 Born
in Diyarbakir in Eastern Turkey. In 1950 he was accused of actions detrimental
to the peace of the land and arrested under the article 141 of the Turkish
Penal Code. In 1952 he was re-arrested and served a two-year prison sentence.
On his release, he settled in Ankara where he worked as a journalist.
His poems were published throughout the forties and fifties but then suffered
neglect. On their re-issue in book form in 1968, he achieved a resounding
success. The book, "I Wore off Chains and Shackles for the Love of
You", has so far sold more than 30,000 copies - an event of the same
magnitude as the tumultuous reception given to the re-publication of Nazim
Hikmet's poetry (from Modern Turkish Poetry, ed. F.K. Fergar). |
