writing a column in the Yeni Adana Newspaper, so every day, I mean every week a column. On cultural policy. So on the system. When the investigations started I left and came here. I didn't go for 10, 11 years anyway. >> H >> having come here I said so there's no use crying and moaning here. >> Get education here, develop yourself here. There are opportunities everywhere. After that so here e after that after this education e I started teaching at the school here. It continues. >> So you never stayed idle, as you said, always like this, so you continuously gave saz courses. And also with many orchestras, among them was the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. >> You gave concerts in Berlin and many cities in Europe. >> Eee how were these? Were they nice, so like a >> philharmonic orchestra together with your bağlama being part of it. >> Now after this education so our folk songs eee both the folk songs I made and like Allı Turnam, like Kan Çiçekleri, many folk songs, Ötme Bülbül, these folk songs I adapted them for the orchestra. Hmm. >> Eee, later our 100-person orchestra, close to 40-50 people German, the rest bağlamas, choir. So with them eee, we gave quite a few concerts here. We gave a concert for Allı Turnam. Later on, on the day of German reunification, in front of the Reichstag we gave a big concert. [clears throat] >> Film orchestra, my flamenco orchestra, our orchestra. >> This was broadcast live on TDF. Eee, it was broadcast live on ZDF. We went to the Netherlands on behalf of Germany and gave concerts. Quite [clears throat] twice a section of the orchestra went to Turkey, later we went to TRT. In the years '95 '96 eee so that orchestra was continuing. A break came, in between we're doing concerts, but our job, the school principal eee when he went as a professor at the University of Vienna >> Hmm hmm. >> eee it slowed down a bit but we started again slowly. >> Yes. >> That's a great pleasure of course. Being together with Germans. That orchestra, eee, the violins, the double bass, the piano, the bağlamas coming together, that >> is a very beautiful atmosphere. >> An extraordinary thing. >> So especially our bağlama, this western, so instruments together and so being part of such an orchestra >> is a proud thing. >> So we need to step outside our own shell. We need to tell. So a society, just eee eee just by passing through sevens, with trade, it doesn't work. When you find something better elsewhere you go there, you leave, when you find something more profitable. But culture is not like that. Eee, when you get to know a person culturally you respect them. Cultural, friendships connected through culture, those are lasting. That's why eee, in this sense it's also important. We're here, for you too, so you're doing theater. First of all, as a person, our duty to ourselves. Second, to the society we live in here
our duty. Thirdly, we are on display in Turkey. We have a duty towards the people of the country we are in. In this sense, it is very important for this kind of work to reach those people. Well, if everyone were to make a friend like this, there would be millions of friends, and that would change our quarter. >> Yes. So what you said in that sense is very true. So, for example, in Germany and in Europe, the community, the society, and that we are not just about döner, that we also have a culture, an art, and that they see that something can be done together with these people is a valuable thing. Of course, when they get to know it, they respect you. >> So after that, you also build a bond. You build an emotional bond. Not a stomach bond, an emotional bond. Friendships built at that level become lasting. >> Very well. How many students have you had so far? >> [laughter] >> I don't know. About 1500, 2000. About 1500, 2000, I suppose. Quite a lot, really quite a lot. I suppose so. People, also, children who receive music education are not just developing themselves. They develop their family, they develop their surroundings. After that, well, they develop their friendships, they create a world for themselves. In that sense, it is very important. You observe that when children come, after 35 years they are a completely different personality. So, like growing a tree, first you look, the leaves come out slowly of the plant. After that, you look and you see its fruit. So, a person is like that too. In that sense, it is important, that is, to leave beautiful things behind us is important. So, as a person, as a culture worker, you are doing theater with people for years. The person who comes to the theater is one thing. They are even more different when they leave. >> Very well. >> They are leaving with something. >> Definitely so. Yes. So, do you believe that music changes people like this? So, especially when young people come to you, will you also change them in terms of character? You look at many different students, while sitting next to someone they are kicking the person next to them, doing who knows what, coming. After 3, 5 months, you look and they have become so polite, so refined. Because in the folk songs, in the music, you cannot find any badness, any hostility. You cannot find brute force. What is always there? There is love, there is respect. There is emotional education. It is not possible for them to behave badly. So, never, as I said, none of my students, at the beginning when they come, they come kicking, fighting. After that, they leave by greeting each other. How beautiful. A very beautiful thing. >> Yes >> my teacher, you have also been at TED1 for many years, well, exactly, I suppose 15 years, Türkü Pınarı, 20 years, 15 years >> was it? Exactly. You did it for many long years. A program called Türkü Pınarı, well, you ran it. >> At that time, of course, discretion was important. Because the other Turkish channels were not here. And actually, the Turks here, above a certain percentage, could hear news, could listen to music programs. We also listened to them with great pleasure. [singing] Come down, gazelle [singing] go to the land of the hunters, go, gazelle. Go [music] to the mountains [music] come down [singing] gazelle, to the land of your salıms [singing] go, gazelle, go [music] >> how was that adventure of yours, how was it, when you look back, was it beautiful, was it good? Beautiful, a very important duty here. First, to address our people, well, in their own language, to address them with music. Second, >> well, the young artists here, the orchestras here, expressing themselves, and after we switched to satellite, it was also quite watched. Because it was a channel broadcasting from abroad in Turkey. In Turkey, there was also that buzz, but after a while it could not continue. It was sacrificed to the advertising market. After that, but it took on a very important duty in that period. Well, it took on a very important duty. For the people here, especially for them to hold on to their own culture, for their language, well, to develop, for our young people growing up here, well, for our musicians to express themselves, it took on a very important duty in that period. >> Yes. You also have many of your own compositions, your compositions. Many famous artists also have your compositions, your compositions in their albums
they performed them. >> What kind of feeling is it when you write, when you compose a piece and someone else performs it >> does a stranger leave an effect or is it >> very much another extraordinary feeling, I mean. Now, eee, now you said that my boy is doing this technique, you said. >> You're raising him, you see him doing his work. When you see him doing his work >> you're happy. That's a different thing. Compositions are like that too, like a person's child. First you do that thing, you take it, you raise it, then you send it into society. When you see it doing beautiful things there, that makes you happy. >> Well, compositions are like that too. A composition is like the children of artists. >> Which are your most listened-to folk songs? Do you know a few by name? >> Çoban Yıldızı (Shepherd's Star). That also became a series music. It became a series music on Fox TV. Then Acı Ölüm (Bitter Death), Genç Ölüm (Young Death), which Musa Hoca performed. Many artists also performed Çoban Yıldızı. These are from the first compositions, from the first collections, the song that came to Pınara, the song that came from the Yayık, they were performed by many artists. Later, eee, listen, turnalar eğmeli yar yar ben sana eş olam (Listen, cranes should bow, dear, dear, I cannot be your companion). This one too, Aynur and others, many, so many >> actually, when I count them, I realize how much we actually listen to these folk songs. Now, eee, but when people listen, of course they don't know that the master of the craft, the creator, [clears throat] is you. >> I mean, many people, I'm like that too, for example, when I listen, I don't really look into it. I say, whose folk song is this, what is it. I say, what a beautiful folk song, I sing it, I listen to it. It's usually like that. But there's a master like you behind this, and these folk songs are really very well-known, very frequently sung folk songs, I mean. >> Yes. Güler performed it. Well, Musa Hoca perfor