Seref Tasliova

Şerafettin Taşliova (1938 – 20 September 2014) was a Turkish storyteller in the asik bardic tradition.

Taşliova has won many prizes at bardic contests for improvised poetry and storytelling; many at international level. He has also been awarded by UNESCO. He started writing poetry around the age of ten and is widely recognised for his ability to tell epic tales, being one of the most prominent figures in the northeastern Anatolian tradition of minstrelsy,

He is a prolific published author of poetry, and has also recorded many albums of his poetry and bardic stories.

Taşliova has also had a long career in broadcasting. He makes appearances on a number of Turkish television stations, and has been making a regular radio broadcast since 1966, he has also appeared in the Michael Wood BBC documentaries In Search of the Trojan War (1985) and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1997), in which he demonstrates the oral traditions of the storyteller.

He was born in the village of Pekşeren (Gülyüzü), in the district of Çıldır in the Ardahan Province, on April 10, 1938. His name translates as "honor". On September 13, 2014, he was carried to the Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital. Seven days after he was operated, he died on September 20, 2014.

In 1986, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism established a database of living folk poets, 557 âşıks were registered in the database including Şeref Taşlıova. On the 4 July 2008 and using this database, Taşlıova was identified and nominated for UNESCO living human treasure. These were the words of Şeref Taşlıova:

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