DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Rotating his prayer beads in his hand, Mehmet Ince sings songs of struggle and grief in a small courtyard. A 62-year-old man of tall stature and a short grey beard, he learned the art of storytelling through song from his father 46 years ago. Known as a “dengbej,” he is one of dozens of Kurdish storytellers preserving a fading tradition: performing their songs to recollect the history of their people.

Others like Ince gather in a house established for them by the local municipality in 2007. Located in the old city of Diyarbakir, hundreds of Kurds find solace here in the aftermath of tragedy and persecution.

“We sing stories of love and war,” Ince told Al-Monitor while lighting a cigarette in the house of the dengbej. “We express our history through our tongue.”

Kurds in Turkey have long been denied a history of their own. In 1980, their language was criminalized following a bloody military coup that saw the country fall under martial law, empowering the army to raid, imprison and kill thousands of leftists and Kurdish activists.