Abstract
CLASSIFICATION OF SKOPJE FOLK SONGS AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS
The Turkish community living in Skopje continues its existence within a cultural mosaic that dates back to ancient times. The main element of this mosaic consists of social and cultural textures formed during the Ottoman period. Preserving these cultural elements in a multi-ethnic environment and transferring them to future generations brings with it certain difficulties. In this context, oral Turkish folk literature comes into play as an important factor in keeping the national identity alive among branches such as language, religion, history and art. Turkish folk literature products create a link between the past and the future and ensure that the society's lifestyle, world of thought, experiences, in short, the values of Turkish society are kept alive. Folk songs, which have an important place among oral folk literature products, have helped the historical and cultural values of Turkish society, sung with melodies, to reach the present day. Skopje folk songs are a genre that best expresses the feelings and thoughts of the Turkish society, social life, historical past, love, enthusiasm, separation and longing. Folk songs, which are the carriers of cultural heritage, shed light on the struggle of the society for existence. In the study, Skopje folk songs sung by the Turks in Northern Macedonia were classified and an attempt was made to identify the existing cultural elements.
Keywords
Skopje, folk songs, cultural elements