 Born
in Salonica, did his primary education at the State Lycée of Galatasaray,
founded in the middle of the 19th century where teaching is bilingual
in French and Turkish. He attended the Naval School in Istanbul for five
years but had to leave because of ill health. He crossed over to Anatolia
in order to take part in the War of Independence, Istanbul being under
Allied occupation at the time. Stayed in batum, then went to Moscow to
study economics and sociology at the Eastern University there. On his
return was arrested and sent back to prison at Hopa. Larer he worked in
Istanbul as a journalist and film-maker; he had his first plays and poems
published during this time. He was imprisoned again but set free on the
tenth anniversary of the Republic. In 1938 was condemned to a total of
35 years imprisonment by the Tribunals of the war Academy and the Naval
Command for incitement to Communism. His sentence was later reduced to
28 years and 4 months. As a result of a campaign at home and demonstrations
abroad, he was released under the 1950 amnesty, and spent the rest of
his life in exile in Sofia, Warsaw and Moscow, where he died in 1963 (from
Modern Turkish Poetry, ed. F. K. Fergar). |
