Thematic analysis of Uğur Işılak's life and poems

In this work, the life of Ozan Uğur Işılak, who grew up in the tradition of po-etry-minstrelsy from the past to the present and who was one of the most important representatives of this tradition in the twenty-first century, his works, his poems, cultural works, minstrels and poets that influenced him in the tradition of minst-relsy and poetry and Uğur Işılak's understanding of music were tried to be exami-ned. Uğur Işılak, one of the most important representatives of the Turkish Ozan tradition today, was born on 15 November 1971 in Germany as the third child of a family of four children. Uğur Işılak started to write his first poems at the age of eight, due to the inf-luence of his uncle Bahtiyar Aksoy, as well as his excessive interest and curiosity in poetry and literature. At that age, he met baglama on the occasion of his brother, Abdullah Işılak, and learned to play baglama at the age of 12-13. Uğur Işılak, who rapidly developed himself in the field of poetry and baglama, reached the level of composing within a few years. Uğur Işılak, who started his longing for homeland in the lands of foreign co-untries, memorized Turkish textbooks to relieve and express his longing for home-land in his primary school years, and had the opportunity to meet the bards and po-ets who were raised in Europe in the middle school years. Uğur Işılak, who was pra-ised by many instrumental and lyrical masters such as Âşık Mahzuni Şerif, Ozan Arif, Ozan Yusuf Polatoğlu, Âşık Reyhani, Mevlüd İhsani, Erol Ergani, and Kul Nuri, had the opportunity to go on tours and participate in concerts with dozens of master minstrels and bards. Uğur Işılak, who participated in programs with these minstrels and poets in all European countries, especially in Germany, Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Norway, both made call-and-response duets (improvised poetry) and practiced together in the council of minstrels at every opportunity. Uğur Işılak, who traveled tens of thousands of kilometers with all these bards and minstrels, learned all the details of the Turkish folk poetry tradition from them and had the opportunity to listen to folk tales from them. After completing primary, secondary, and high school education in Germany in 1996, Uğur Işılak returned to Turkey, where he graduated from the Open Univer-sity economics faculty. After a few years, he decided to study Turkish Language and Literature and studied literature at Konya Selcuk University. In addition to dozens of albums written and composed by himself, Uğur Işı-lak also has important album works and television programs that serve as cultural services. Uğur Işılak, who was nourished by the poets of Turkish Folk Literature and Divan Literature, as well as the important thinkers, poets, and writers of Turkish Literature, always strived to be the spokesperson of the society by taking into acco-unt the sensitivity of poetry while creating his works. Uğur Işılak, who was actively interested in politics for a short period, has more than 400 works in his 33-year professional music life. He took part in cultural and artistic activities in Turkey, Europe, America, Australia, and Central Asia for about 35 years, and he has more than 20 albums. In this study, we tried to examine Uğur Işılak's life, his works, the themes he uses in his poems, and the structures that make up his poems. In this thesis, our in-terviews with him, his family, and his immediate surroundings, both face to face and over the phone, have had an important effect to get to know and understand Uğur Işılak, who is one of the most important representatives of the poetry tradition and Turkish folk poetry today. This study, which is a master's thesis, was prepared to serve the poetry tradi-tion and to bring Uğur Işılak, who continues the tradition of poetry today, to the world of science and to make his works permanent, to serve Turkish Literature, and for those who love him and try to understand him.