UNESCO Music Cities Meet in Şanlıurfa as Göbeklitepe Is Honoured

The UNESCO Music Cities annual meeting has opened in Şanlıurfa, southeastern Türkiye, with representatives and artists from 30 countries. The three-day programme brings together delegates from the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and it features Turkish folk traditions alongside guests from abroad.

Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Gökhan Yazgı spoke at the opening, held in a hotel in the city. He described Şanlıurfa as a major centre of human heritage, with a history of about 12,000 years, rich food culture, traditional arts and folklore.

Speeches and a Göbeklitepe heritage certificate

Yazgı noted that Türkiye is represented in the network’s music category by two cities, Şanlıurfa and Kırşehir. He called music a memory of cultures and a way for people to understand one another.

Mayor Mehmet Kasım Gülpınar spoke in English. He said the Neolithic heritage that runs from Göbeklitepe to the wider Taş Tepeler (Stone Hills) region makes Şanlıurfa one of the earliest homelands of music. Governor Hasan Şıldak, UNESCO Music Cities Coordinator Jacob Wagner and Prof. Dr. Öcal Oğuz, head of the UNESCO Turkish National Commission, also addressed the audience.

After the speeches, Yazgı handed Gülpınar a heritage certificate for Göbeklitepe. UNESCO added the site to its World Heritage List in 2018.

Kansas City receives the Music Cities Globe

The meeting has its own symbol, the UNESCO Music Cities Globe. Gülpınar presented it to Wagner on behalf of Kansas City in the United States, which will host the next meeting.

Aşıks, dengbejs and abdals on stage

The programme gives space to living folk traditions. An aşık is a travelling poet-musician who sings and plays the saz, a long-necked lute. A dengbej is a traditional singer-storyteller, and the term is associated with Kurdish oral culture. Abdals are folk musicians from Anatolian tradition.

These performers will appear alongside Turkish opera and ballet artists. Musicians from the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom will also perform different genres during the three days.

Why the meeting matters for culture readers

Şanlıurfa joined the network as a City of Music, and the annual meeting is where member cities share projects and plans. Hosting it puts the city’s musical heritage in front of an international audience. It also pairs that heritage with Göbeklitepe, one of the best-known archaeological sites in the region.

For viewers of Turkish historical dramas, the event shows how much of Anatolia’s oral and musical tradition is still performed today. Those traditions often shape the sound and storytelling of period series. The organisers have not yet published a full performance schedule in the source report.

Source: SonDakika
Featured image: Teomancimit / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0