Sabahattin

Former Defense Minister Sabahattin Çakmakoğlu has died at the age of 93 in the capital Ankara after a series of health problems, local media reported on Oct. 24.

The world-famous Turkish novelist and poet Sabahattin Ali has been commemorated in a string of ceremonies held in the northwestern province of Kırklareli on the 73rd anniversary of his killing.

The first ceremony for Ali was held in front of the author's monument on İstasyon Street, one of the busiest spots of the province located on the Bulgarian border.

The works of Sabahattin Ali, a 20th century Turkish writer, were banned from being sold and printed for 21 years after the government of then-Prime Minister İsmet İnönü made formal decisions to discredit his literature. 

A lifestyle show host has invited derision on social media after mistakenly assuming on air that "Madonna in a Fur Coat" (Kürk Mantolu Madonna), a 1943 work by celebrated Turkish author Sabahattin Ali, was actually a book about American popstar Madonna's love life.

It would be unthinkable if the storms of the ruling ideology that is a bizarre blend of neo-Ottomanism, Islamism and nationalism should not conquer academia as it conquered other walks of life; political, cultural and social. 

A work by one of modern Turkish literature?s most important writers, Sabahattin Ali, will be translated into English for the first time.