CONDOLENCE HOUSES IN SANLIURFA: FADING AWAY OF ATRADITION AND A CREATIVE ATTEMPT TO PRESERVE IT MEDAIM YANIK Harran University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Sanliurfa,Turkey ISILVAHIP Ege University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Izmir,Turkey SAMET KOSE Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Charleston, South Carolina, USA This article reports the results ofqualitative research conducted to investigate the change in the traditional manner of giving and accepting condolences in Sanliurfa, a city with a unique sociocultural structure in the southeastern part ofTurkey. Our methodology was based on direct observation of behavior and detailed, open-ended interviews with partici- pants.This article aims to investigate the reasons for moving the condolence traditionfrom family homes to specially built condolence houses a decade ago and discusses the functional significance of the ceremonial events in giving and accepting condolences. ‘‘They hurried here, as soon as you had died, Their faces damp with haste and sympathy, And pressed my hand in theirs, and smoothed my knee, And clicked their tongues, and watched me, mournful-eyed.’’ 7 Dorothy Parker, Condolence Received 19 September 2003; accepted 5 May 2004. Address correspondence to Medaim Yanik, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harran University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Sanliurfa,Turkey. E-mail: medaim@ hotmail.com 65 Death Studies, 29: 65 7 74, 2005 Copyright #Taylor & Francis Inc. ISSN: 0748-1187 print / 1091-7683 online DOI: 10.1080/07481180590519877