The traditional Sohbet meetings ( tr, Geleneksel Sohbet Toplantıları) is a Turkish social practice of community conversations. The communities consist exclusively of men above a certain age (typically 15 or 16), regardless of ethnicity, religion or status. The members must have honest families, trustworthy to keep secrets, respectful of their elders, and not gamble or display public drunkenness. In addition to conversations, the meetings may also include dancing, music, plays, and feasts of traditional dishes.
[Nomination files for inscription in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity]
download item 6.44, Turkey, Sohbet
Traditional Sohbet meetings were included in the
UNESCO lists of
intangible cultural heritage
An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...
of humanity. The decision of the UNESCO Committee stated:
[
]
Traditional Sohbet meetings are social practices that provide a forum for community members to keep alive their oral traditions, transmit their history and share their cultural values, providing them with a sense of identity and continuity;
Names and Places
The term '' sohbet'' is of Arabic origin and means "conversation", with the special accent on being a friendly conversation for pleasant pastime.Updated Turkish dictionary
(enter search term "sohbet") The term is selected as a representative name for Unesco official documentation, while these meetings are known under various local names across Turkey: “Yâran Sohbeti” in
Çankırı, “Yaren Organization” in Kütahya-Simav, “Sıra Gecesi” in Şanlıurfa, “Kürsübaşı Sohbeti” in Elazığ and “Barana Sohbets” in Balıkesir-Dursunbey. Similar meetings can be seen with different names as “cümbüş” in Ankara and its surroundings, “Delikanlı Örgütü” in Kazan District of Ankara, “Gençler Heyeti” in Niğde-Dündarlı, “Gezek” in Kütahya City Center and Isparta, “Kef/Keyif” in Antalya and Isparta, “Muhabbet” in Beypazarı District of Ankara, Kırşehir, Yozgat, Karabük Safranbolu, “Oda Teşkilatı” in Balıkesir-Edremit, Manisa-Soma, “Oturmah” in
Van
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
, “Sıra Yârenleri” in Konya-Akşehir, ; Ardahan Erfene/Arfane in
Ardahan, Gezek in
Afyon, Erfane/Gezek in
Bursa
( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...
, Sıra Gecesi/Herfene in
Erzincan, Velime Geceleri in
Diyarbakır.
[
]
References
{{reflist
Further reading
*The nomination file contains an extensive list of literature on the subject (in Turkish language).
Culture of Turkey
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Traditional knowledge
Meetings