A campaign to make room for Nazım Hikmet in Bursa
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Anatolia News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 19, 2009 00:00
BURSA - The Bursa Summer Art Association, or BUYAZ, has initiated a campaign under the banner "Make room for Nazım in Bursa."
The aim of the campaign is the establishment of a museum with the support of some NGOs and unions, where the belongings and books of the famous late Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet can be displayed.
At a press meeting held to launch the campaign, BUYAZ Executive Chairman Şaban Akbaba recalled that it would have been Hikmet’s 107th birthday on Jan. 15, and said that while time wiped away the memory of many artists, it kept Hikmet’s alive. Akbaba said Hikmet was wrongly imprisoned, adding, "Although he wrote his most beautiful poems in the northwestern city of Bursa during this process, no culture and art place in the city is named after him."
He said many countries honored the place where an artist spent even a few days with a museum or culture and art center to preserve their work and memory. He claimed that Hikmet poems, which are known all over the world, were victim of an effort to have them erased from the minds of people in Turkey and Bursa.
"All intellectuals, unionists, nongovernmental organizations, academics, who are living in Bursa, should do something for him. We demand the opening of a Nazım Hikmet Museum, or Culture and Art Center, and his name to be given to a street in the city. Also, his statues should be erected in various places of the city."
Akbaba also called for Hikmet’s poems to be translated into all the world’s languages. "We will appreciate everyone who supports our campaign in Bursa, where even the thick walls of his prison could not prevent him from writing."
At a press meeting held to launch the campaign, BUYAZ Executive Chairman Şaban Akbaba recalled that it would have been Hikmet’s 107th birthday on Jan. 15, and said that while time wiped away the memory of many artists, it kept Hikmet’s alive. Akbaba said Hikmet was wrongly imprisoned, adding, "Although he wrote his most beautiful poems in the northwestern city of Bursa during this process, no culture and art place in the city is named after him."
He said many countries honored the place where an artist spent even a few days with a museum or culture and art center to preserve their work and memory. He claimed that Hikmet poems, which are known all over the world, were victim of an effort to have them erased from the minds of people in Turkey and Bursa.
"All intellectuals, unionists, nongovernmental organizations, academics, who are living in Bursa, should do something for him. We demand the opening of a Nazım Hikmet Museum, or Culture and Art Center, and his name to be given to a street in the city. Also, his statues should be erected in various places of the city."
Akbaba also called for Hikmet’s poems to be translated into all the world’s languages. "We will appreciate everyone who supports our campaign in Bursa, where even the thick walls of his prison could not prevent him from writing."