The members must have honest families, trustworthy to keep secrets, respectful of their elders, and not gamble or display public drunkenness.
[1][2] Traditional Sohbet meetings were included in the UNESCO lists of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
The decision of the UNESCO Committee stated:[1] Traditional Sohbet meetings are social practices that provide a forum for community members to keep alive their oral traditions, transmit their history and share their cultural values, providing them with a sense of identity and continuity; The term sohbet is of Arabic origin and means "conversation", with the special accent on being a friendly conversation for pleasant pastime.
[3] The term is selected as a representative name for Unesco official documentation, while these meetings are known under various local names across Turkey: “Yâran Sohbeti” in Çankırı, “Yaren Organization” in Kütahya-Simav, “Sıra Gecesi” in Şanlıurfa, “Kürsübaşı Sohbeti” in Elazığ and “Barana Sohbets” in Balıkesir-Dursunbey.
Similar meetings can be seen with different names as “cümbüş” in Ankara and its surroundings, “Delikanlı Örgütü” in Kazan District of Ankara, “Gençler Heyeti” in Niğde-Dündarlı, “Gezek” in Kütahya City Center and Isparta, “Kef/Keyif” in Antalya and Isparta, “Muhabbet” in Beypazarı District of Ankara, Kırşehir, Yozgat, Karabük Safranbolu, “Oda Teşkilatı” in Balıkesir-Edremit, Manisa-Soma, “Oturmah” in Van, “Sıra Yârenleri” in Konya-Akşehir; Ardahan Erfene/Arfane in Ardahan, Gezek in Afyon, Erfane/Gezek in Bursa, Sıra Gecesi/Herfene in Erzincan, Velime Geceleri in Diyarbakır.