Ömer Seyfettin

Gönen, Balıkesir, Türkiye

Ömer Seyfettin, a Turkish writer from the late 19th to early 20th century, is regarded as one of the greatest modern Turkish authors. His work is highly acclaimed for simplifying the Turkish language by moving away from the prevalent use of Persian and Arabic words and phrases of that time.

Born in Gönen, a town in Balikesir Province, in 1884, Ömer Seyfettin was the son of a military official. His early life was spent traveling around the coast of the Marmara Sea. He also embarked on a military career, graduating from the Military Academy (Harp Okulu) in 1903. Commissioned as a Lieutenant, he was assigned to the Western Border units of the Ottoman Empire Army, including Kusadasi. It was in Izmir that he first became acquainted with writing. In 1909, he served as an officer in the Hareket Ordusu (Action Army), which suppressed the Istanbul Irtica uprising, a movement of religious groups opposing the newly formed constitutional monarchy in Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was also an officer in the Hareket Ordusu.

Promoted to First Lieutenant, Seyfettin was then posted as an instructor at a military school in Izmir. This position provided him with the opportunity to improve his French and interact with other like-minded writers. In 1911, he co-founded a literary and cultural magazine entitled Genç Kalemler (Young Pens) with Ziya Gökalp and Ali Canip in Salonica. Seyfettin pioneered the use of colloquial Turkish in his literary works, as opposed to the formal Ottoman Turkish, as outlined in a letter to Ali Canip.

Recalled to the army at the onset of the Balkan War, his units were defeated in Yanina in January 1913, leading to him spending approximately 12 months in Greece as a prisoner of war. Upon his release at the end of 1913, he returned to Constantinople and was appointed the executive editor of Türk Sözü, a publication associated with the ruling Committee for Union and Progress.

In 1914, after leaving the army for the second time, Ömer Seyfettin became a literature teacher in an Istanbul high school. That same year, he also assumed the role of chief author (basyazar) for the magazine Türk Yurdu. Between 1914 and 1917, he primarily wrote Turanist poems, which were published in various outlets such as Tanin, Türk Yurdu, and Halka Dogru. In 1917, he published the majority of his literary work, including a wide array of short stories. From 1919 to 1920, he contributed articles to Büyük Mecmua, a publication that supported the Turkish independence war. He passed away due to diabetes in 1920 at the young age of 36.

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