Ahmet Hüsrev Altan (born 2 March 1950) is a Turkish

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and author. A working journalist for more than twenty years, he has served in all stages of the profession, from being a night shift reporter to

editor in chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

in various newspapers.

Biography

He was born 1950 in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, Turkey to the notable journalist and writer

Çetin Altan Çetin Altan (22 June 1927 – 22 October 2015) was a Turkish writer, journalist, and a member of parliament. He was considered one of the finest writers in the modern Turkish language of the late 20th century. Early years Çetin Altan was ...

as the first of two sons. His brother

Mehmet Altan Mehmet Hasan Altan (born 11 January 1953) is a Turkish academic economist, journalist, and author of over 25 books. Describing himself as a "Marxist-liberal", he is the originator of the term "Second Republic", arguing that Turkey needs to reco ...

is also a journalist, writer and university professor of political economy.

Career

In addition to having written columns in several Turkish newspapers, including ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'', ''

Milliyet ''Milliyet'' ( Turkish for "''nationality''") is a Turkish daily newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. History and profile ''Milliyet'' came to publishing life at the Nuri Akça press in Babıali, Istanbul as a daily private newspaper on 3 ...

'' and ''

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally considered ...

'', Altan has produced news programming for television. He was fired from ''Milliyet'' after writing a column on 17 April 1995 titled "Atakürt", which presented an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

of Turkey as a Kurdish state ("Kürdiye") in which ethnic Turks are oppressed and forced to assimilate. For the same column he received a suspended sentence to an imprisonment of 1 year and 8 months and fined about $12'000. In 2007 he became the founding editor-in-chief and lead columnist of the ''

Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circulati ...

'', a daily Turkish newspaper, and remained in the position until his resignation in December 2012. In September 2008, when Altan published an article titled "Oh, My Brother" dedicated to the victims of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

he was charged under

Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code Article 301 is an article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish nation, Turkish government institutions, or Turkish national heroes such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It took effect on June 1, 2005, and was introd ...

for "denigrating Turkishness". The judicial claim was initiated by the far-right "

Great Union Party The Great Unity Party ( tr, Büyük Birlik Partisi, BBP) or Great Union Party is a far-right Sunni Islamist and ultranationalist political party in Turkey, created on 29 January 1993.

Prosecution

Geschwister-Scholl-Preis 2019 an Ahmet Altan - 01

During Turkey's media purge after the failed July 2016 coup d'état on September 23, 2016, Altan, was arrested. He is accused of sending "subliminal messages" to encourage

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt On 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted to seize cont ...

planners. In September 2017, while banned from written communications, Altan produced an essay The Writer's Paradox in which he says: 'I am writing these words from a prison cell ... But wait. Before you start playing the drums of mercy for me listen to what I will tell you ... They may have the power to imprison me but no one has the power to keep me in prison. I am a writer.' The essay was published on 18 September 2017, on the eve of Altan's trial: in English by

The Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. , it represents over 12,000 members and as ...

(translated by Yasemin Çongar) and in the original Turkish by

English PEN Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associati ...

. As the trial began, many authors spoke out in support of Altan.

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

said "I hope that everyone who can read, whatever their politics, reads Ahmet Altan's response to his imprisonment. Repressive regimes hope that if they lock up writers they are also locking up ideas. This will always fail."

Joanne Harris Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris (born 3 July 1964) is an English-French author, best known for her novel '' Chocolat'' (1999), which was adapted the following year for the film '' Chocolat''. Early life Harris was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, t ...

said "Writers exist to question, to challenge, sometimes even to ridicule - the status quo. For a government to imprison a writer for doing this is to attack, not only freedom of speech, but freedom of the imagination. It is a backward, oppressive and ultimately futile gesture that can only lead to greater and more damaging social unrest." On 16 February 2018, Ahmet, along with his brother

, was sentenced to life imprisonment. From prison, he wrote notes he gave to his lawyers, and published his memoirs under the title ''I Will Never See the World Again'', translated into English by Yasemin Çongar. The book was longlisted for the 2019

Baillie Gifford Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its m ...

for non-fiction and is published in 17 countries around the world. But it is not published in Turkish as Altan has concern about the safety of the publisher. On 4 November 2019 Altan was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months imprisonment by the court of cassation, but then the court ordered his release on probation. On 12 November 2019 the police detained him again after a ruling reversing his release. On the 25 of November 2019, Altan was awarded the Geschwister Scholl Prize, a literary award of the Bavarian branch of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. Altan was released from prison on 14 April 2021 after order by the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

Awards

* 1983, Akademi Bookstore Literature Awards, First Prize in the category of “Novel” * 1998, Yunus Nadi Literature Prize in the category of ‘’Novel’’ * 2011, International

Hrant Dink Hrant Dink ( hy, Հրանդ Տինք; Western ; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of ''Agos'', journalist and columnist. As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspa ...

Award * 2013, Turkish Publishers Association, Freedom of Thought and Expression Prize * 2017, Istanbul Human Rights Association Ayşe Nur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Prize * 2019, Geschwister Scholl Preis

Bibliography

Memoirs

* I will never see the world again, (Other Press, 2019), translated by Yasemin Çongar

Novels

* ''Kılıç Yarası Gibi'' (1997, Can Yayınları), the first novel in the Ottoman Quartet. Published in English in a translation by Brendan Freely and Yelda Türedi as ''Like a Sword Wound'' (2018, Europa Editions) * ''Dört Mevsim Sonbahar'' (Four Seasons of Autumn) * ''Yalnızlığın Özel Tarihi'' (A Private History of Loneliness) * ''Sudaki İz'' (Trace on the Water) * ''Aldatmak'' (Cheating) * ''İsyan Günlerinde Aşk'' (1998, Can Yayınları), the second novel in the Ottoman Quartet. ** ''Love in the Days of Rebellion,'' translation by Brendan Freely and Yelda Türedi (2020, Europa Editions) * ''En Uzun Gece'' (The Longest Night) * ''Tehlikeli Masallar'' (Dangerous Tales) * ''Son Oyun'' (2013, Everest publications), translated into English by Alexander Dawe and published as ''Endgame'' in 2016 * ''Ölmek Kolaydır Sevmekten'' (2015, Everest Yayinlari), the third novel in the Ottoman Quartet.

Collections of essays

* ''Gece Yarısı Şarkıları'' (Midnight Songs) * ''İçimizde Bir Yer'' (Somewhere Inside Us) * ''Karanlıkta Sabah Kuşları'' (Morning Birds in Darkness) * ''Kristal Denizaltı'' (Crystal Submarine) * ''Ve Kırar Göğsüne Bastırırken'' (And He Breaks While Holding Down To His Chest)

References

External links

Ahmet Altan'ın Eserlerinden örnekler, denemeleri, günlük fıkralarıAhmet ALTAN Hakkında yazılan Polis Akademisi Bitirme TeziGazetem Net'teki köşe yazıları

Hürriyet Gazetesindeki Köşe Yazıları

Biography of Ahmet Altan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altan, Ahmet Turkish novelists 1950 births Living people Turkish former Muslims Turkish atheists Turkish journalists Turkish columnists People from Ankara Hürriyet people Milliyet people Taraf people Robert College alumni Middle East Technical University alumni Istanbul University alumni Vefa High School alumni Turkish people of Crimean Tatar descent Prix Femina Étranger winners