Oral narration in Kurdish culture has been one of the most powerful forms of communication and transmission throughout history.

Songs, laments and epics are mirrors reflecting the lives, history, pains, loves and resistance of the Kurds.

Thanks to this oral heritage, cultural identity is passed down from generation to generation through memory and voice.

The carrier of oral culture

72-year-old Sıdıka Bülbül, who lives in İnler Village in the Polatlı district of Ankara, is a living carrier of this cultural memory.

Despite her advanced age, Bülbül, who still knows the old Kurdish folk songs she learned from her elders by heart, strives not to forget this heritage and not to let others forget it.

“Our elders both lived and sang those folk songs. I also carry their heritage. These folk songs are our memory,” she says.

Stories where experiences turn into folk songs

Kurdish folk songs are often written based on a real event, a love story or a separation.

Sıdıka Bülbül also sang some of these folk songs for Şoperêç and shared their stories.

These songs are not just melodies, but like a page of history kneaded with emotions.

Why is oral culture important?

It is a carrier of history in times when written sources are lacking.

It keeps social memory alive.

It is the voice of identity, belonging and resistance.

It risks extinction if it is not passed on to future generations.

Sıdıka Bülbül’s effort is exactly a resistance against this risk.

She continues to sing in order not to forget her culture and not to let others forget it.

A heritage that lives with sound

A few old folk songs echoing in İnler Village are actually the story of a people.

These melodies, brought to life by Sıdıka Bülbül’s voice, are not just music, but a memory’s effort to survive. Bülbül does not just sing; she keeps a people’s memory alive.