Now, until WW1, there was ottoman empire. After the war, however, they said they were going to pretend ottoman didn't exist, accept western values as theirs, and begin to live like one. So, the turkish republic was established.
This republic was going to be secular, which I agree with. But then, their interpretation of secularism was islamophobia, and they banned almost every practice that had more or less religious symbols in it; the classical and mystical turkish music being one of those. Those musics still were taught by a few individuals, not publicly, and one of those teachers had a student who happens to be my teacher now. I'm very lucky to have been learning these musics and their instruments for the last couple of years.
Anyway, those musics fading into the dark, it was announced that everybody should better start enjoying western(european) classical music. Public schools started teaching this type of music, pretty much every school that taught music, taught it with the mandolin and flute(recorder) primarily.
Classical western music is one of my favourites. I'm a big fan of mandolin, and I love its sound, but I can't say the same for the policies they followed. Now the mandolin doesn't even exist in turkey. Music stores don't have them, and online stores sell a box they somehow call a mandolin for 10$.
Sorry for the wall of text
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