Turkish Music and Prohibitions from Tanzimat to Republic

This article studies the application of the prohibitions that faced turkish music in the ottoman empire and in the republic of turkey. westernization brought about important changes in the republic of turkey in terms of structure of sociey. in the tanzimat period, which saw the beginning of modernization in the ottoman period, and after the republic of turkey took its final shape, westernization had an impact on turkish music and as a result, bans were placed on turkish music. these prohibitions are the subject of our article. in our article, the historical time span of the turkish music bans covers two hundred years. this two hundred-year period starts with the music prohibition imposed by the sultan of the ottoman empire, osman iii (1754-1757), and ends with the time when the republic of turkey ended its single-party rule. we started the historical time interval of our article from the period of osman iii, because as soon as he rose to the throne, he removed all the musicians in enderun from the palace and he closed enderun meşkhanesi for an indefinite period of time, which had been the place where palace boys had been playing music for more than a century. this ban, which occurred before the tanzimat period, is the first music ban implemented by the state. we see 1950 as the end of the bans, because the single party government reduced the pressure and bans on turkish music in the recent times of its power, and the power that replaced the single party thought that the bans should be dropped. our claim will add originality to our article. turkish music, the relationship between the republic of turkey and the ottoman modernization reforms can be seen as a cause and effect relationship. the two-hundred-year period between the period when the turkish music ban first appeared and the period when it was lifted should be evaluated as a whole. turkish music bans are not practices specific to a certain period. the responsibility brought by the prohibitions should not be attributed to a single power or period.