Mehmet Erenler

Mehmet Erenler — Biography

Mehmet Erenler was born on January 26, 1946 in Ankara, to a family from the city's Ayaş district. He taught himself to play the bağlama starting at age 8 and was already performing on stage by around 13, a period during which he was invited by Muzaffer Sarısözen to appear on the programme "Yurttan Sesler." After honing his craft in various music halls in the early 1960s, he passed an examination held by Turkish state broadcaster TRT in 1966 and joined Ankara Radio, later going on to teach at the Istanbul State Conservatory.

After 1980 he moved to Istanbul Radio, where he worked both as a bağlama performer and as a choir director, taking part in numerous concerts and seminars in Turkey and abroad and helping bring wider recognition to Turkish folk music. Over the course of a long career he became a widely respected figure in his field.

Mehmet Erenler died in Istanbul on June 17, 2025, following organ failure brought on by a long battle with pancreatic cancer.