Yasar Kemal died – “Turkey has lost a great soul” – Süddeutsche.de

• The Turkish writer Yasar Kemal has died at the age of 92 years.
• His 1955 novel “A Memed My Hawk” made him the most widely read writers of his home country.
• The Nobel Prize in Literature, was nominated for the Kemal in 1972 as the first Turkish writer, could he denied.
• Kemal became involved in leftist political spectrum, was therefore a total of three times in jail.

Turkey has lost one of its best known writers: Yasar Kemal died on Saturday at the age of 92 years at a hospital in Istanbul, as the Anatolia news agency reported

He had since 14 January. Located because of complications from pneumonia and because of cardiac arrhythmias. The attending doctor told Turkish media, Kemal’s health had deteriorated significantly in the past week. He died of multiple organ failure.

1955 was Kemal became famous for his novel “Memed My Hawk”. The work, which has been translated into more than 40 languages, making him the most widely read writers in Turkey. The novel’s protagonist, the “frail Memed”, it leans against the rule of the landowners and pulls as a bandit in the mountains

The language will save humanity -. Which Kemal was convinced. “I deeply believe in the magic of language,” he wrote in Unionsverlag. “I am still convinced that the language create new universes, can destroy others.”

From this power of language Kemal led the responsibility of the writer in the society. A role that he took very seriously resistance to perceived injustice and the struggle for freedom and human rights are the central theme in the work of the writer

The rulers annoying

. Born in 1923 in southern Turkey Kurd has been awarded numerous literary prizes and human rights. In 1997 he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Günter Grass said at the time in his speech: “In Yasar Kemal’s books, the representation of racial fanaticism is indicated as an expression of official government policy why the author is the ruling annoying..”

The Nobel Prize in Literature, for Kemal in 1972 as the first Turkish was nominated writer, was denied him. In 2006, instead Orhan Pamuk took the coveted award in Turkey

Kemal became involved in leftist political spectrum and took it many sacrifices in. He spent a total of three times in prison. Among other things, he was imprisoned in 1971 by the then military government because of his work for the Turkish Marxist Workers’ Party. As many writers of his generation were in custody, Kemal described the prison as a “school of Turkish contemporary literature.”

In exile in Sweden

The Kurdish politics of his country criticized Kemal as a concerned always again. He was sentenced to a prison term of one year and eight months on probation for “incitement” In 1996. Because he feared assassination of right-wing extremists, he lived for a time in Sweden, before returning to Istanbul.

His line was Kemal always faithful. The protests against the superstructure of the Istanbul Gezi-park in the summer of 2013. He supported and wrote in the Italian daily La Repubblica : “The hatred that is created against freedom and democracy, is a major catastrophe in our generation and can never be forgiven. What we need today is a democratic regime. “

The Turkish Culture Minister Omer Celik said on Saturday shocked by the death of Kemal. “The sadness in our hearts is great,” he wrote in the short message service Twitter. “Turkey and the entire human race have lost a great soul.”