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Abdals Demans A Conservatory 14/01/2011

Kırşehir Abdals, who have financial difficulties because of being forbidden of street weddings have a demand from the municipality. They ask municipality to establish a conservatory to let them survive their traditional music culture.

Abdals, whose traditional occupation is musicianship, transfer Bozlak culture ( a musical form of Anatolia related to middle asian turanic music ) to the next generations for hundreds of years. However, it's getting difficult to survive the culture on account of the fact that Abdal musicians can not subsist on their traditional occupation nowadays. An Abdal musician tells their demands with those words: "We hope our Mayor Yaşar Bahçeçi to establish a culture center in Bağbaşı neighbourhood and employ us there. As Neşet Ertaş ( one of the famous Abdal musicians ) said, Bozlak culture is dying. We want our children to be educated in conservatory and maintain our tradional occupation."

A recent decision maden by Provincial Department of Environment and Forestry forbid street weddings which is the most important source of income of Abdal musicians. Now, only hope of Abdal musicians is a conservatory to be established within in the scope of the municipality.

Abdals, who are one of the peripatetic groups with middle asian origin, have some other traditional occupations beside musicianship: blacksmithing, basketmaking, sieve-making, folk-dancing, circumcising, folk medicine, horse trade, coppersmithing, jewellery and hunting... However, many of these traditional occupations disappeared with becoming widespread of industry.

Today, some individuals with Abdal origin, who lost their traditional jobs, are agricultural workes. Some others are sheepherding for animals of villagers. And many of them migrated to big cities and trying to make a living the hard way. There is an important Abdal population in the cities like İstanbul, Ankara, Konya, İzmir...

Source: Cihan News Agency.

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