1239: Arif Sağ
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/25
2011
“A prime minister is having some candidates publicly jeered by saying ‘this one is Alevi.’ We must not open irreparable wounds for the sake of a few votes.”
“Honestly, I don’t want to speak about these subjects, but when I heard what the prime minister said, I couldn’t hold back.”
“They’re scheming again, but I can’t discern the color of the game.”
“We will pay the price for whatever fighting takes place. In this land, we must live like human beings. A leader, speaking according to his own beliefs, is having that belief booed by the people he addresses. I get upset every time I see it.”
“As an artist, I speak out my concerns and offer my advice. Nobody should drag society into places that cannot be repaired.
2012
“Our Muhabbet albums had an impact on the Sivas incidents.”
“In parliament, the phrase ‘socio‑economic and cultural structure’ was like saying ‘as‑salām‑ʿalaykum.’”
“I am still discovering the bağlama …”
“It’s not just about being visible in the media … As a folk artist, I find doing that for two hours in front of a camera somewhat jarring. The public should feel they share genuine emotions with you; too much exposure creates distance.”
“You don’t get to exist as you wish, but as popular culture wills. I have no intention of submitting myself to that.”
“I’m a talented man. If you surrender to fate, it means you’re not confident in your own talent.”
“Our work helped bring the bağlama into Turkey’s cultural conversation. Its other great achievement was empowering people to say, ‘I am Alevi.’”
“Before 12 September, the massacres in Maraş and Çorum were influenced by Mahsuni Şerif. The powerful deyiş (Alevi hymn) he sang at the time disturbed some. While our Muhabbet albums relieved people, they also upset others — and so they left their mark on the Sivas events.”
“That’s not how you write a method. Can you have a bağlama in six months? Could you tell a doctor, ‘I’ll prescribe you six months of medicine, then I won’t care if you live after that?’ You don’t write a method in six months for someone to go perform in a bar.”
“‘I did it, so it’s done’ is wrong. I’m trying to convey the bağlama’s present. Tomorrow, someone else will improve it or write a new method. The violin’s method took 450 years to develop; the scientific study of the bağlama is still very new.”
2018
“He built those excuses into his resignation speech. It’s an outrageous lie, a fraud! How can someone resign and soil all his colleagues as he leaves?”
“No — while we’ve known each other for 57 years, friendship is a different matter. You may spend half a century with someone and still not be friends. Friendship is a heavy burden; it’s not easy to carry.”
“The allegations Orhan Gencebay raised pose problems for copyright. He’s saying terrible things — touching on ethnicity, politics, Alevism, leftism, Kurdishness — without saying it openly. The institutions that deal with copyright and the people who work there have no interest in any of that. Our concern is wherever there’s copyright or piracy, we fight to protect the rights of struggling artists who feed their families with these songs. Not everyone is Orhan Gencebay or Arif Sağ, able to eat as much as they like.”
“I consider this my job. No matter how far back events go in Turkey, would you give up your profession? You wouldn’t. It’s the same for us. Thousands of poor people make a living. These people live off songs and folk tunes. We’re talking about defending their rights — and meanwhile we argue among ourselves. That’s the problem. Whether I’m here or not doesn’t matter. It’d be better if I weren’t. I’ll just mind my own work, take my car and my cameras, and go photograph Anatolia.”
“For a time, I betrayed my own people.”
“New musical trends emerge — how long do they last? What do they bring? Nothing but exploiting the poor’s emotions. I did that myself, and then I apologized, admitting I had betrayed. Betraying my own people, my own community — that was a betrayal. Whether I did it knowingly or not is a different matter, but from my perspective it was a betrayal.”
“It’s shameful to debate issues through ethnic or political origins. You’re only thinking of yourself — placing your profession on one side and yourself on the other.”
2019
“In Cuba, I received a vaccine treatment to prevent the disease from recurring. No one should underestimate cancer treatments in Turkey.”
“Where people go wrong is believing Cuba has a cure — yet they are mistaken.”
“I must say that my cancer treatment in Turkey was excellent.”
2022
“Let’s meet at the Great Alevi Congress in Yenikapı on December 25. I believe everyone should take this gathering seriously.”
2023
“I believe this political contest will harm the values you represent and our society, and as a comrade I feel responsible to tell you that you should not be part of such a race.”
“What suits you now is to lead our party in renewal and growth.”
“It is by extending your hand to the youth that you will chart a new course for the party you have guided to safe harbor.”
2025
“My doctor said, ‘There’s a drug in Cuba you should try’… All treatment at the hospital was free. The cancer rate there seems almost zero.”
“The doctor told me that just as a person must continually wear glasses or a diabetic must continually use insulin, this medicine must be used likewise… My trip to Cuba disciplined my life. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at 07:00 — no exceptions.”
“I was the kind of man who brushed his teeth once every one or two weeks. Now I have to brush after every meal for the sublingual drops.”
“I am someone to be loved, and I love them back. Let them continue to love me.”
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