An evaluation of the city image in Amasya folk songs

Cities are the symbol of civilization. Each city has its own fate, identity and an image in the minds of people. The image about the city; it determines the viewpoint of people, triggers many different elements from travel to investment. Amasya is a city that has hosted many civilizations such as Hittite, Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman. Amasya is the city of Ferhat and Sirin, wise saints, the Ottoman princes, and the savant who founded the tekke. The peoples that create the cities have transferred their culture to other people with different means. Perhaps one of the most important of these instruments, “folk songs" are the unique creations of oral culture. Folk songs, which carry the traces of national culture intensively, are also indicators of a common memory. Through folk songs it is possible to have knowledge about the ideas, culture, lifestyle and even political thoughts of the society. Thanks to folk songs / music, historical history of the region where folk songs were created, important figures and managers of the region are transferred from generation to generation. From this point of view, it can be said that folk songs have an important place in terms of city identity. In this study, 81 Amasya folk songs in the Amasya Folk Songs book published by Amasya Municipality Culture Publications are evaluated for the city image. The city image in folk songs is interpreted by Martinez's 9 city image variables. The data obtained from the research with the document analysis method were reported descriptively. The study is important in terms of revealing how the elements of the city image are given in 81 songs of Amasya. It is necessary to evaluate these data in order to make sense of the general city perception of the time when the folk songs were created. In addition, the positive and negative aspects of the image conveyed in relation to the city with folk songs are also examined