The traces left by Namık Kemal, who wrote most of his works during his exile in Cyprus, will be discussed in the panel held at the Near East Yeniboğaziçi Campus Halil Günsel Culture and Congress Center on the 135th anniversary of his death.

Poet and writer Namık Kemal, one of the important figures of Turkish literature and history of thought, will be commemorated with the panel “Namık Kemal in Cyprus on the 135th anniversary of his death” held at the Near East Yeniboğaziçi Campus Halil Günsel Culture and Congress Center. In the panel organized by the Department of Turkish Teaching of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Near East University and the Center for Cyprus Studies of the Near East University, the traces left by Namık Kemal, who wrote most of his works during his exile in Cyprus, and Turkish Cypriot literature will be discussed.

Namık Kemal, who was exiled to Cyprus due to the events that broke out after the play “Homeland or Silistre” was staged in 1873 and spent 38 months in the building that is open to the public today as “Namık Kemal Prison and Museum”, wrote many of his literary works during this period. Namık Kemal, who conveyed his exile period extensively through the letters he wrote, described his daily life, his complaints, his troubles, his relations with the Cypriot administrators, his meetings with the Cypriot artistic circles, all kinds of communication with other literary figures, political developments regarding his country and himself, his private life, his relations with his family and many other topics.

The event will be held open to the public on December 22!
Namık Kemal will be commemorated at the “Namik Kemal in Cyprus on the 135th anniversary of his death” panel, which will be held free of charge and open to the public on December 22, 2023 at 12.00 at the Near East Yeniboğaziçi Campus Halil Günsel Culture and Congress Center. Namık Kemal will be discussed with an approach that puts Cyprus at its centre. The session will be chaired by Near East University Faculty of Science and Letters Lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yeniasır. Researcher-writer İsmail Bozkurt will give a speech titled “Namık Kemal’s Influence on Turkish Cypriot Literature” and Ulus Irkad will give a speech titled “Namık Kemal’s Traces in Cyprus”. In the panel where researcher-writer Bülent Fevzioğlu will make an evaluation on Özker Yaşın’s work ‘Namık Kemal in Cyprus’, Near East University Cyprus Research Center President and Near East University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Şevket Öznur will discuss “The Concepts of Homeland and Freedom in Namık Kemal’s Poems”.

Who is Namık Kemal?
Namık Kemal, known as the “Patriotic Poet” in Turkish literature, was born in Tekirdağ in 1840. He shaped the intellectual movements of his time by contributing to important changes in Ottoman society with his ideas, works and writings. Namık Kemal, known as the “Patriotic Poet” and the “Poet of Liberty”, wrote works in the genres of criticism, biography, theatre, novels, history and articles, as well as poetry. He is especially famous for his works “İntibah” and “Homeland or Silistra”.

Namık Kemal, who was exiled to Cyprus during the reign of Abdulhamid II in 1873 and spent 38 months in Famagusta, wrote many of his works during this period. Kemal, who spent most of his life in exile, died on Chios Island in 1888 at the age of 47.