Mehmed Uzun

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Mehmed Uzun (* 1953 in Siverek / Province of Şanlıurfa ; † October 11, 2007 in Diyarbakır ) was a Kurdish Zaza writer . He was considered the most important Kurdish novelist of modern times and the creator of a modern Kurdish written language.

Life

Uzun completed his education in the Diyarbakır area . After the military coup on March 12, 1971 , many left-wing and Kurdish opposition members were jailed. Uzun was imprisoned on March 3, 1972 when he was 18 years old. In the military prison of Diyarbakır Uzun met other inmates like Musa Anter and Mehmed Emîn Bozarslan . During this time he learned to read and write Kurdish and came into contact with Kurds from all social classes. He was initially sentenced to eight years in prison, but was released through an amnesty in 1974.

After the amnesty, he began to work for the Kurdish magazine Rizgarî (German: Liberation). Since Rizgarî was an opposition newspaper, Uzun was returned to prison in 1976. After nine months in prison, he fled to Sweden, where he met many other Kurds in exile from Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, including Cigerxwîn , Osman Sabri , Hasan Hişyar , Ruşen Bedirxan , Nurettin Zaza and Ibrahim Ahmed . He continued to familiarize himself with the Kurdish culture and language. In Sweden he published columns in the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter . In 2005 he returned to Turkey and lived in Istanbul for a short time . Soon afterwards he went back to Sweden. He could not finish his last literary project, a historical novel about the exile in Istanbul of the German-Jewish literary scholar Erich Auerbach . He was diagnosed with cancer in May 2006. After treatment in Sweden, he moved with his family to Diyarbakır , where he received further treatment. Mehmed Uzun died on October 11, 2007 as a result of his illness.

burial

Uzun was buried in Diyarbakir on October 13, 2007. Sinan Çetin (Turkish actor and film producer), Ferhat Tunç (Kurdish, Alevi singer), Ahmet Türk , ( DTP ), Akın Birdal (DTP), Osman Baydemir (DTP), Nurettin Demirtaş (DTP), Selahattin Demirtaş (DTP ) attended his funeral ), Orhan Miroğlu (Turkish politician), Şerafettin Elçi (Kurdish-Turkish politician) and Yaşar Kemal (most successful author of Kurdish origin in modern Turkish literature). Funeral speeches were held in Kurdish and Turkish while women sang Kurdish lamentations about the late author.

Orhan Pamuk on Mehmed Uzun

Turkish Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk , who was in New York at the time of Uzun's death, gave a short interview to the Turkish newspaper Radikal in which he expressed his dismay:

“I very much regret his death [...] he fills me with deep sorrow [...] The value of Mehmed, his importance, they did not appreciate; rather, he was tormented and tormented. But I am firmly convinced that Kurdish and Turkish readers will keep Mehmed's books alive. "

Founder of modern Kurdish literature

Mehmed Uzun, who spent 28 years of his life in exile in Sweden, has published seven novels and a volume of poetry in Kurdish and is considered to be the founder of modern Kurdish literature . His refusal to call himself a Turk brought him into conflict with nationalist circles in Turkey. But the underground organization Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) did not speak well of the writer either, as he strongly criticized their violence. Uzun also wrote novels and essays in Turkish and Swedish , among other things . He was a senior member of the Swedish Writers' Association and the Swedish PEN Club.

Works

Some of his books have been translated into German.

In Kurdish

  • Tu (you) - (Dengê Komal-1984)
  • Rojek ji rojên Evdalê Zeynikê (A day from Evdal Zeynik's diary) - (Orfeus)
  • Mirina Kalekî Rind (The Death of a Good Old Man) - (Orfeus, 1989)
  • Siya Evînê (Shadow of Love) - (Orfeus, 1991)
  • Ji Rojên Evdalê Zeynikê (From the days of Evdal Zeynik) - (Novella, 1991)
  • Destpêka Edebiyata Kurdî (Introduction to Kurdish Literature) - (1992)
  • Mirina Egîdekî (The Death of a Hero) Poetics (1993)
  • Hêz û Bedewiya Pênûsê (The strength and beauty of the pen), essays (Nudem Verlag, 1993)
  • Antolojiya Edebiyata Kurdî ( Anthology of Kurdish Literature) - (1995)
  • Bira Qedere (The Ravine of Fate) - (Sara, 1995, ISBN 975-7112-67-4 )
  • Ziman û Roman (language and novel) - (Weşanên Nûjen, 1996)
  • Roni Mina Evine Tari Mina Mirine (light like love, darkness like death) - (Avesta, 1998, ISBN 975-7112-38-0 )
  • Hawara Dîcleyê (The Tigris' Calls for Help ) - (Avesta, 2001)

literature

  • Mehmed Uzun: In the shadow of lost love. (Siya Evînê). Unionsverlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-293-20126-1
  • Mehmed Uzun: Introduction to Kurdish literature - a study. (Destpêka Edebiyata Kurdî). Ararat publication, St. Gallen 1994, ISBN 3-9520545-3-4
  • Madeleine Grive, Mehmed Uzun: Världen i Sverige - en internationell antologi. En bok för alla, Stockholm 1995 (Swedish), ISBN 91-7448-830-9
  • Yılmaz Erdoğan , Mehmed Uzun (translator): The painful love - two plays from today's reality in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan. (Evîna keserkûr). Ararat-Publ., St. Gallen 1994, ISBN 3-9520545-2-6

swell

  1. ↑ Muhsin Kızılkaya, Sen û Ben , İthaki Yayınları, 2008, ISBN 9789752734296 , p. 301
  2. ↑ Orhan Pamuk: Mehmed'in kıymetini bilmediler  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Radikal article, accessed October 13, 2007@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.radikal.com.tr  

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Uzun, Mehmed
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kurdish writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Siverek, Sanliurfa
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 2007
Place of death Diyarbakır