Memed, My Hawk

It has been six years since Turkey lost legendary author Yaşar Kemal, an outspoken intellectual and prolific writer who became the country's first nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Turkish viola player Ruşen Güneş died on May 29 at the age of 80 in London, where he had been living since 1969.

I have a daily Hürriyet Saturday supplement from 2003. A photo of Ya?ar Kemal is smiling at me. The title of the interview is this: ??nce Memed is 50 years old, his novel that upgraded Ya?ar Kemal from the stove-heated house.?

The death of each good writer and good friend is like the death of some part of you.
This is what I felt with the passing of Ya?ar Kemal.

When you come to know intimately a writer from all of his books you have read, you come to know his human side not just his literary side. He was an example of being a writer of people; he was my life?s only people?s hero.

Ya?ar Kemal, a landmark name of Turkish literature, passed away on the afternoon of Feb. 28, ending weeks-long suffering in hospital due to multiple organ failure.

Turkey’s first Nobel Prizer for literature Yasar Kemal has died on Friday in an Istanbul hospital following respiratory and organ failure.
He was an ethnic Kurd born in south-eastern Turkey who won international fame for his first novel, Memed, My Hawk, published in 1955.
It became a worldwide success and was published in 40 languages.

One of modern Turkey?s most celebrated literary figures, Ya?ar Kemal, has been hospitalized following respiratory problems, lung infection and heart arrhythmia Jan. 14.

Doctors said that the condition of the 92-year-old author was critical, adding that his symptoms suggested pneumonia.