Turkey mourns death of literary giant Yasar Kemal

Baku. 1 March. REPORT.AZ/ Political figures and statesmen have offered their condolences to the family and friends of the renowned author Yasar Kemal, who died in Istanbul on Saturday.

Report informs citing media,Anadolu Agency, one of Turkey’s most famous authors and the country's first candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kemal was hospitalized in mid-January due to lung infection and heart rhythm problems.

He had been under intensive care at Istanbul University's Hospital since January 14, 2015.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he called the family of the author and offered his sympathy, adding: "We have deep sorrow over the death of the author.”

Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek issued a written statement wishing God’s mercy on Kemal, saying: "Kemal will continue to live with us with the works he commended to his readers.”

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu too said in a written statement that he failed to find a word to describe his sorrow for the loss of the "great artist" Yasar Kemal.

"During times when it was difficult to utter a word, maintaining his dissident attitude and expressing facts without fear moved him to a very special and prestigious position," Davutoglu said.

Main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu called Kemal “one of the giant plane trees of our literary tradition,” extending his condolences.

The author will be laid to rest on March 2 at Istanbul's Zincirlikuyu cemetery, said a Turkish publishing house, Yapi Kredi Publishing.

Kemal, who wrote more than 20 novels and nearly 10 experimental works, in addition short stories, is also famous for his contributions to recreating Turkish as a literary language.Having both Turkish and Kurdish origins, Kemal was born in October 1923 in Osmaniye in southern Turkey. Losing his right eye due to a knife accident, the writer experienced a difficult childhood.

Kemal first worked as letter-writer for illiterate citizens in small villages, then became a journalist and finally a novelist, always believing in "human beings and nature," defining his art as "being at the proletariat's service."

Receiving international acclaim for Ince Memed (Memed, My Hawk), which was firstly published in 1955, Kemal used a mythological hero -- the eponymously named Ince Memed -- to criticize society and its values. In the novel, Memed runs away to the mountains due to the oppression of the Agha (landowner).

Published in 40 languages, Ince Memed was also based on the lives and sufferings of Anatolian people.