Arif Şentürk

Arif Şentürk — Biography

Arif Şentürk was a folk-music artist and collector of songs, counted among the best-known interpreters of Rumelian folk songs. He is identified with Deryalar, the song known for its "Aman bre deryalar" refrain, and with Ramize, Safiye and Debreli Hasan; the press called him "the voice of Rumelia" when he died. Anniversary evenings and concerts continue to keep his memory alive.

His musical path grew out of a life shaped by migration. Born in Kumanovo and schooled in a Turkish school there, Şentürk came to Turkey with his family in 1956, living first in Kırklareli and then in Zeytinburnu; he worked for a time as a barber and took part in the music groups of the people's houses. The turning point came in 1975, when he won TRT's amateur voices examination and gained the support of the folklorist Nida Tüfekçi. Over the following decades he recorded Turkish, Macedonian, Albanian and Romani songs gathered in North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece, and his career produced twelve albums in all, among them Deryalar and Yemen (1987), Nazikem (1990), Kına Havası (1998) and Meliha (2008). Alongside music he appeared in the third season of Akasya Durağı and in a handful of films in the 1990s, Beklenmeyen Misafir and Bir Rüya Gibi among them.

His father was of Albanian and his mother of Bosniak origin, which is often linked to the multilingual Balkan character of his repertoire. Şentürk died in Istanbul on 15 February 2022 and was buried at Yedikule Cemetery; President Erdoğan issued a message of condolence.