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ISTANBUL, Aug 3 (AFP) - 4h09 - After 28 years of
exile in Europe, Kurdish-language writer Mehmed Uzun
has returned to Turkey at a pivotal time in its
history, when he believes Turks and Kurds must
choose between peaceful coexistence and a return to
violence.
"Turkey has changed despite everything. Despite the
obstacles and conservative reactions, it is sliding
quickly towards Europe," said the 53-year-old
author, who moved to Istanbul in June with his wife
and two children.
"Intellectual voices like my own must accelerate the
process."
After living in Sweden since 1977, Uzum travelled
several times through the southeastern part of
Turkey, the land of his birth and the heart of the
Kurdish region, before setting down his bags for
good in Istanbul.
"In their eyes I could see intense pain, suffering,
but also patience and hope," he recalled. "Above
all, I saw people trying to build a new social order
... that they are rediscovering their cultural
heritage."
The region was the theatre of a 1984-1999 war, which
took nearly 37,000 lives, between the Turkish army
and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Uzun's return to his roots has prompted a time of
reflection for the writer, who spent more than half
of his life in Europe and describes himself as
"Kurdish, Turkish and Scandinavian."
"I want to do justice to the pain of these people
and create a literature that would be right for
them, that would help them to put up with their
lives," the author said, adding that he had learned
more from his own people than "in all the
universities" of Europe he had frequented during his
long exile.
After calling for the recognition of Kurdish
cultural rights and being accused of "separatism",
he had his first spell in prison in 1972 before
breaking parole and gaining political refugee status
in Sweden in 1977.
Stripped of his citizenship the day after a military
coup in 1980 before gaining it back in 1992, Uzun's
books have earned him a dozen lawsuits. The latest
case ended when he was acquitted in 2003.
During his time in Scandinavia, the young militant
has become a prolific writer, author of a dozen
Kurdish language novels and essays, which have made
him a founding member of modern Kurdish literature.
"When I began to write, I had nothing in front of me
except the spoken word, forbidden, banned from
public life for such a long time that my parents'
vocabulary contained no more than 150 or 200 words,"
he remembered.
"I had to create a modern romance language by
rediscovering the oral traditions, music, fables,
different dialects," which form Kurdish culture, he
explained.
But the author refused to be labelled a "Kurdish
writer," or to be seen as an "innocent victim."
"If I had not bathed in European cultural heritage,
I would not be the author I am," he said. "It is the
mixture of East and West that founded my life as an
author."
Asked about the resurgence of violence since spring
in Turkey's southeast, where fighting had
practically ended after a unilateral PKK ceasefire
from 1999-2004, Uzum does not disguise his concern.
"Arms have resumed their role in recent times, and
people are beginning to live in anxiety," he said.
AFP
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