The evil eye, which has an undeniable place in folk culture and daily life, refers to a set of problems caused by an evil gaze. The word for the evil eye in Turkish, nazar, originally means ‘eye’ or ‘gaze’. According to these beliefs, the evil eye can harm people, animals, plants, or inanimate objects. These beliefs gain acceptance and are considered to indicate events that happen in almost all societies regardless of religion, race or geography. This cultural phenomenon is believed to occur as a consequence of negative emotions such as jealousy, envy, and grudges felt by individuals, who usually have evil intentions and colorful eyes, toward their victim. To protect themselves against such consequences, believers of this phenomenon resort to a set of religious and magical ‘cures’. People who perform these cures or rituals are specific people who used to be called shaman or bakshy in the past and are known as ocaklı or folk physician today. This study presents information on the belief in the evil eye by people living in the province of Van in Turkey, the ways they use to protect themselves from the evil eye, and the practices they perform to cure themselves or others after their exposure to unfavorable events caused by the evil eye. Various narratives that have been formed and distributed around this belief among the people are also included and discussed. In the study, field study method was applied between 2020 and 2022 to collect data. Information about the examined phenomenon is obtained from individuals as sources in interviews and meetings. It is aimed to present the current state of the belief in the evil eye in Van with the support of this information and written sources. The people of Van associate most of the negativities that happen to them with the evil eye. When the practices and applications for protection are examined, it has been determined that there are some religious and magical practices, sometimes they are intertwined and some of them turn into a narrative in the people’s memory.

Evil eye, folk beliefs, ritual, narrative, Van.