Türkan grew up in a family of musicians. From 1984 he studied classical kemençe at the State Conservatory for Turkish Music in Istanbul with İhsan Özgen ; In 1994 he graduated.

Türkan has been working with the music ensemble of TRT Istanbul Radio since 1991 ; In 2000 he became a permanent artist in this institution. Also in 1991 he became a member of Kudsi Erguner‘s ensemble , with whom he toured many Middle Eastern countries and Europe and released several albums such as Chemins and Islam Blues. As early as 1992, Necdet Yaşar brought him to the State Ensemble for Classical Turkish Music at the Ministry of Culture, with whom he appeared as a guest artist for seven years. Together with Sokratis Sinopoulos he recorded the album Letters from Istanbul in 1997. A sequel followed in 2018. He also worked with Cengiz Onural and Murat Aydemir in a duo and in the group İncesaz (several albums and one DVD).

In 2006 his album Minstrels Era (with Renaud Garcia-Fons and Uğur Işık) was released, which received international critical acclaim. With this trio he also gave concerts in Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain. In 2013 he appeared as a soloist with the Federal Youth Orchestra under the direction of Howard Griffiths and Sir Simon Rattle .

He also worked with Jordi Savall and the Ensemble Hespèrion XXI, the Pera Ensemble, Djivan Gasparyan, La Sublime Porte and Mare Nostrum. Baki Dyuyarlar brought him in to record his album Kemenjazz (2012). There was also collaborations with Bojan Zulfikarpašić, Vincent Segal, Ross Daly, Enver Izmailov, Alim Qasımov, Jon Balke, Serkan Çağrı, Melihat Gülses, Erkan Oğur and Kayhan Kalhor.