Ahmet Poyrazoğlu: teaching and folk poetry

Erciş-born Ahmet Poyrazoğlu combined teaching with improvised poetry, verse exchanges and storytelling. He attended Erciş High School and taught at Erciş Atatürk Primary School. His books on Emrah reflect his interest in local oral tradition.

Where to start listening

The district governor’s song catalogue separates works attributed to Ercişli Emrah from regional folk songs. Two titles in the regional list are “Bahçaya Gel Ki Görem” and “Giden Ay Tutulur Mu”: useful starting points for exploring recordings.

Search with both the title and performer’s name, favouring recordings on an artist’s or publisher’s own channel. Comparing interpretations can reveal differences in delivery. Inclusion in a regional catalogue does not establish a single author for every word or melody.

Atakan Çelik and Hüsamettin Subaşı

Born in Erciş, folk musician Atakan Çelik helped bring regional songs to wider audiences. His repertoire and work promoting local music include “Vanlıyam Şanlıyam”, “Garanfil Esti Ne’dim” and “Zilan Deresi Bükülür Gider”. Listening offers a way to become familiar with his voice and delivery alongside his biography.

Hüsamettin Subaşı’s path runs from schooling in Erciş through teaching to folk-music work at TRT. He is known for research and collecting as well as performance. Behind a recorded song are also the people who preserved its melody, collected it and wrote down its notation.

Two songs for a listening list

“Ayın Ortasında Bir Sarı Yıldız” is identified with Van–Erciş on TRT repertoire sheet 1266. It names Hüsamettin Subaşı as the source performer, with Nida Tüfekçi responsible for collection and notation. Use the full title when looking for recordings.

“Menşure Hanım” can also be found under “Elinde Oya”. TRT repertoire sheet 2494 names both Mehmet Bülbül and Hüsamettin Subaşı as its sources, credits the collection to TRT and the notation to Erkan Sürmen. These distinctions help avoid treating a folk song as the composition of whichever performer happens to be heard.

Emrah: where poetry meets storytelling

Ercişli Emrah is associated with seventeenth-century minstrel poetry. His plain language, love poetry and the folk story surrounding Selvi meet in the town’s literary memory. Documentary evidence about his life is limited, so the story should not be read as a fully verified biography.

He must also be distinguished from Erzurumlu Emrah, whose poems were long confused with his. When a poem is credited simply to “Emrah”, check which poet the source identifies. Our separate Emrah and Selvi article explores the storytelling tradition in more detail.

Later generations of minstrel poetry

Mehmet Emin Tellioğlu, known by the pen name Cihanî, was born in Erciş. The Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature records the influence of his father, the minstrel Davut Telli, on his early poetry, and his own role in nurturing other minstrels. Their connection illustrates transmission between generations.

Hüsamettin Ergül, known as Garip Ergül, was born in Yukarı Çınarlı in the Erciş district. His dictionary entry describes growing up with Emrah’s poems and stories, learning from saz players and the influence of life away from home. It connects his poem “Kervancı” with that experience of separation.

Yaşar Kemal’s family roots in Ünseli

The region’s literary connections extend to nearby shores. According to the Yaşar Kemal Foundation, his family migrated from Ernis, now Ünseli, near Lake Van. The writer himself was born in Hemite, where the family settled. Ünseli is his family’s place of origin, rather than his birthplace.

That family connection opens a literary route from the Lake Van region to Çukurova. Keeping the distinction clear respects both Ünseli’s place in the story and the writer’s biography.

From folk songs to the bookshelf

Erciş-born Ömer Çaha has written poetry and fiction alongside academic work. His poetry collection “Karda Yalın Ayak” and novel “Aşk ve Ölüm” offer two ways into his literary writing. A birthplace does not mean that every book is about Erciş; the connection here is the writer’s link to the town.

This is a small selection, not a complete register of the town’s artists. Begin with a song, then try a poem or story. If your family has kept an old concert programme, cassette information or a local publication, sharing its date and source can help expand this record.

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