Şeref Taşlıova was born in 1938 in the village of Gülyüzü, within the Çıldır district of Kars Province (now within the boundaries of Ardahan), a settlement locally known as “Pekreşen.” His father was Hacı, a migrant from Borçalı, and his mother was Nergis Hanım. His family had migrated from the village of Salahlı in the Caucasus to Türkiye and belonged to the community known in the Kars region as “Terekeme.” His grandfather Halil Efendi’s interest in folk poetry played a decisive role in shaping his artistic orientation.

The Taşlıova family, originating from the village of Yukarı Salahlı in the Borçalı region of Georgia, migrated to Türkiye and is known in the region as “Salihgiller.” Their paternal lineage traces back to the genealogical line of Halil, Salih, Medet, and Hacı. On his mother’s side, he belonged to the Mamogil family from the village of Eşmepınar in Çıldır and was part of the Karapapak (Terekeme) Turks. ^【1】 

^{Şeref Taşlıova (}Culture Istanbul⁾

Orphaned at the age of seven, Taşlıova was raised by his mother alongside two sisters and one brother. Throughout his childhood, he witnessed folk songs performed at village weddings, religious gatherings, and local ceremonies. This environment nurtured his early interest in folk poetry and music. In 1948, Taşlıova learned to play the saz from Âşık İbrahim, son of Osman. During this period, his mother Nergis Hanım was his greatest supporter in pursuing art. ^【2】 

He completed primary school in his birth village. Under the guidance of his teacher Hasan Kartarı, he began singing folk songs at an early age. In 1950, after graduating from primary school, he passed the entrance examination for the Kars Cılavuz Village Institute. However, following the death of his sibling during the holiday period, he felt compelled to support his family and left school.

During this time, Taşlıova’s musical talent was recognized, and he established close ties with local ashiks. He spent two years as an apprentice under Âşık Kasım, son of Âşık Şenlik. He later learned the traditions of saz playing, poetic recitation, and folk storytelling from Âşık Gülistan and Posoflu Âşık Müdâmî. He was also influenced by other local ashiks including Hicrânî, Dursun Cevlânî, Âşık Abbas, Âşık Latif, Âşık Musa, Âşık Merdan, and İslam Erdener, further developing his artistic knowledge. His first pen name was “Şen Söyler”; in 1967, during a ceremony held in Erzurum’s Hasankale, he was given the pen name “Natuki.” However, throughout his artistic career, he most commonly used the signatures “Şeref” or “Taşlıova.” ^【3】 

He performed his military service between 1958 and 1960 in Isparta, İzmir, and İstanbul. In 1959, he married Münire Hanım; their union produced six daughters and one son. In 1965, he met Orhan Şaik Gökyay, Gündüz Akıncı, and Bedrettin Tuncel at the Alparslan Festivals in Kars. In 1966, at Gökyay’s invitation, he moved to İstanbul and came to be regarded as his “spiritual son.” From this period onward, he began gaining recognition within academic circles. ^【4】 

After completing his military service, he passed the 1964 examination opened by Kars Radio and served as a contractual artist for ten years. During this time, he became well known among the local population and solidified his identity as a folk poet.

In 1971, he settled with his family in the center of Kars. He continued his artistic activities at the Âşıklar Kahvesi opened by Âşık Murat Çobanoğlu. In 1990, he was appointed as an artist by the Ministry of Culture’s Sivas State Turkish Folk Music Choir. He initially carried out his duties by commuting from Kars; in 1994, he relocated with his family to Ankara. He retired in 2003 due to age.

Âşık Şeref Taşlıova is a representative of the “Âşık Şenlik branch” of the Northeastern Anatolian ashik tradition. He used the pen name “Şeref.” Renowned for his improvisational skills, his extemporaneous poems are noted for their mastery of meter and emotional intensity.

In his poetry, he commonly employed the 8-syllable and 11-syllable meters and produced works in folk poetic forms such as koşma, destan, türkü, and divan. Major themes in his poetry include religious sentiment, love of homeland, natural beauty, moral values, the figure of Atatürk, and humanistic feelings.

He regarded the saz as an inseparable part of his poetry. To him, the saz was “the ashik’s voice, the key to the heart, and the measure of time.” ^【5】 He defined ashikhood as “a unity born from the fusion of saz, word, and emotion.”

He distinguished improvised poetry from written poetry by stating, “Poetry born extemporaneously is fresh; written poetry is shaped by thought.” He described extemporaneous recitation as “a state of inspiration arising from the soul.” It has been documented that he was familiar with 157 different ashik modes in folk music and storytelling. With this distinction, he is recorded as the ashik with the broadest repertoire of modes among folk storytellers. ^【6】 

Şeref Taşlıova is among the few ashiks who have compiled and classified folk tales. He collected and organized six folk tales, which were published by the Turkish Language Association. ^【7】  These tales are:

1. Bagdat Hanım and Hafız
2. Seyyad Bey and Gülle Kız
3. Gülistan and Süleyman
4. Gelin Taşı
5. Emirhan and Sümbül Hanım
6. Celal Bey and İpek Sultan

In his tales, the emergence of love is most often depicted through “drinking wine in a dream” or “falling in love at first sight.” The obstacles faced by the protagonists, internal trials, and themes of fate are particularly striking. Structurally, these tales preserve the classic folk narrative elements of “setup, event, prayer, and conclusion.”

The collection titled Folk Tales Collected from Âşık Şeref Taşlıova, compiled from these tales, was published by the Turkish Language Association in 2008. In addition to folk tales, he collected numerous anonymous folk songs and manis from village weddings and regional festivals, many of which have survived to the present day. Audio recordings were made on his behalf by Yıldıray Erdener for Indiana University in 1983 and by Kurt and Ursula Reinhard for the University of Berlin in 1989. ^【8】 

Since 1966, he has been a regular participant in the Konya Ashiks Festival, winning over 125 awards and medals in competitions. In 1981, he won first prize in TRT’s “Competition on Atatürk Themes” with his poem titled “One is Anatolia, One is Atatürk.”

He performed concerts and participated in radio and television programs in more than thirty countries outside Türkiye, representing the Turkish ashik tradition in Germany, France, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Pakistan.

In 1988, he was the only ashik featured in the UNESCO “World Art Series” documentary project representing Türkiye. He participated in the International Storytelling Festival held in England in 1989 and 1996.

Şeref Taşlıova’s poems and writings have been published in journals including Türk Dili, Millî Kültür, Türk Folkloru, Çağrı, Erciyes, Güneysu, Kars Eli, Kök, Maya, Gülpınar, and Azerbaycan.

His major published works include:

• Gönül Bahçesi (Ministry of Culture Publications, 1990)
• Âşık Şeref Taşlıova: His Life and Poems (MEB Publications, 2010; expanded edition 2012)
• Folk Tales Collected from Âşık Şeref Taşlıova (TDK Publications, 2008)
• The Musical Repertoire of Âşık Şeref Taşlıova (Gazi Kitabevi Publications, 2011)

He has also released nearly forty records, cassettes, and CDs, and numerous recordings are preserved in the TRT archive. His tales have been compiled under the Turkish Language Association’s “Turkic World Epics Project,” and their musical sections have become subjects of academic research. ^【9】 

• 1981 – Music-San Foundation Artist of the Year Award
• 2001 – Service to the Turkish World Award (TÜRKSAV)
• 2003 – Service to the Turkish Language Award (TDK–Karaman Governorate)
• 2005 – Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Âşık-ı Âzam Award
• 2005 – Tarsus Şelale Poetry Evenings Karacaoğlan Honorary Award
• 2009 – Orhan Şaik Gökyay Poetry Award

In 2008, he was designated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as a “Living Human Treasure.” In 2010, Ardahan University awarded him an honorary doctorate in Turkish Folklore, and the same year the “Âşık Şeref Taşlıova Symposium” was held in his honor. In 2008, the Kars Municipality erected a statue of him in the city square. ^【10】 

In Taşlıova’s poetry, the concept of time is closely linked to the people’s life cycle. Studies titled “Conception of Time in the Poems of Âşık Şeref Taşlıova” reveal that his poems establish a symbolic unity between past, present, and future. He treated time both as a personal experience and as a social instrument of memory. ^【11】 

In his poems, nostalgia for the past, the cycle of nature, the timelessness of love, and themes of fate are intricately interwoven. In this sense, his poetic world functions as a form of oral memory that reflects the continuity of time in folk culture.

After retirement, Taşlıova continued living in Ankara, mentoring young ashiks and participating in cultural festivals, symposia, and conferences. In 2014, he took part in the Mahdumkulu Year events held in Turkmenistan, which marked his final artistic activity abroad.

Admitted to hospital on 13 September 2014 due to illness, Taşlıova passed away on 20 September 2014 at Ankara Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital. Following a funeral prayer held at Hacı Bayram Camii on 22 September, he was buried in Bağlum Cemetery.