With the proposal of Turkey, UNESCO included the 50th anniversary of Aşık Veysel's death in UNESCO's Commemoration and Celebration Anniversaries Program in 2023 and declared 2023 as the year of Aşık Veysel all over the world.
A panel titled "Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years" was organized in cooperation with the Institute of Sufi Studies, Kerim Foundation and Ege University State Conservatory of Turkish Music. The panel was held on Thursday, May 11, 2023, between 14.00-15.30 at Üsküdar University Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall. It was also broadcast live on Üsküdar University Television.
For the details of the news: https://uskudar.edu.tr/tr/icerik/12548/asik-veysel-vefatinin-50-yildonumunde-uskudar-universitesinde-anildi
https://uskudar.edu.tr/basinda-biz/liste/1#gallery-9
Panel video recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/4zlufpdNs8Y?feature=share
"Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years"
Location: U.U. Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall
Date and time Thursday, May 11, 2023 14.00-15.30
Program Flow
Presentation
Opening Speeches
14.00-14.30
Prof. Dr. Emine YENİTERZİ
Deputy Director of Sufi Studies Institute
Head of the Department of Sufi Culture and Literature
Prof. Dr. Nevzat TARHAN
Founding Rector and Chairman of the Executive Board of Üsküdar University
Panel:
14.30-15.30
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sıtkı Bahadır TUTU
Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Department of Turkish Music
Prof. Dr. Lecturer. Prof. Dr. Hande DEVRİM KÜÇÜKEBE
Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Department of Turkish Music
Lecturer Gör. Ali Hikmet GÖKÇEN
Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Department of Turkish Music
About the Program:
Panel: Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years
What determines the mastery of the minstrel is not how rhymed the poem is, how technically successful he plays the instrument, or how uniquely he composes a melody. It is the motifs, phrases, and sometimes even the whole melody of the melodies performed by minstrels, which have been perfected by being processed for centuries, that are inherited from minstrel to minstrel and borrowed between minstrels. The important thing is to knead the new lyrics with traditional elements and to match and process them with the melody in the most successful way, so that when Veysel passes away, his remaining instrument will not be like a strange nightingale. This is why Veysel is one of the pinnacles of Turkish cultural and artistic life; his success in combining words and melody enabled him to explain to all humanity the necessity and ways of unity.
Especially with metaphors such as "a long thin road" and "black soil", he enriched our cultural world and beyond that our social values. He was one of us, Âşık Veysel was a phenomenon now referred to as "Veysel". Veysel, the owner of blind eyes, advised us to look with the eyes of the heart, and told us about the truths and beauties that can only be seen with the eyes of the heart, and in that world there was no contempt for you or me.
