THE CONCEPT OF GURBET (ABSENCE FROM HOME) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF MINSTRELS LIVING IN EUROPE
The oral poetry tradition that has existed ever since the moment the Turks appeared in the history has been a means of expressing the feelings of the nation. The tradition of being a minstrel, which is one of the deep-rooted traditions of Turkish culture, is a common heritage that indicates the survival skills of the Turks. Turkish people, who always tried to protect this tradition, kept it alive by taking it wherever they went. When 800.000 workers went to Europe between the years 1962 and 1974, they also carried their culture with them. Assmann states that “group and space form a common life, and if the group falls apart from its space it keeps this togetherness alive by recreating it”. Thus, a new form of heritage is formed in the new space. The heritage here is common and belongs to a group. Minstrels are the performers of this cultural and social heritage. Minstrels living in Europe did not only undertake to responsiblity of carrying this heritage, they also voiced “the adventure of the migration” in their poems. The resons of the migration, missing the ones left back at hometown, the difficulties faced in the new environment, a new place to live in, the new environment, the price of the meoney earned, marriages with foreigners, the education of children and most importantly spoiled lives are important subject matters in their poems. The minstrel poetry also assumes importance in identifying the difficulties our citizens living in Europe faced during the adaptation process to the new environment they were in as well as educational and cultural problems. In our article, the phenomenon of being away from home will be examined and the problems our citizens face will be evaluated by on the basis of poetry.

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Keywords
minstrel, oral tradition, cultural memory, Europe, migration, absence from home