Final Farewell to Vedat Türkali

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Mourners bid their final farewells to the writer Vedat Türkali.

The funeral procession from Teşvikiye Mosque to Zincirlikuyu Cemetery was accompanied by slogans of “Friendship among peoples” and “Peace right now”.

A discussion took place between the attendees and police in front of Cevahir shopping mall. Police tried to not let some attendees pass and used tear gas on them but the marching continued after a short while.

There are people carrying Türkali's poets in their hands.

At the end of the ceremony Türkali’s body will be buried in Zincirlikuyu Cemetery beside his wife and friend of 72 years, Merih Pirhasan, who died in 2013.

Türkali died on 29 Ağustos in Yalova State Hospital, where he had been receiving treatment. The writer’s funeral began with a ceremony organized in Yalova before moving to Istanbul. At the ceremony, Cemal Turan made a speech on behalf of his friends and loved-ones. CHP Member of Parliament for Yalova Muharrem İnce and the writer Hasan Kıyafet also gave speeches.

The Teşvikiye ceremony was attended by his family and fans, as well as HDP Co-Leaders Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, HDP deputies Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Pervin Buldan, Garo Paylan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder; CHP deputies Gürsel Tekin, Süleyman Çelebi and Sezgin Tanrıkulu; Mihri Belli, the lawyer Eşber Yağmurdereli, businessperson Osman Kavala, artists Hülya Koçyiğit, Ferhat Tunç, Aytaç Arman, Necmettin Çobanoğlu, and Şerif Gören, DİSK General Secretary Arzu Çerkezoğlu, poets Suna Aras, and Hakkı Zariç, and TYS Leader Mustafa Köz. (EA/HK/TK)

About Vedat Türkali

Vedat Türkali -- real name Abdülkadir (Demirkan) Pirhasan – was born in Samsun on 13 May 1919.

He completed his high-school education in Samsun, and graduated from the Turkish Language and Literature Department of Istanbul University’s Literature Faculty in 1942.

In the same year he married Merih Pirhasan.

Türkali, who worked as a literature teacher in Maltepe and Kuleli Military High School, was sentenced in 1951 to nine years in prison for “political actions”, but was released on probation at the end of his seventh year. He was a member of the Turkey Communist Party (TKP).

In 1960 he founded Gar Publications with Rıfat Ilgaz.

In 1960 he began working as a screenwriter with the Dolandırıcılar Şahı company. His fim, Those Who Wake in the Darkness won the prize for Best Script at the 1965 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

In the 2002 election he ran as a candidate with the Democratic People’s Party and became actively involved in politics.

His major Works include: One Day All Alone (novel, 1974), Old Poems, New Songs (poems, 1979), One of Three Films (screenplays, 1979), Blue Darkness (novel, 1983), Old Films (screenplays, 1984), Where is this Boat Going (writings and memoirs, 1985), The Branches Must be Green (play, 1985), Individual Death (novel, 1989), Kurdish Writings for Freedom (writings, 1996), Trust (novel, 1999), Communist (memoirs, 2001), This Corpse Will Rise (play, 2002), Lost Novels (novel, 2004), The Coffee of Lying Witnesses (novel, 2009), It’s finished, it isn’t Finished (novel, 2014).

He won first place in the Milliyet Milliyet Publications Novel Competition in 1974, the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1976, and the White Seagull Literary Prize of Honor in 2016.

The actor Deniz Türkali and director Barış Pirhasan are his sons.

Final Farewell to Vedat Türkali

İstanbul

About Vedat Türkali