Dogan Akhanlı

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Dogan Akhanli (2017)

Doğan Akhanlı (* 1957 in Şavşat , Artvin ) is a Turkish-born German writer , who on Turkish writes. He has lived in Cologne since 1992 .

Life

Doğan Akhanlı was born in 1957 as the son of a teacher in Artvin Province on the Black Sea. He spent his first childhood years in a small Turkish village in the far northeast of Turkey. At the age of twelve he moved to an older brother in Istanbul to continue his schooling. He later studied history and education in Trabzon .

After spending five months in custody for buying a left-wing magazine in 1975 , he began to get involved in politics as a member of the illegal Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP). After the military coup in Turkey on September 12, 1980 , he went underground. In May 1985 Akhanlı was arrested along with his wife Ayşe and their 16-month-old son. From 1985 to 1987 he was a political prisoner in the Istanbul military prison for 2½ years. He later reported about the torture.

In 1991 he fled to Germany for political asylum. Since 1992 he has lived as a writer in Cologne. In 1998 he was expatriated from Turkey because he refused to return to Turkish military service. He is a member of the international writers' association PEN and has had German citizenship since 2001.

On June 3, 2019, it was announced that Akhanlı will be honored with a Goethe Medal in 2019 . In the reasoning for the award it was emphasized that for a long time he had campaigned with great clarity for a culture of remembrance and international understanding between Armenians, Turks and Kurds without any simplification .

plant

In 1998/99 the trilogy Kayıp Denizler (“The Disappeared Seas”) was published in Turkish . The first two volumes are called Denizi Beklerken ("Waiting for the Sea") and Gelincik Tarlası ("The Poppy Field "). The last volume Kıyamet Günü Yargıçları (“The Judges of the Last Judgment”) deals with the genocide of the Armenians and their state oppression and persecution as well as the lack of recognition of the genocide in the Republic of Turkey. The fictional fate of some young people who are friends with one another and are told in the previous volumes illuminate the political development in Turkey between the 1970s and 1990s.

The novel Madonna'nın Son Hayali ("The Last Dream of the Madonna"), published in 2005, tells about the case of " Struma ", a ship with over 700 Jewish refugees that was sunk in the Black Sea in 1942. The book was named one of the ten best novels of 2005 by Turkish critics and writers. In 2009 Babasız günler (“Days without Father”) was published, at the end of 2010 Fasıl .

In his novels, in essays and interviews as well as in projects, Doğan Akhanlı advocates the truthful handling of historical violence and the indivisibility of human rights . He is the initiator of the Raphael Lemkin Library in Cologne. The main focus of his civil society engagement is the commemoration and the reappraisal of genocides of the 20th century - like the genocide of the Armenians - and the intercultural dialogue oriented towards reconciliation.

His projects were funded by the Federal Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future and were most recently awarded in 2009 by the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance . Akhanlı is an employee of “Recherche International e. V. ". The non-profit association primarily deals with the education-oriented processing of genocidal experiences of violence.

In an interview with the culture magazine “Rheinische Art”, Doğan Akhanlı said in the March 2011 issue, when asked where he sees his literary home: “I write in Turkish, but I live in Germany. This is a difficult situation because I am not part of German literature; I am part of Turkish literature. But because I live far from Turkish literature, the living language in Turkey is a problem for me. I don't see it develop, so I don't have such a close relationship with it - that's a disadvantage. [...] Since I write in Turkish, everything I write is only to be published in one translation for the German publishers. And for the Turkish publishers it is a disadvantage that the physical distance means that I cannot be as present as it would be desirable. ”At that time, the only one of his works was the novel“ The Judges of the Last Judgment ”that was also published in German . He also says: "But I am not German." He has "based on my own experience an emotional relationship with violence, violent crime and genocide".

Arrests and legal battles in Turkey

Doğan Akhanlı after a reading (2018)

Trial in Turkey from 2010 to 2013

On August 10, 2010, Akhanlı was arrested while entering Turkey and spent several months in custody for allegedly participating in a robbery that occurred in 1989. In December 2010, Akhanlı was released. Member of the Bundestag Andrej Hunko and the politician Derya Kilic (both Die Linke ), who were present as process observers in Istanbul, welcomed the release as a "long overdue step".

The trial continued in 2011 in his absence. Akhanlı denied any involvement in the crime and said the charges were politically motivated and constructed. Akhanlı was acquitted on October 12, 2011 in Istanbul for lack of evidence. Two witnesses made their incriminating statements under police pressure and later withdrew them. In April 2013, the acquittal was overturned in a review process and an international arrest warrant was issued.

Arrested in Spain in 2017

On August 19, 2017, the Spanish police arrested Akhanlı in Granada at the request of Turkey. According to his lawyer, this was done on the basis of a request for interpolation for preliminary arrest (" Red Notice ").

Federal Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel opposed extradition to Turkey and called for Germany to be included in the extradition procedure. He also asked for consular assistance as soon as possible. The Bundestag member Volker Beck asked whether the federal government knew of the termination of the request for arrest in the Interpol system.

The writers' association PEN Center Germany described the proceedings against Akhanlı as "clearly politically motivated". Their Vice President Sascha Feuchert demanded that he should not be extradited to Turkey.

Akhanlı was released on August 20, 2017, but was not allowed to leave Spain until further notice. After Akhanlı's release, Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Turkey of abusing Interpol. A few days after the release, Interpol deleted the Red Notice.

On October 13, 2017, the Spanish Ministry of Justice announced that the Council of Ministers in Madrid had decided, following a proposal by Justice Minister Rafael Catalá , not to continue the extradition proceedings to Turkey. His lawyer wrote that the decision was to be welcomed; But it comes "far too late to be able to assess it as a self-confident contradiction to the arrogance of the Turkish government". After Akhanlı's “forced stay” in a foreign country, “it cannot simply go back to business”. The persecution of critics of the Turkish government and the work of Interpol should be examined. Akhanlı returned to Germany on October 19, 2017. Four months later, Akhanli published an autobiographical story about his imprisonment, entitled "Arrest in Granada or: Is Turkey driving into dictatorship?

Works in German

  • The Judges of the Last Judgment. Original Turkish title: Kıyamet Günü Yargıçları , translated from Turkish by Hülya Engin, Kitab, Klagenfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-902005-98-4 .
  • The days without a father , translated from Turkish by Önder Endem, Kitab, Klagenfurt 2016, ISBN 978-3-902878-65-6 .
  • Anne's silence - play
  • Arrest in Granada, or: is Turkey driving into dictatorship? Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2018, ISBN 9783462051834
  • Madonna's last dream , translated from Turkish by Recai Hallac, Sujet Verlag, Bremen 2019

Awards

Web links

Commons : Doğan Akhanlı  - collection of images

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Senada Sokollu: Revision process against writer Dogan Akhanli . In: Deutsche Welle , August 1, 2013, accessed on August 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Portrait: Akhanlı a declared opponent of Erdoğan. In: WDR . August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
  3. ^ Goethe medals against the trend towards simplification. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , June 3, 2019, accessed on June 3, 2019.
  4. ↑ Doğan Akhanlı, Shirin Neshat and Enkhbat Roozon are honored. In: Börsenblatt , June 3, 2019, accessed on June 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ Albrecht Kieser: A broken country. In: Neue Rheinische Zeitung , accessed on October 13, 2011.
  6. ↑ The fight against genocide. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger online. December 17, 2007, accessed January 29, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Dogan Akhanli , Research International e. V.
  8. ↑ " If I could write in German, it would of course be easier ... " ( Memento of March 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Interview by Georg Simet with Doğan Akhanlı, Rheinische ART 03/2011.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Gottschlich : Poor evidence. In: taz.de . August 26, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  10. ^ Martin Rosenbach: Victims of the Turkish Justice. In: 3sat.de . September 15, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  11. ^ Trial against German-Turkish author: Akhanli is released from custody. In: tagesschau.de . December 8, 2010, archived from the original on December 10, 2010 ; Retrieved December 12, 2010 .
  12. ^ The court orders release. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 8, 2010.
  13. ↑ Derya Kilic, Andrej Hunko : release for Doğan Akhanlı overdue. In: andrej-hunko.de. December 8, 2010, accessed August 20, 2017 .
  14. ^ Trial against a German-Turkish author. Writer Akhanli acquitted ( Memento from October 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: tagesschau.de. October 13, 2011, accessed November 2, 2011.
  15. ↑ revision trial of writer Dogan Akhanli. In: Deutsche Welle online. 1 August 2013.
  16. ↑ Dogan Akhanli: Suddenly guilty again. ( Memento from August 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: Bayerischer Rundfunk . May 8, 2013.
  17. ↑ Joachim Frank, Peter Berger, Uli Kreikebaum: Note from Interpol: Cologne writer Dogan Akhanli arrested in Granada. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Cordula Eubel, Ingo Salmen: Gabriel asks Spain: Do not extradite Germans to Turkey. In: Der Tagesspiegel . August 19, 2017, accessed February 12, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Berlin wants to prevent extradition to Turkey. In: Deutschlandfunk , August 19, 2017, accessed on August 20, 2017.
  20. ↑ writer Dogan Akhanli again. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 20, 2017.
  21. ↑ Merkel accuses Erdogan of abuse of Interpol. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 20, 2017.
  22. ↑ Spain does not extradite writer Akhanli to Turkey. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , October 13, 2017, accessed on February 12, 2020.
  23. ↑ Spain does not extradite Doğan Akhanlı to Turkey. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 13, 2017.
  24. ^ German-Turkish writer returns to Germany. In: Zeit Online , October 19, 2017.
  25. ↑ Roland Kaufhold: Arrest in Granada - Doğan Akhanli's fascinating memories. haGalil, February 18, 2018.
  26. ↑ The days without a father - HaGalil. Retrieved October 22, 2017 .
  27. ↑ Anne's silence. In: annesschweigen.blogspot.de. September 23, 2012, accessed August 20, 2017 .
  28. ↑ “Brave against Resistance” named winner of the Goethe Medal 2019 , nachtkritik.de of June 18, 2019, accessed on the same date
personal data
SURNAME Akhanlı, Dogan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Şavşat , Artvin (Province)