Editing Music of Turkey (section)

==== Alevi influences: The Aşık (Ashik) traditions ====
[[File:Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu - Bağlama Çalarken.jpg|thumb|[[Aşık Veysel]]]]
It is suggested that about a fifth of the Turkish population are ''Alevis'', whose folk music is performed by a type of travelling bard or ''ozan'' called ''aşık'', who travels with the [[baglama|saz]] or [[baglama]], an iconic image of Turkish folk music.<ref name="alevi"/> These songs, which hail from the central northeastern area, are about mystical revelations, invocations to Alevi [[saint]]s and [[Muhammad]]'s son-in-law, [[Ali ibn Abi Talib|Ali]], whom they hold in high esteem. In Turkish aşık literally means 'in love'. Whoever follows this tradition has the ''Aşık'' assignation put before their names, because it is suggested that music becomes an essential facet of their being, for example as in [[Aşık Veysel]].

Middle Anatolia is home to the [[bozlak]], a type of declamatory, partially improvised music by the bards. [[Neşet Ertaş]] has so far been the most prominent contemporary voice of Middle Anatolian music, singing songs of a large spectrum, including works of premodern [[Turkmen people|Turkoman]] aşıks like [[Karacaoğlan]] and [[Dadaloğlu]] and the modern aşıks like his father, the late [[Muharrem Ertaş]]. Around the city of [[Sivas]], aşık music has a more spiritual bent, afeaturing ritualized song contests, although modern bards have brought it into the political arena.<ref name="minstrels"/>