Amasya's Contemporary Voices: Natives on Stage and Screen

Voices with Roots in Amasya

When one thinks of Amasya's cultural life, the first things that come to mind are classical Ottoman music, the melodies of the Mevlevi and other dervish circles, and the folk songs sung in village guest rooms. Yet the city's relationship with the arts did not remain confined to these older layers. From the second half of the twentieth century onward it reached the theatre stage, the cinema screen and radio and television broadcasting, and in recent years the new media of the internet as well. Today the name of Amasya turns up somewhere in the life stories of many of the singers, actors and comedians whom Turkey knows well. Some of them were born in the city centre or in districts such as Merzifon and Gümüşhacıköy. Others were not born in Amasya but trace their descent to this land, have a father or grandfather from the city, or spent part of their childhood there.

That the bond of being a fellow townsman, a hemşehri, should take such varied forms is closely tied to Amasya's history of migration over the past century. Families who left the city for Istanbul and Ankara, and after the 1960s for Europe, above all Germany, raised new generations wherever they settled, and some members of those generations went on to careers in the arts. Being of Amasya origin has thus come to be defined sometimes by the birthplace written on an identity card and sometimes by a sense of belonging handed down within the family. Every name in this broad spectrum, stretching from the city on the Yeşilırmak to the contemporary stage, bears the marks of its own generation and its own story of migration.

Giriftzen Âsım Bey and the City's Musical Past

Before turning to contemporary voices, it is worth recalling a master who left his mark on Amasya's musical life in the modern period. Giriftzen Âsım Bey (1851-1929) owed his epithet to being regarded as the finest player of his day on the girift, a small instrument of the ney family. Born in Yenişehr-i Fenâr, today's Larissa in Greece, Âsım Bey attended the Mevlevi lodge of Yenişehir as a boy, joined its ensemble of musicians at the age of thirteen, and soon afterwards was entrusted with the ney improvisations of the ceremonies. He later served in the Ministry of Finance and then as an officer in the fire brigade founded by Sultan Abdülaziz, fought as a company commander in the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, and after the war was appointed commander of the Üsküdar fire brigade.

Âsım Bey's connection with Amasya began with an exile. When his close friend Marshal Fuad Pasha was sent into exile, Âsım Bey, because of his closeness to the pasha, was compelled in 1900 to reside in Amasya. With the proclamation of the Constitution in 1908 he returned to Istanbul and to his post in the fire brigade, but after retiring he went back to Amasya of his own accord and settled there. During his Amasya years, which added up to more than two decades, he trained many pupils and was among the composers of one of the settings of the İstiklâl Marşı, the national anthem, that are no longer performed today. That an artist who had sat in the same gatherings as masters such as Hacı Ârif Bey, Tanburi Ali Efendi and Tanburi Cemil Bey spent the last years of his life in this city carried the accumulated learning of Istanbul into Amasya's musical circles. Âsım Bey fell ill while visiting Istanbul and died there in February 1929; he was buried in the Merkezefendi Cemetery. The notation of forty-three of his instrumental and vocal works has survived.

The line that runs from the breath of Giriftzen Âsım Bey to today's pop melodies does not, of course, form an unbroken school tradition. Even so, the distance between these two poles provides a frame showing that Amasya has, in every period, either raised its own musicians or embraced those who came to it ready-made. The recent names that stretch from pop to folk music and from the theatre to internet comedy form the newer links in this frame.

Simge Sağın and Turkish Pop Music

Simge Sağın, known by her stage name Simge and one of the most listened-to female voices in Turkish pop over the past decade, was born on 8 August 1981 in Kurtuluş, a neighbourhood in Istanbul's Şişli district. Her mother is of Albanian descent, while her father is from Amasya. Her father was a musician who had worked for many years in orchestras, and Simge grew up surrounded by music from an early age. After the birth of Simge, the family's second child, her mother gave up her job, and when another child arrived it was her father's turn to leave music and take up other work. Simge, who has openly admitted that her high school years were far from brilliant, wanted to study music after finishing school and, with her father's encouragement, enrolled in the voice training department of the Turkish Music State Conservatory at Istanbul Technical University. Having studied there with leading figures of classical Turkish music such as Alâeddin Yavaşca and Selahattin İçli explains the source of the Turkish musical colour heard in her later pop songs.

She began her stage career as a backing vocalist. In her first year at the conservatory she sang backing vocals for Zeynep Dizdar, then for four years for Gülşen, and she also performed behind Yaşar and Serdar Ortaç. In these years she sang the theme music of the television series Annem and Son Bahar, and the song "Annem", recorded with Kıraç, was among the most streamed songs of 2010. Her first release, Yeni Çıktı, prepared at the invitation of the composer and arranger Erdem Kınay, came out on the Kaya Müzik label in March 2011, and with this record Simge was named best new female artist at an awards ceremony in 2012. The album, however, did not attract the expected interest, and for some years the singer kept her career going with seasonal contracts at venues in Eskişehir and İzmir. The music critic Naim Dilmener wrote at the time that this young singer with a fine voice had not managed to make herself heard as much as she deserved.

The turning point came in 2015. "Bip Bip", released with Doğan Music Company in September 2014, had brought her name back into circulation, and "Miş Miş", released in June 2015, carried her to the top of the charts. A reworking with Turkish lyrics of "Dans mon quartier" by the French singer Rif Kohen, the song spent four consecutive weeks at number one on the official MusicTopTR chart, became the most played song on radio and television in the second half of the year, and opened the door to nearly two hundred concerts for Simge in that year alone. The same year she received the award for best new solo artist at the 42nd Golden Butterfly (Altın Kelebek) Awards. After this success Simge became one of the most frequently played artists on radio and television.

"Yankı", released in January 2016, rose to second place on the national chart and was the most played song on radio and television in the first nine months of that year. Her first studio album, Ben Bazen, released in June 2018, was the product of a preparation process spread over four years and was made with the contributions of figures such as Ozan Bayraşa, Alper Narman, Ersay Üner, Onurr and Sezen Aksu. The title track rose to third place and "Öpücem" to first, while "Aşkın Olayım" also reached a wide audience. In 2018 Simge was recorded as the second most played female singer on radio and television. A soprano, she has described her style as a sound that carries the inflections of Turkish music over a modern backing, a synthesis of East and West, and has said that she takes Sezen Aksu as her model. The music writer Can Şişman likewise observed that musicians whose faces are turned to the West without neglecting the East are embraced as a matter of course, attributing Simge's broad appeal to this balance.

Simge's discography was extended by the album Anlatasım Var, released in 2025, and she appeared on camera as a guest actor in the film Her Şey Aşktan in 2016 and in the television series Üç Kuruş in 2021. Although she was born and raised in Istanbul, Simge, who is linked to Amasya through her father, is mentioned in the local press among the city's best-known fellow townspeople. Her story is a typical example of how a talent raised in the big city by a family of provincial origin can shine on a national scale.

Aynur Aydın and the Amasya Diaspora

Aynur Aydın, known for her voice and stage presence, is one of the best-known representatives of Amasya's generations abroad. The singer was born on 15 December 1985 in Munich, Germany, although some local reports give her year of birth as 1980. Her grandfather emigrated to Germany in 1970, and Aynur Aydın grew up as the daughter of a Turkish family that has lived in Munich for three generations. According to press reports her grandfather migrated from Amasya to Germany, and the singer's Amasya identity rests on this family tie. That the grandchildren of people from Amasya who emigrated to Germany now appear on the stages of Turkish music is an example of how the city's cultural ties have endured across generations.

Aynur Aydın began singing at a young age, gained her first experience on children's and youth theatre stages in Munich, and then graduated from the Westend Opera Musical School. She took her first step into professional life with the group Sürpriz, which she joined in 1999. The group recorded its first album in Istanbul in 2000 and began performing on international stages. After Sürpriz broke up, Aydın joined the group Tagtraeumer, with which she competed in Germany's preliminary selection for the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Mükemmel Dünya İçin". In interviews given to the press at the time, the young singer said that in this contest she would represent the Turks of Germany, and her participation in the German preliminaries with a Turkish-titled song received wide coverage in the Turkish press abroad.

Turning to a solo career, Aydın met the songwriter Tony Nilsson in Sweden and began work on her first album in 2009. In the two years of work that followed, thirteen songs were first prepared in English and later brought together with their Turkish versions on the album 12 Çeşit La La - 12 Ways to La La. Recorded at Cosmos Studio in Stockholm, the album was released in 2011, and the same year the singer settled in Turkey. The videos shot for "Yenildim Daima" and its English version "DNA" introduced Aydın to listeners in Turkey. The Magazine Journalists' Association (Magazin Gazetecileri Derneği) named her best new artist of the year for 2011-2012.

"İşporta", which she sang on Erdem Kınay's project album in 2012, was among the most listened-to songs in Turkey in June of that year. "Günah Sevap", released in 2015, rose to first place on a music channel's chart, and "Günah Sevap" and "Bi Dakika" from her second studio album Emanet Beden, released in April 2016, climbed as high as third place on the national chart. In the following years the singer continued her career with various singles, above all the duets she released with Turaç Berkay Özer. Unlike Simge's, Aynur Aydın's story is that of an artistic career that runs from Munich back to Istanbul, reversing a migration route that once led from Amasya to Europe.

From Folk Music to the Screen: Sadık Gürbüz

While most artists of Amasya origin are known for pop music or comedy, Sadık Gürbüz stands out as one of the established names of Turkish folk music. Born on 10 April 1950 in Keçiköy, a village of Gümüşhacıköy, Gürbüz graduated from the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University but devoted his life to music and the stage. Between 1971 and 1976 he worked at the Istanbul City Theatres under the direction of Muhsin Ertuğrul, and he has said that the foundations of his musical outlook were laid in those years, during the solid musical training they received at the theatre. In 1976 he was dismissed from his post for political reasons and never returned to it.

Having written incidental music for plays during his time at the theatre, Gürbüz also composed the scores of the films Kara Çarşaflı Gelin (1975), Kaçak (1982) and Şaşkın Ördek (1983). On albums such as Toprağım ve Sevdam (1988), Turna Telinden (1995), Umut ve Yaşam Türküleri (1997) and Yine O Sevda (2002) he interpreted folk songs of love and exile and hymns from the tradition of Pir Sultan Abdal. His polyphonic arrangements, which aim to free folk music from monophony and bring it together with modern techniques, give him an innovative place in the field. Gürbüz has also frequently voiced the view that, under the influence of radio and television, those who champion folk culture are no longer as effective as they once were.

It was through acting, however, that Gürbüz's face became familiar to a wide public. He played Yani Baba in the 2005 film Misi and Derviş Baba in the 2006 film Eve Giden Yol 1914, and as Hacı Şerif in the series Kardeş Payı, which began in 2014 and ended on 30 April 2015, he became one of television's best-loved faces. His resonant voice and dignified acting are the fruit of a long artistic life that took him from Gümüşhacıköy to the stages of Istanbul.

Actors from Amasya on Stage and Screen

Actors make up the largest group among the faces Amasya has given to the screen. Some of them were trained on the theatre stage, while others became known over many years through supporting roles in television series. The artists mentioned here are either recorded in biographical sources as born in Amasya or formed a direct bond with the city during a particular period of their lives.

Çağlar Çorumlu

Çağlar Çorumlu, one of the first names that come to mind when theatre and comedy are mentioned, is from Amasya despite the city his surname evokes. He was born in Merzifon on 4 December 1977, the son of a mother and a father who were both teachers, and graduated from Merzifon High School in 1994. While completing the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management at Anadolu University in Eskişehir in 2000, he joined the university's theatre club and discovered his acting talent with the support of the club's director, Tolga Evren. After graduating he settled in Istanbul, trained for a year at the Actor Studio of the Müjdat Gezen Art Centre, and graduated in 2001.

Beginning his professional theatre career at Kabare Taksim, Çorumlu made his television debut as the character Yusuf Güdük in the series Yedi Numara, produced by that company, and then continued as a cabaret actor with the group Komedi Kılçık. In 2007 he joined the Istanbul City Theatres with the play İstanbul Efendisi, and six years later he resigned from the institution and in 2013 founded his own theatre, TiyatrOPS. In 2012 his role as Taparnigos in the play Şark Dişçisi won him the award for best male performer in a musical comedy at the Yapı Kredi Afife Jale Theatre Awards. On television he reached a wide audience with the characters Şevket in Güldür Güldür Show and Yaşar Yüksel in Jet Sosyete, and he appeared alongside Cem Yılmaz in İş Bankası commercials and in the series Erşan Kuneri. In the cinema he acted in films such as Prensesin Uykusu, Kolonya Cumhuriyeti and Arif V 216, playing Zeki Müren in the last of these. The local press writes that Çorumlu often mentions Amasya in the plays and films in which he appears.

Şencan Güleryüz

Arif Şencan Güleryüz was born in Amasya in 1972. After studying sales management at Trakya University from 1990 to 1992, he entered the Acting Department of the Theatre Division of the Istanbul University State Conservatory in 1992 and graduated in 1996. From 1993 onward he performed with the Istanbul State Theatre, the Dormen Theatre, Tiyatrokare and Tiyatro İstanbul, and also worked as a director. Known in the cinema for Kahpe Bizans (2000), Güleryüz has acted in a great many series, from Tatlı Kaçıklar to Cennet'in Gözyaşları and from Yalnız Kurt to Gecenin Ucunda, and has also appeared in television programmes such as Şakamera. Alongside acting he has worked in commercial voice-over, presenting, magazine publishing and executive production, and has taught directing actors at Marmara University's Department of Cinema and Television and acting at the Sadri Alışık Conservatory.

Ayşen Tekin

Another Amasya actor who has remained in the memory of television audiences is Ayşen Tekin. Born in Amasya on 2 March 1953, Tekin graduated from the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Letters at Istanbul University and stepped into the theatre in 1970. She gained her first experience at the Tevfik Gelenbe Theatre and in later years worked with companies such as the Lale Oraloğlu Theatre, the Ankara Birlik Theatre and the Tuncay Özinel Theatre. Also an accomplished voice artist, Tekin acted in series such as Süper Baba, Deli Yürek and Küçük İbo, and was best known for her role as Müzeyyen in the series Çocuklar Duymasın. She died in Istanbul on 28 July 2006 following an operation and was buried in the Karacaahmet Cemetery.

Yakup Yavru

Yakup Yavru, a familiar face of comedy films and television series, was born on 1 March 1952 in the village of Yavru in Amasya. He graduated from a teacher training school and, as his profession required, served in many cities. Although he came to acting late, from the mid-1990s onward he appeared in more than a hundred productions, mostly playing familiar characters from everyday Anatolian life such as a chief inspector, a village headman, a school principal, a taxi driver or a moneylender. Recep İvedik, Kutsal Damacana and Yeditepe İstanbul are among these productions. His roles as Balıkçı İrfan in the series Papatyam and as the school principal in Geniş Aile endeared him to a wide audience. The local press relates that in the comedy films in which he appeared he used the Amasya dialect as a greeting to his fellow townspeople. Yavru died of a heart attack on 25 September 2018 in his hotel in Adana, where he had gone to receive the Cinema Labour Award (Sinema Emek Ödülü) to be presented to him at the 25th International Adana Film Festival, and he was laid to rest in Amasya.

Sefa Tantoğlu

From a younger generation, Sefa Tantoğlu was born in Amasya on 7 September 1983. His family originally comes from the village of Sarp in Kemalpaşa, Artvin, and he himself grew up in Mersin. Having received his first theatre training at the Mersin City Theatre, Tantoğlu graduated from the Theatre Department of the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2008, and the same year his role in Of Mice and Men, staged at the Istanbul State Theatre, earned him the Arda Kanpolat Acting Award. In 2012 he reached a wide audience as the character Güven in the series Akasya Durağı, and then acted in the series Bizim Okul. Alongside acting he worked as a drama teacher at the Cemal Reşit Rey Fine Arts High School in Istanbul and appeared on stage in adaptations of Dürrenmatt and Büchner.

Behind the Scenes: Şenol Tiryaki

Although rarely seen on screen, Şenol Tiryaki deserves mention as a native of Amasya who contributed to the institutional life of Turkish theatre. Born in Amasya on 26 September 1944, Tiryaki attended primary school in Merzifon, middle school in Amasya and high school at Ankara's Gazi Lisesi, and graduated from the Theatre Department of the Faculty of Language and History-Geography at Ankara University. From 1979 to 2000 he chaired the board of the Ankara Deneme Sahnesi, a company founded in 1956, and collected all of its work in his book Amatör (2013). He was a founding member and the first president of the Union of Amateur Theatres, established in 1999.

Tiryaki, who retired in 2009 from the post of Deputy Director General of the State Opera and Ballet that he had taken up in 1992, worked during that period for the establishment of provincial directorates in Samsun, Antalya, Sivas, Van and Gaziantep. During his years at the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality he contributed to projects such as an inter-school theatre festival, a youth festival and park concerts. Besides his work in dramaturgy, acting and directing, he wrote on the restructuring of the performing arts, and in 2011 he was honoured with the ATF Labour Award.

A New Generation of Comedians

In recent years a significant share of the names associated with Amasya have come from stand-up and internet comedy. Foremost among them is Doğu Demirkol. Demirkol was born in Ankara on 6 September 1988, the son of a lawyer mother from Mersin and a doctor father from Balıkesir. Although not of Amasya origin, he spent part of his school years in Amasya and attended middle school in the city. Some local reports write that he also attended primary school there. After finishing high school in Ankara he studied computer engineering at Istanbul University. The local press counting him among Amasya's celebrities is a form of adoption that can be explained by the saying that one's home is where one was fed.

Having started out making comic videos on social media, Demirkol took part in a talent show in 2012, then drew attention with his stand-up performances and in 2015 appeared in the Open Mic shows at BKM Mutfak. He became known to television audiences through a short set on the programme Güldür Güldür, and in 2018 moved into film with Ali Atay's Ölümlü Dünya. The same year he played the lead role of Sinan Karasu in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Ağacı), and together with Zeki Demirkubuz's Hayat, two of his films were put forward as Turkey's submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He thus became the fifth actor, after Şener Şen, Güven Kıraç, Taner Birsel and Yılmaz Erdoğan, to have two films submitted in this category. He played Tarık Şakrak in the series Tutunamayanlar, created the series Doğu based on his own life, and in 2024 took the lead in Yaşam Koçu, a film for which he also wrote the screenplay.

Another well-known face of the internet generation is Aykut Elmas. Born in Amasya on 15 February 1991, the son of a teacher, Elmas finished high school at the Atatürk Anatolian High School in Tavşanlı, Kütahya, and in 2010 began studying public relations at Ege University in İzmir. In 2013 he became known for the sketches he shared on the short-video app Vine, and the videos he made with Halil İbrahim Göker and Uğur Can Akgül quickly reached a large audience. He later moved to YouTube and Instagram, gaining millions of followers, and in 2016 appeared in the film Nasıl Yani, in which he shared the leading roles with the same team. Elmas, who has also acted in Kayıt Dışı (2021) and Olmadı Kaçarız (2022), reflects the story of many Amasya families who moved from city to city as the children of teachers.

Other Faces on Screen

Amasya's presence on the screen is not limited to artists. The football referee Bünyamin Gezer was born in Amasya on 9 December 1972. He played for a time as a goalkeeper in the amateur leagues, combined work as a police officer with refereeing, and after officiating important matches in the top divisions hung up his whistle in 2011. After serving on the Central Referees Committee he turned to column writing and football commentary, becoming a familiar face on TRT Spor analysing the contentious incidents of matches.

Another name counted among Amasya's celebrities in the local press is the actor and comedian Atilla Arcan, who reached a wide audience in the 1990s with Binbir Surat, a programme in which he impersonated famous people. Born Ali Atila Gürses in Istanbul on 21 September 1945, he was the son of Muharrem Gürses, a stage and screen actor, director and screenwriter, and died in Istanbul on 16 November 2015. Although local reports state that Arcan was of Amasya descent on his father's side, no detailed document confirming this connection has been found.

Fellow Townspeople and the Question of Origin

As these portraits show, an artist's being counted as from Amasya rests on quite different criteria. The birthplaces of Çağlar Çorumlu, Şencan Güleryüz, Ayşen Tekin, Yakup Yavru, Sefa Tantoğlu, Sadık Gürbüz and Aykut Elmas are given in biographical records as the province of Amasya. Simge Sağın and Aynur Aydın, on the other hand, were not born in Amasya. The former is linked to the city through her father, the latter through her grandfather. Doğu Demirkol's tie, in turn, rests on his school years. There are also small discrepancies between the sources. Aynur Aydın's year of birth is given as 1980 in some reports and as 1985 in biographical sources, and whether Demirkol attended only middle school in Amasya or primary school as well varies from source to source. The lists of celebrities compiled by the local press also contain statements that are not always precise, and such information is presented here together with its source and with due caution.

This diversity also reflects Amasya's place in modern Turkey. For an Anatolian city that has sent a large part of its population to the big cities and abroad, being a fellow townsman is a bond that lives in family memory more than in a birthplace. The city to which Giriftzen Âsım Bey came as an exile and to which he later returned of his own free will continues today to be remembered as the common denominator of a singer born in Munich, a pop star raised in Istanbul and an actor who set out from Merzifon to make his name on the stages of Istanbul.

Chronology

1851: Giriftzen Âsım Bey is born in Yenişehr-i Fenâr (Larissa).

1900: Âsım Bey is compelled to reside in Amasya because of his closeness to Marshal Fuad Pasha.

1929: Âsım Bey, who had lived for many years in Amasya, dies in Istanbul.

1944: The theatre figure Şenol Tiryaki is born in Amasya.

1950: Sadık Gürbüz is born in Keçiköy, Gümüşhacıköy.

1952: Yakup Yavru is born in the village of Yavru in Amasya.

1953: Ayşen Tekin is born in Amasya.

1970: Aynur Aydın's grandfather emigrates to Germany.

1972: Şencan Güleryüz and Bünyamin Gezer are born in Amasya.

1977: Çağlar Çorumlu is born in Merzifon.

1981: Simge Sağın is born in Istanbul, the daughter of a father from Amasya.

1983: Sefa Tantoğlu is born in Amasya.

1985: Aynur Aydın is born in Munich.

1991: Aykut Elmas is born in Amasya.

2002: Ayşen Tekin begins playing Müzeyyen in the series Çocuklar Duymasın.

2011: Simge's first release, Yeni Çıktı, and Aynur Aydın's first album, 12 Çeşit La La, are released.

2012: Çağlar Çorumlu wins an Afife Jale Theatre Award for the play Şark Dişçisi.

2014-2015: Sadık Gürbüz plays Hacı Şerif in the series Kardeş Payı.

2015: Simge's song "Miş Miş" reaches the top of the charts.

2018: Simge's first studio album, Ben Bazen, is released. Yakup Yavru dies in Adana and is laid to rest in Amasya.

Bibliography

Other sources

• Özcan, Nuri, "Âsım Bey, Giriftzen", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 3, Istanbul 1991. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
• Simge (şarkıcı), Turkish Wikipedia article (accessed 01.10.2026). tr.wikipedia.org
• Aynur Aydın, Turkish Wikipedia article (accessed 01.10.2026). tr.wikipedia.org
• Çağlar Çorumlu, Şencan Güleryüz, Ayşen Tekin, Yakup Yavru, Sefa Tantoğlu, Şenol Tiryaki, Sadık Gürbüz, Doğu Demirkol, Aykut Elmas, Bünyamin Gezer and Atilla Arcan, Turkish Wikipedia articles (accessed 01.10.2026). tr.wikipedia.org
• "Aynur Aydın Amasyalı çıktı. Bakın hangi ünlülerle hemşeri... İşte Amasyalı 4 ünlü isim", Akşam, 8 October 2021. aksam.com.tr
• Atıcı, Serkan, "Ekranların En Sevilen Amasyalı Ünlüleri" (photo gallery), Objektif Amasya, 17 September 2023. objektifamasya.com