Turkish folk music (
Türk Halk Müzigi) combines the distinct cultural values of all civilisations that have lived in
Turkey and its former territories in
Europe and
Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under one umbrella. It was the most popular music genre in the
Ottoman Empire era. After the foundation of the
Turkish Republic, Atatürk asked to make a wide-scale classification and archiving of samples of Turkish folk music from around the country, which was launched in 1924 and continued until 1953 to collect around 10,000 folk songs. In the 1960s, Turkish folk music met with radio and folk musicians like
Asik Veysel,
Neset Ertas, Bedia Akartürk became the most popular names of the Turkish folk music. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the rising popularity of
arabesque and
Turkish light western, Turkish folk music has lost some ground, but singers like
Belkis Akkale, Izzet Altinmese,
Selda Bagcan and
Arif Sag made successful hit songs and became important representatives of the genre.