Talk:Yaşar Kemal

His ethnicity
I was wondering, did Yaşar Kemal identify as a Turk or a Kurd? Or did he identify as both? I think he's the judge of who he is, and we shouldn't give the man a certain label if that's not what he prefers. &mdash; Khoikhoi 00:42, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't know exactly what he identified himself but in 1995 Kemal was imprisoned for an article that condemned the government's oppression of the Kurdish minority, and offered support to the Kurdish Workers' Party. Ozgur Gerilla 17:32, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * ??? Are you joking?? He never offered support to the PKK, NEVER EVER.. I repeat again: HE NEVER OFFERED SUPPORT TO THE PKK.. NEVER EVER.. That is a very grave accusation to make, if it were true, he would have been most probably jailed for life back in 1995. He is an anti-nationalism of all kinds human rights activist that is respected by everyone in Turkey.. In my opinion he deserved the Nobel much more than Pamuk, he has done so much concrete actions to improve democracy in Turkey. What did Pamuk do? Just give a speech.. He is a great writer, but not as good as Kemal who simply has a master style and comprehension of the centuries-old intricate relationships between Turks and Kurds, but most importantly their relationship with religion and feudalism.. As for his identification, I suppose u should ask him, but he always wrote in Turkish, and to my knowledge he has identified himself as "Turkish of Kurdish origin". Let's not forget that Turkish is the identity that encompasses others who choose to affiliate themselves with it.. I met black people in Istanbul who call themselves Turkish. Many people, "ethnic Turks" included, have condemned certain acts of the Turkish government over the years, that don't make them simply Kurdish either. By his works, he simply transcends that difference :)) Khoikhoi, I understand your goodwill behind this, but how would u feel if people kept on continously asking and telling you Are you Jewish or u American? or So, u r Jew or American or what?? or American or Jew, you gotta decide Khoi!!. Don't get me wrong, but this is what it comes down to at the end. I don't understand why some people cannot accept the fact that you can feel Turk and Kurd at the same time. The same goes for others, the first president of the Turkish Language Association was a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin in the 1930s. WHAT??!! That cannot be true!! Turks are just a bunch of barbarian horsemen who kill all other ethnicities with swords, how is it possible that "Turkish" can be used as an encompassing identity to define people who simply share a destiny and a common history that dates back thousands of years?? Besides, how could it be possible that could happen since Turks butchered one gazillion people twenty years earlier (!)?? So, drop it folks!!!! :))) Baristarim 03:58, 14 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Baristarim, my friend, you've misunderstood again. The sentence I wrote says Kemal was imprisoned for an article that condemned the gov. oppression to the Kurds and offered support support to PKK—that was the two reason why he was imprisoned not that it was proved that he helped the PKK. I agree with your opinion on him deserving the Nobel Literature Prize—he has influenced Turkish art for over half a century. an x person can feel n ethnicities an can change this however whenever they want—the problem is those people are not Wiki user's for them to express their opinion so we have to label them, but seriously some Turkish people go beyond belief everyone knows Yasar Kemal, Yilmaz Guney, Siwan Perwer, Ahmet Kaya are Kurds and except Yasar Kemal from the list of those artists I know they did say they were Kurdish and some users (mainly anons) change them to Turkish — that is ridiculous. Oh, please and you date the Turkish identity that implies many ethnicities to thousands of years - how could that be when the Turk ethnicity has only a history of a millenium in anatolia - did those Kurds at the time say 'hey look there's Turks in asia they are fascinating let's be like them-let's call ourselves Turks too. I have so many relatives who are simply Kurdish and call themselves Turkish — I have no problem with that I can understand that but using the term Turkish as an encompassing identity is not that old, even though in Ottoman's Kurds were identified as 'Mountain Turks'. This doesn't mean they were Turkish. The majority of the Kurds in Turkey has been forced to change identity and I don't have to mention the ways. So saying people are officially called Turkish that means we should, in Wiki, state that they are Turkish is very wrong — I think the best thing to do is Khois method. Just state what language they work in and if we could find a good source stating their ethnicity then put that in too. Ozgur Gerilla 11:07, 14 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Guys, please sort it before edit warring. Anytime you feel the issue is settled, just let me know. Alex Bakharev 00:43, 20 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Just wanted to reply to Ozgur (even though it has been nearly two months since the last talk :)): I have since ran into an interview where he described himself as "Kurdish and Turkish". It was a long article and I forgot where I saw it, but it was basically what you were saying: "Kurdish and call themselves Turkish". I suppose it would be a bit complicated to explore the reasons why he calls himself "Kurdish and Turkish".. But to answer to Khoi's original question long ago, yes, you can say he identified as both in a way where they are not exclusive of each other. When I have the time I will try to look for the article, but I am pretty sure that it was in a Turkish magazine or something. An old case closed :)) Baristarim 05:37, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Yeah yeah Baristarim, he described himself as a "turkish kurd" sure. But i think he meant a kurd from Turkey? Cause that's what many kurds were called at that time. But then changed it to "kurd from turkey". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.253.53.0 (talk) 09:11, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

There is no source for him saying that he is a "Turk with Kurdish decent". The site seems to be removed, and thus it is not a source. Just wondering, how the F*** would you call a Kurd for Turk? Like ignoring the fact that a horse is a horse, and call it donkey. You can't compare Americans with this, since all americans are immigrants, except the Indians. Yeah sure you are american since you live here but you have Jewish origin. Same with kurds in Turkey. You can say that he is a Turkish authour with Kurdish origin.

But I have never heard anything about Kemal describing himself as a Turk, I know he is proud of being a Kurd and always show off with that. Haven't you read, Memed, my hawk? The whole storyline is based on the struggle between the poor Kurdish peasants and the oppressing Turkish Gouverment. If you have reliable source of him describing himself as a Turk, I want to see it. Broken links are not sources. --Qahba (talk) 18:38, 18 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Two questions give rise at this topic. First, how doeas Yaşar Kemal identify his ethnic origin? Second, what about the lineage?
 * His father's side was/is a Turkic tribe who are of Qarapapaqs and they migrated from Caucasia to Anatolia. They move around on the land: from Caucasia to Bursa, from Bursa to Van, from Van to Çukurova. His father's family was subjected to Kurdicization. His mother's side is of Kurdish people, a Kurdish tribe. For those reasons his family spoke Kurdish language inside the house.
 * Yaşar Kemal is/was one of the prominent novelists of the Turkish literature and he gave his works in Turkish language. He neither hid his ethnic origin nor he went to extremes on this topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.88.108.133 (talk) 03:22, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Category Adana or Osmaniye
When we was born, that region was part of Adana, but now it is not. Should we keep him in Category:Adana denizTC 20:15, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

INCOMPLETE ARTICLE
This article has a section on his marriages but not specific works? I think in addition to the biographical writing, the article needs LENGTHY explanation about why he is so significant as a writer. What movement is he a part of? Why is he one of the few turkish authors to get international attention? i would do it but I do not know enough about him... however, I am certain someone does and needs to augment this weak article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.246.224.95 (talk) 16:31, 15 May 2008 (UTC)


 * If you feel like contributing but are too shy to write in the main space, you can create a user subpage and link to it here. --Adoniscik(t, c) 00:40, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Ethnicity
I've inserted a "citation request" about the "Kurdish parents" claim and waiting for a reliable reference that validates it. --BlueEyedCat (talk) 02:30, 30 October 2008 (UTC)


 * ✅ --Adoniscik(t, c) 04:44, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Ethnicity in lead section
One user is trying to remove his ethnicity from leading section. I've written it like all other similar articles. There is no ethnic POV-pushing. User claimed that "his ethnicity is not a defining factor about him". I wonder have you ever read one of this books or do you know anything about his life? He was in prison because of his ethnicity and he was Kurdish human rights activist. Read a little bit facts and stop removing my sources and details. You are who is trying to remove his ethnic background. I told you to use talk page buy you refused, this is the last warning and I will report you if you continue to reverse my changes without appropriate explanation.Ferakp (talk) 21:55, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

First sentence
, firstly, can you please provide the quote from the source by Derek? For some reason, I can't access it.

I believe that for some reason you believe that I am trying to deny that Yaşar Kemal is of Kurdish origin. Totally to the contrary. However, his ethnicity is not his defining factor and therefore has no place in the lead; even if he is defined in terms of his origins, sources tend to call him "one of Turkey's leading writers" and "Turkish writer". One of the two sources you use actually supports this point: at the title, where Yaşar Kemal is defined here, he is called "The famous Turkish writer and human rights activist", not "Kurdish writer". It only later says that he is of Kurdish origin so that clearly shows that it is not a defining factor and that detail clearly is presented early on in this article (see "life" section).

To further on my previous point, I will provide policy attributions and further resources. The Guardian introduces him as "Turkish writer best known for his novel Memed, My Hawk". BBC introduces him as "Turkish author" and "One of Turkey's best-known writers". Reuters calls him "Turkish novelist" and "one of Turkey's greatest writers". AP calls him " one of Turkey's best-known novelists" and further says "Kemal didn't promote his Kurdish background and few people knew he was a Kurd. "I'm a Turkish writer — of Kurdish origin," he said". So that clearly contradicts your position here and really leaves nothing to be debated about. Kemal did not define himself in terms of his ethnicity and it clearly is not a well-known detail about him. The previous version made no implication about his ethnicity and it is indeed very interesting to see so much passion over adding a rather obscure part of his biography to the lead. I by no means imply that he is Turkish, just that his ethnicity is not his defining factor and adding it is against WP:DUE and WP:LEAD.

--GGT (talk) 22:45, 10 March 2016 (UTC)


 * If you want source for his ethnicity or did he call himself as Kurdish writer or Turkish writer, I will find dozens of sources and books for you. That's not the problem. Remember that he was known as a Kurdish writer or human rights activist for human rights organizations and in many other publications. Also one of my sources say that he is a Kurdish writer.

The problem with your current edit is that it doesn't improve the article and especially those who try to find him using Google other search engines or websites don't get appropriate information about him. Look this screenshot,, and. So should we change those latter ones to writer in Turkey and writer in Germany? This is why I added Kurdish writer. Going to change to Kurdish again. If you think it is wrong, come with good explanation. He is a Kurdish<--- yes, was he a Kurdish writer< yes, was he a Kurdish activist <--- yes. I don't see any reason why he should not bet mentioned as a Kurdish writer. About Turkish sources, I don't usually touch them but if I start to classify Turkish newspapers as a reliable or unreliable sources, I can tell you that the vast majority of Turkish newspapers like Hurriyet, Haberturk, Milliyet and all others are absolutely unreliable since Turkish press is closed like in North Korea. Just google Press freedom index and find information about Turkish press, it closed Press and controlled by the government like in North Korea.Ferakp (talk) 00:28, 11 March 2016 (UTC) Ferakp (talk) 00:28, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

I made it more accurate by adding "a Turkish writer of Kurdish origin". Let me know what you think. Ferakp (talk) 00:37, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Your comments about Google are irrelevant. You have not provided any evidence for him actually being called "Kurdish writer" by mainstream English-language media/academia. I did not cite Turkish press at any point to illustrate my argument, please respond to the actual point that is being made. I do think, however, that "Turkish writer of Kurdish origin", whilst not really ideal (I do not think that ethnicity is a defining factor per se), is an acceptable compromise at this point (it was the description, as far as I can remember, at the time when he died and was left that way for some time), so I will bring no objections at this point to its usage. --GGT (talk) 16:11, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

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Signature
Hello ! Can someone kopy his signature in the infobox ? Yaşar Kemal signature.jpg Avestaboy (talk) 20:02, 20 December 2018 (UTC)