Lament for Ulaş: political emotions in songs commemorating revolutionary martyrs in Turkey

In his book The Republic of Love, Martin Stokes explores the voices of three iconic Turkish musicians - queer nightclub singer Zeki Müren; Orhan Gencebay, pioneer of the arabesque genre; and pop diva Sezen Aksu. Stokes notes how the music of each captured and contributed something central to popular culture and public life in Turkey in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s respectively. in this chapter I explore the characteristics of the cultural intimacy contained in the soundscapes of a very different style of popular music, the songs and marches composed by musicians and groups committed to leftist revolutionary (devrimci) politics in Turkey. This is music that emerged in the 1970s, and which continues to resound today. Despite periodic muting, this revolutionary Anatolian folk and rock protest music has been central in producing an enduring experience of leftist oppositional belonging in Turkey. Contrasting sharply with the sentiments fabricated by right-wing Turkish governments after the 1980 military insurrection, it is in the beat and words of revolutionary songs and voices that an alternative intimate citizenry is heard.