Turkish puppet theatre researcher and scholar. Mevlüt Özhan graduated in Theatre from Ankara University (1978), where he began research on traditional theatre with Metin And, and then worked in the Ministry of Culture (1978-2004). He researched traditional theatre and puppetry in Turkey and abroad with emphasis on production, repertory, and puppetry’s place in cultural heritage, participating in many conferences and symposia at the national and international level. He was a founder of the International Centre for Puppetry and Shadow Play Union, Turkey, and served as president  from 1995, overseeing the Centre’s News Bulletin. He is the current president of UNIMA Turkey.

Mevlüt Özhan has published many articles on folk culture, including karagöz, puppetry, bardic singing, folk games, folk drama, and folk culture. He edited The Traditional Turkish Theater (Ankara: Ministry of Culture, 1999).

(See Turkey.)