Turkish singing lessons for fun, and research

On Monday night I had my first Turkish singing lesson. My new teachers name is Feridun Avar who brought along his Baglma/Saz (like a slim oud or lute). Feridun knows most of the Baris Manco and Erkin Koray songs from when he was growing up. He understands traditional as well as modern so he's great for making the connections between the two which I really appreciate.
I started the lesson by playing Feridun some of the stuff I have ben listening to on my computer. I pointed out that I really liked an Erkin Koray song 'Cemalim' that I thought I would be good at singing. The song has a simple strummed guitar riff and is in 4/4 time so I thought it wouldn't be too challenging. Feridun asked if I had a guitar as his baglama is tuned to B and Cemalim is in F. As my two cheap acoustic guitars are broken we decided to struggle on.
Feridun took me though the words in the two verses and expained that I would sing with an accent. He explained that with plenty of practice and some attention to detail I should get a passable accent. I was given a few historical pointers about Turkish like how the written language was set down after WW1. I told Feridun how I thought it looked similar to German and seemed very much like a European/Latin language.
The thing I felt strongly about was not breaking into a western vibrato to sustain notes. Feridun pointed out that I was being shy and not giving my voice enough power and personality. He said that with more experience the language in the lyrics which he had to scrawl down from memory I should find the confidence. The thing we discussed the most while practicing the two verses and one chorus was the stretched accents on certain words. As far as I could gather you can plainly sustain or stretch the note or add what Feridun called Arabesque ornamentation. He said it is best to be cautious about placement and number of ornamentations.
Long story short, Feridun will be bringing his electric guitar to later practices and says we should aim for some kind of concert/recital in the near future.