Renowned Turkish Writer Yasar Kemal Passes Away

Yasar Kemal, the renowned Turkish writer, passed away on Saturday at the age of 92 in Istanbul. His books have been translated into 40 different languages, including Persian. He had been under care due to respiratory issues since late December and died in the intensive care unit of Istanbul University Medical School on Saturday evening. Mr. Kemal, born in 1923 in a Kurdish village in the Osmaniye province of Turkey, was considered one of the most important writers of contemporary Turkish literature. Yasar Kemal lost his right eye in an accident during childhood and witnessed his father's murder by his stepbrother at the age of five. This incident had such a profound impact on his psyche that he developed a stutter, which lasted for seven years before he recovered. Yasar Kemal started school at the age of nine and experienced various jobs such as shepherding, shoemaking, petition writing, factory labor, and tractor driving. Kemal, who addressed social issues and the problems of ordinary people, especially those from his hometown in his works, was arrested and imprisoned several times for defending freedom of expression and the rights of Kurds in Turkey. Yasar Kemal, a prominent Kurdish writer, is also a familiar name among Iranian readers. Most of his novels have been translated into Persian and have gained significant popularity. Yasar Kemal, alongside Aziz Nesin, is another great Turkish writer. His works, although rooted in a specific land and geography, have a universal structure and content. His novel 'Ince Memed' has been published in over 20 languages and has also been adapted into a film. 'Ince Memed' is his first novel and one of his most famous works. The first part of the four-part 'Ince Memed', which was first published as a serial in the Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1955, narrates the protest and rebellion of a peasant against the large and exploitative landowners. In October 1997, he received the Peace Prize of the German Publishers for his defense of peace and human rights. In 2008, he received the Grand Prize for Literature from the Turkish Presidency, one of the most important national awards in Turkey, awarded to writers, poets, artists, and national readers. Yasar Kemal published his last book, titled 'A Bird with One Wing', in September 2013. He had written this book forty years prior to its publication and kept it in his desk drawer.