Bulgaristan Kırcaali’den Derlenen Bir Yemen Türküsü - A Yemen Folk Song Compiled in Kardzhali (Kırcaali), Bulgaria

Yemen had been one of the regions where Ottomans had to struggle most in order to maintain order. Revolts in Yemen remain amongst the most adverse events of the Ottoman political legacy. The events that took place in a forty eight year period which lasted from 1870 until Yemen left the Ottoman rule in 1918, left very deep and painful marks in the Turkish Nation's memory. Since a large number of soldiers were collected from various provinces within the borders of the Ottoman Empire and sent to Yemen in order to supress the revolts there, Yemen folk songs are spread across a wide geography. In our folk songs, the name Yemen stands for absence from home, separation, longing and sickness. Yemen is another coding of death in our world of consciousness. Rumelia is one of the regions where this pain was coded as such. People in Rumeli mourned for those who went to Yemen and could not return home, just as it was done in Anatolia. Yemen, is a grief that is shared by both Anatolian and Rumelian Turks. Shared sorrows are recorded into the collective memory of the society by means of folk songs. Yemen's sorrow was felt by Bulgarian Turks as well. We compiled this folk song on Yemen in 2004, in Kardzhali (Kırcaali) town of Bulgaria. In this article, the text and the story of this folk song will be discussed.