Kemal Tahir- Life and Times

Kemal Tahir (1910-1973)
Life and Times
by Elif Mat Erkmen

Early Years

Turkish author Kemal Tahir was born in Istanbul in the year 1910, just before the Balkan Wars had started. As a child he witnessed the Balkan Wars 1911-1912 WW1 (1914-1918); the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1918); the Occupation of Istanbul (November 13, 1918 – September 23, 1923 by British, French and Italian forces), Turkish War of Independence(May 19, 1919 – July 24, 1923) and finally the birth of the new Turkish Republic ( October 29, 1923).

 His father Tahir Bey was a navy captain and an advisor to Sultan Abdulhamid II. His mother, Nuriye Hanım worked for the palace as Naile Sultan’s (Abdulhamid’s daughter) lady in waiting.

Kemal Tahir was the oldest child of the family. Because of his father’s duties the family had lived in several parts of the Empire. They  returned to Istanbul in 1923 where he attended Galatasaray High School, a very prestigious bilingual school where he learned French.

Gates of Galatasaray High School, Istanbul

His mother Nuriye Hanım  died of tuberculosis in 1926 and Tahir Bey remarried. Kemal dropped out of high school for financial reasons and started to work in a Law Office. After that he went to Zonguldak on the coast of the Black Sea to work for the Coal Mine as a Clerk for the coal depots.

He went back to Istanbul in 1932 and started to work as a journalist and translator. He worked for several newspapers; doing interviews editorial work. Later he  published a literary magazine named “Gecit” featuring some of the most prominent Turkish literary figures. During this time he  met Nazım Hikmet, a famous Turkish poet and Mustafa Bortluce Kemal Tahir's neighbor and a Communist Party member. Like Nazım Hikmet, Tahir had socialist tendencies. They had been friends with the socialist intellectuals of the era.

Eventually Tahir became the chief editor of the Tan newspaper.

His first book was “What did they say about Namık Kemal?”  This book was about Namik Kemal who was a famous Turkish author and Tahir wrote about the interviews that he had with several intellectuals of the era about Namik Kemal.

In 1937 he wrote “The Musicians Journey”. By then Tahir was well known especially as a journalist.

He married Fatma Irfan a teacher from Turkey's Izmir province. However this marriage didn’t last long due to the fact that Tahir had to serve a jail term starting 1938 for twelve years.

The marriage ended at 1940.

Prison Years

When Tahir gave Sabahaddin Ali’s book to his brother Nuri Tahir who was a Reserve Officer he was accused of “spreading sedition” among the armed forces by the Navy Command Court Marshall. He was not alone as Nazim Hikmet  was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He served time in Çankırı, Malatya, Çorum, Nevsehir and Kırşehir prisons. It is my suspicion that he had learned the central Anatolian accent and the speech mannerisms as villagers and uneducated workers of the time as this language was skillfully used in his novels.

This is one of the delights of reading his work in Turkish where he  uses both  Istanbul  and Anatolian accents very animated theatrical way.

Kemal Tahir was released from the prison in the General Amnesty of 1950. The General Amnesty occurred after the elections when the Democrat Party took  power and Adnan Menderes became the Prime Minister.

This was the first time the new Turkish Republic  experienced a multi-party system and democracy. ( The earlier attempts of multi party system during Ataturk's Presidency was short lived)
It marked the Inonu Era and People’s Republican Party’s heavy rule.

Inonu took power after Ataturk’s death in 1938 and ruled the country during the Second World War. Turkey didn't participate in the war yet there was still poverty and state oppression. Like the Mc Carthy Era of the United States the Government in Turkey had little tolerance for  Socialism or Communism.

During this time, people who opposed the Turkish Army’s conscription system found themselves in trouble with the law. Still to this day, the Turkish Army follows a conscription system.

Soon after he was released from  prison  Tahir got married to his second wife Semiha Sıdıka Hanım.

His Work

He wrote several other novels as well as translation of Mike Hammer Series byAmerican author Mickey Spillane. However he  translated these books from  French rather than English since he didn’t speak the language. The series was such a success in Turkey that after translating the whole series he had wrote four additional Mike Hammer books himself!

Harbiye  Military Prison 

He was arrested once again during the 6/7 September Riots in Istanbul (1955) and was sent to Harbiye Military Prison for six months. After that he worked on several projects. He managed "Düşün" publishing for fourteen months which he had founded with Aziz Nesin. He worked on movie scenarios with prominent film makers like Metin Erksan Halit Refig and Atif Yilmaz. Additionally he wrote “Lake People” during this era, which was a long story that was serialized in “Tan” Newspaper.

NOVELS

He wrote “Sağırdere” and “Körduman” in 1955. In both novels he wrote about a village in the
Çankırı area where he examined its people, their socio economic problems, daily life and village values.

During the year of 1956 he wrote  Esir Sehrin Insanları-  People of the Captive City” where he told the life in Istanbul under British Occupation during the years  1919 to 1922.  Sequels to this novel, Esir Şehrin Mahpusu (Prisoner of the Captive City) was published in 1961 and Yol Ayrımı (Parting of the Ways) in 1971.

“Rahmet Yolları Kesti- The Rain Closed the Roads” is a novel about the bandits.

“Yedi Çınar Yaylası” “Koyun Kamburu” and “Büyük Mal” are books about the village life and the Çorum area people all written in c. 1970).

THE TIRED WARRIOR

 Tahir started writing Yorgun Savasci- The Tired Warrior in 1964 and finished writing it in1965. In this book he wrote about the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and aftermath of First World War and the Turkish War of Independence.  He included a sociological and historical analysis of the Ottoman Empire and made comparisons with the West. Some intellectuals and Government officials didn’t like the book mainly because they liked the official history better!

During the year of 1980 TRT Turkish Radio and Television Corporation made a television series of the book. At first the Turkish Military cooperated and helped the show with the war scenes however 1980 was a turbulent year in Turkey. On September 12th the country woke up to a Military Coup once again and the new Government under Bulent Ulusu a former general decided not only ban the television series, but even ordered the film to be destroyed.

1980 Ankara

Other Novels include;

-        Bozkırdaki Çekirdek the seed at the plains- In this novel he criticizes the Village Institutes.

-          Devlet Ana –State Mother This is one of his most important books where he tells about the foundation of the Ottoman State.

He won Yunus Nadi awards for The Tired Warrior and Turkish Language Institute’s Best Novel award for State Mother in 1968

Kurt Kanunu Wolf- Rule

This novel is about an assassination attempt to Atatürk. A group of former Unionist members
( Commitee of Union and Progress) plans to kill Atatürk in Izmir in 1926, luckily they were found out and prosecuted.
There is a recent television series based on this book as well.

Kemal Tahir's Last Years and Death:

Tahir also went to the Soviet Union when he was invited in the same year he had a lung surgery in 1970.

He died from a heart attack at April 21, 1973 in Istanbul.