WHO IS YAHYA KEMAL?

Real name of Yahya Kemal Beyatli was Ahmet Agah. He was born on 02 December 1884 in Skopje. His father was Mayor of Skopje at that time. His mother Mrs. Nakiye was niece of the known poet Galip from Nicosia. His surname “Beyatli” was given by Sehsuvar Pasha

The poet spent his life in Skopje, Thessaloniki and surrounding places. When he was 5, he started attending local school called Yeni Mektep, functioning under the old system. This school presenting the past, left nice impressions in the poet’s memory. Then he continued his schooling in Mekteb-I Edeb-e that was contemporary school. The poet compares the difference between these two schools with passing from East to West. After completing 4 years in Mekteb-I Edeb-e in 1895, he enrolled in Skopje High School. At the same time, to improve Arabian and Persian languages, he attended Ishak Bey Medrese Scholl.

Due to Mr. Nadji work the whole family moved from Skopje to Thessaloniki in 1897. Yahya Kemal removed to Thessaloniki High School. For Mrs. Nakiye changing of the place was a great loss, she did not want to split from Skopje. She got sick. The return of the family in Skopje was in vain. The poet lost his mother. Upon her death the family splited apart. Afterwards the poet would move from place to place. He grieved far from the family. Yahya Kemal did not feel the family warmth anymore. By the words “I spent my childhood in sadness”, the poet says that he grew in a troublesome family. In his early childhood he lost his mother and spent the days far away from home.

In 1902 Yahya Kemal was sent to school in Istanbul. He wanted to get admitted to the High School in Galatasaray, but he did not managed. The next year he managed to get admitted in Robert College. He stayed in Sariyer with Mr. Ibrahim, his mother’s close relative. He introduced Istanbul and joined a number of music groups. In this meetings he was introduced to Sekip and initiated by him he went to Paris. It was in 1903. There he met ZON Turks. He learned to speak French at Meoux College and enrolled at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Foreign Affairs Department. Influenced by the prominent politician Albert Sorel, he started to explore Ottoman History.

At the same time he was influenced by the ides of XIX century and Paris and French art. Yahya Kemal stayed there for nine years. While studying French literature he tried to introduce other writers.

In 1912 he went back to Istanbul and started working in high schools as literature and history teacher. He was closely interested in literary streams and wanted to give a new form to Turkish poem. Afterwards he taught History of Civilizations, Western Literature and Turkish Literature at Istanbul University.

In 1922 he went to Ankara and began his political career. In 1923 as a member of the Commission he was sent to the Conference in Lausanne. The same year he was elected MP from Bursa in the National Assembly of Turkey. In 1926 he went to Warshaw as Turkish Ambassador. In 1929 he was appointed Turkish ambassador in Madrid. From 1934 to 1942 he was MP. For the song “Imagined City ("Hayal Şehir") he won Inonu award. The same year he became ambassador in Pakistan. He died in Istanbul on 1 November 1958.