Языки и литературы тюркских народов

10 M. Aça The studies of Tuvan folklore in Turkey: yesterday, today and tomorrow Introduced for the first time by Turcologists such as W. Radloff, N. F. Katanov, and G. N. Potanin etc. to Russian and Western science world, Tuvans had remained as one of small folks of Siberia until the early 1990s for Turcology in Turkey. Adequate information on them was not able to be gotten except the information which had been con- veyed by a few Turkish-origin researchers such as Abdülkadir İnan etc., together with Radloff and other some western researchers. Hav- ing started to enter gradually into the agenda of Turcology in Turkey through researches and transfers which were done by several scholars who had grown up after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tuvans has come to be known as well as in terms of their customs&traditions, beliefs, folklores and literatures except for old and limited encyclo- pedic information largely covering the places where Tuvans live, their religions and the language which is spoken by Tuvans, with starting to translate N. F. Katanov’s studies into Turkey Turkish in particular. The studies which had been carried out by Russian Tur- cology during the periods of Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union con- tributed for Turcology in Turkey in knowing Tuvans’ languages and cultures. In this study, first of all, we will discuss reasons why there had been scarcely any Tuvan folklore-themed studies in Turkey before 1990, and later on we will evaluate them in terms of their themes/ subjects, contents, methods, conclusions, and functions by classifying in their own right Tuvan folklore-themed studies which have been carried out from 1990 until today in Turkey. These analyses focusing on today’s situation of studies which were carried out upon Tuvan folklore will be followed by comments in which fields and how the future studies should be done.