Tradition of Kars Minstrel According to the Type of Folk Poet in Dede Korkut Stories

The Dede Korkut stories are one of the most important common values of Turkish World. Although this work had been written the hundreds of years later that the Turks accepted Islam religion, it has many elements of Turkish culture that belongs to pre-islamic period. The custom of being a poet, which is a type of musician, is one of the Turkish culture of pre-islamic age. The poets were not only musicians who had ability of music, but also they have the ability of a religious person, a doctor or a witch. After a while, by the effects of Islamic culture, these poets had left their places to the minstrels(=Aşık). Kars and its neighbourhood is one of the place that the custom of minstrel has performed mostly. There has been many common elements between the type of poets in the Dede Korkut Stories and in the living tradition of minstrel of Kars. In this study, the similarities between the Dede Korkut Stories and Kars minstrel tadition, and the reason of these had been tried to be defineted.