Remembering Ruhi Su

Forty years have passed since Ruhi Su's passing. On his thirtieth anniversary, his friends and loved ones undertook a meaningful initiative and prepared a beautiful gift for him. Back then, I read "Ruhi Su, Since You Went Away," and took notes. I will now share that text:

Ruhi Su... As Yaşar Özürküt wrote, “That beautiful person who carried the folk songs from the village onto his back and into the city... A sorrowful, suffering but honorable man of life, someone who created himself from nothing...”

Our colleague, veteran TRT producer Alaettin Bahçekapılı, and educator and researcher Nabi Belekoğlu have embarked on a blessed endeavor. Thirty years later, they've compiled a book addressing Ruhi Su, a heartfelt outpouring of respect, love, and longing, through letters, memories, photographs, and drawings. Sixty of his loved ones have mourned his passing, saying, "Since you've been gone, you've been gone."

During this endeavor, author and translator Bertan Onaran, photographer İsa Çelik, and researcher Karabey Aydoğan contributed their knowledge, documents, and photographs. Graphic designer Firdes Eren and journalist Cem Güldemir also contributed to the publication of this prestigious book.

This book reflects the feelings and thoughts not only of his friends, writers, and artists who have carried his love and longing in their hearts for 30 years, but also of his countless fans who knew him from his honorable and upright stance, his voice, his saz, and his pen.

I quote from the foreword: “And this book says, ‘I am loyalty,’ as scientist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kriton Dinçmen puts it: ‘Don’t be afraid, loyalty is a duty that does not enslave you. It is a duty that does not disrupt the freedom of decision in a person, that does not seduce you, that does not steal anything from your pride in being human, that does not ask you to compromise the structure of your personality. It is a duty that makes you human.”

In the foreword to “Ruhi Su 'Sen Gittin Gideli'” (Ruhi Su's 73-year journey), Alâettin Bahçekapılı and Nabi Belekoğlu say: “There is no doubt that Ruhi Su's 73-year journey was a painful one, but always one filled with honor. ... As he walked, he incorporated folk songs that intensely and sincerely summarized exile, homeland, pain, and joy into his saz, saz, and lyrics. Neither growing up as an orphan, nor the obstacles to his love of reading and learning, nor the harsh conditions of prison, nor the prohibitions, nothing could stop him from singing folk songs, from constantly thinking about them, from working on them.”

Who among the friends who wrote letters to us on the 30th anniversary of his physical departure, saying, “Ruhi Su, you’ve been gone for a long time”?

Hıfzı Topuz, Cevat Çapan, Cengiz Bektaş, Ôner Yağcı, Tektaş Ağaoğlu, Zeynep Oral, Şanar Yurdatapan, Sarper Özsan, Işıl Özgentürk, Şükran Soner, Deniz Türkali, Ahmet Özer, Semih Poroy, Yaşar Miraç, Alaettin Bahçekapılı, Turgay Fişekçi, Ayten Mutlu, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yürür, Erkan Oğur, İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu, Müjdat Gezen, Gülsüm Cengiz, Mehmet Aksoy, İbrahim Balaban, Muzaffer Özdemir, Sevim Günay, Sevgi Türker Terlemez, A. Levent Alpay, Ömer Asan, Yaşar Özürküt........

Sixty people have sent such realistic observations from thirty years ago that I don't think Ruhi Su would want to go back to the present day if he had the chance. Of course, there are also some wonderful references to Ruhu Su's personality, art, and friendship: Here are a few:

"... Your voice and saz reminded us of the soulful people of Anatolia who were oppressed for centuries, who suffered, who resisted, but who never gave up on love and affection... Hıfzı Topuz"

"... How is it where you are? I'm really curious. For example, we still have trouble making ends meet; we haven't been able to reach wealth, we haven't been able to share what's produced and created fairly. Alaettin Bahçekapılı"