The thematization/processing of human rights in folk songs composed and written by minstrels Âşık üretimi türkülerde insan haklarının işlenişi

© 2021, Fikri Soysal. All rights reserved.This study aims to emphasize the organic connection of Turkish folk songs with both social life and social/cultural values. Additionally it aims to identify the folk songs composed by minstrels and related with human rights as much as possible, to note them, to present them in the entirety of a poem-melody and to examine how and in which ways these songs thematize and process human rights. In the oral cultural environment, the folk songs that were learned from previous generations, kept alive through tradition and have survived for centuries with this cycle, have had a functional importance in conveying and disseminating all kinds of feelings and thoughts, social and cultural values of people by establishing connections between people via artistic communication. It is possible to see the approach by which music reflects the cultural structure of the society in which it is produced and finds its meaning in the literary and musical language of the folk songs, in the variety of subjects and melodies. In this context, the way of life and tastes of the Anatolian people in every stage of their lives from birth to death; from pain to joy, from love to rebellion, from traditions, customs, beliefs, to the pursuit of rights and justice, in short, every feeling, thought and behavior that concerns human beings found their expressions in folk songs. “Folk song composers” and “minstrels” have an important place in the formation and survival of folk songs as resources with creative and carrier qualities. In the age they lived, both sources had written history by expressing every event that occurred as a result of the economic, political, social and cultural life that affected the individual and the society. In the context of human rights, concepts such as equality, freedom, dignity, justice and democracy are processed in the language and folk songs of minstrels and folk song composers. Especially the minstrels as witnesses of the age they live in, the language and the ear of the people, have undertaken an important mission in raising awareness of human rights in folk songs with the awareness of being human. As the incarnation of the saying “Those who make folk songs are mightier than those who make laws”, minstrels sang folk songs to inform/teach, raise awareness and enlighten the public. It is possible to understand how and to what extent human rights are perceived and implemented in Anatolia by following the traces of these folk songs. In this study, in which the data obtained by scanning the archives and sources on the subject are explained descriptively, twenty work on human rights composed and written by minstrels were put into notes and presented in the entirety of lyric-melody. As a result, it has been observed that folk songs processed and thematized human rights in terms of dignity, equality, freedom (intellectual/freedom of thought, expression, religion), justice, democracy, the right to education, the right to life and the right to peace. In their folk songs, the minstrels have highlighted human rights reported in terms of assessments, longing, request, appeal, hope, reproach, complaint in an advising, hopeful, critical and questioning language. Being not different from vocal declarations, these folk songs have demanded and called for a world where human rights and dignity are recognized, where people can fulfill themselves, individuals can live equally, justly, freely, democracy and peace