Perihan Magden
Encyclopedia
Perihan Mağden is a Turkish
writer, known for her wit. She is currently a columnist for the newspaper Taraf
. She was tried and acquitted for calling for opening the possibility of conscientious objection to mandatory military service in Turkey.
. After graduating from Robert College
of Istanbul, she studied psychology at Boğaziçi University
. By her own account, she was an unruly student—and her mother was proud of it.
She has spent some time at Yaddo
, the famous artists' community. Mağden is a single mother, supported by her writing, who lives in Istanbul with her teenage daughter.
In addition to writing editorial columns for Turkish newspapers, Mağden has also published fictional novel
s and a collection of poetry
. Mağden's novel İki Genç Kızın Romanı (Two Girls), published in 2005 by Serpent's Tail, was praised for pushing "Turkish beyond its conventional literary patterns" and compared to J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye for the way she had captured adolescent anguish.
After the assassination of Hrant Dink
, she was offered security protection.
In December 2007, she received a fourteen month suspended sentence
for insulting Aytac Gul, then governor of Yuksekova
.
, a young Turkish man jailed for his refusal to perform mandatory military service. In this column, titled "Conscientious Objection is a Human Right", Mağden stated that the United Nations
, of which Turkey is not a member, acknowledges conscientious objection as a human right
.
In response to the column, the Turkish military accused her of attempting to turn the Turkish people against military service and filed a complaint against her. A warrant was issued for her prosecution in April 2006 and her trial was in late July; the most severe sentence she could have faced if convicted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code
was three years' imprisonment. Under Turkish law, there is no provision for conscientious objection to mandatory military service.
When asked about her situation, Mağden replied, "It's shocking that they are putting me on trial. I've no idea what will happen. The case could finish tomorrow or it could stretch on and on. The unnerving thing about the courts is they are so unpredictable, it's like a lottery. It's torture."
Her prosecution was criticized by human rights
groups around the world and comes several months after a Turkish court dropped a case against Turkish writer Elif Şafak
, who had been charged with "insulting Turkishness" in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. The European Union
closely monitored the lawsuit. In a show of support for Mağden, newspapers in Turkey have republished the column that led to criminal charges against her.
She was acquitted on July 27, 2006. The court concluded that she exercised her right of freedom of speech.
title: Haberci Çocuk Cinayetleri) is a 1991
novel by Turkish writer and columnist Perihan Mağden republished in 2003
by Milet Books
in English language translation by Richard Hamer.
The publisher describes the novel as, "a darkly comic, irreverent and hypnotic tale, an exploration of humanity's endless absurdity and its futile attempts to create perfection, cleverly wrapped in a murder mystery," "from a popular and innovative Turkish author."
Maureen Freely
writing in Cornucopia
states, "Set in a city that feels Russian but is populated with Chinese names, full of nineteenth-century languor but speckled with Hollywood references and overshadowed by a villainous fertility expert, it is difficult to categorise, impossible to put down."
A review in Sunday's Zaman states, "The Messenger Boy Murders, like life, unfolds its secrets one by one. What is the ultimate secret? Well, now, that would be telling!"
title:İki Genç Kızın Romanı) is a 2002
novel by Turkish writer and columnist Perihan Mağden republished in 2005
by Serpent's Tail
in English language translation by Brendan Freely.
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
writer, known for her wit. She is currently a columnist for the newspaper Taraf
Taraf
- External links :*. Website of Taraf ....
. She was tried and acquitted for calling for opening the possibility of conscientious objection to mandatory military service in Turkey.
Biography
Mağden was born in 1960 in IstanbulIstanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. After graduating from Robert College
Robert College
Robert College of Istanbul , is one of the most selective independent private high schools in Turkey. Robert College is a co-educational, boarding school with a wooded campus on the European side of Istanbul between the two bridges on the Bosphorus, with the Arnavutköy district to the east, and...
of Istanbul, she studied psychology at Boğaziçi University
Bogaziçi University
Boğaziçi University is a public university located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, Turkey. It has five faculties and two schools offering undergraduate degrees, and six institutes offering graduate degrees...
. By her own account, she was an unruly student—and her mother was proud of it.
She has spent some time at Yaddo
Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."...
, the famous artists' community. Mağden is a single mother, supported by her writing, who lives in Istanbul with her teenage daughter.
In addition to writing editorial columns for Turkish newspapers, Mağden has also published fictional novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s and a collection of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. Mağden's novel İki Genç Kızın Romanı (Two Girls), published in 2005 by Serpent's Tail, was praised for pushing "Turkish beyond its conventional literary patterns" and compared to J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye for the way she had captured adolescent anguish.
Activism
Mağden is one of several journalists and writers charged for "threatening Turkey's unity or the integrity of the state."After the assassination of Hrant Dink
Hrant Dink
Hrant Dink or Հրանտ Դինք ) was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent editor, journalist and columnist....
, she was offered security protection.
In December 2007, she received a fourteen month suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
for insulting Aytac Gul, then governor of Yuksekova
Yüksekova
Yüksekova is a district of Hakkari Province of Turkey, situated close to the border with Iran. Its location on the trade route between Iranian Azarbaijan and eastern Turkey made it an important juncture for travelers and the location of several ethnic groups that were active in regional trade....
.
Conscientious objection lawsuit
Mağden was prosecuted by the Turkish government in relation to a December 2005 column in the weekly news magazine Yeni Aktuel. In the column she strongly defended the actions of Mehmet TarhanMehmet Tarhan
Mehmet Tarhan was imprisoned for refusing military service in Turkey as a conscientious objector. Tarhan had been sentenced to four years in a military prison for disobedience after refusing to wear a military uniform, a sentence that is evidently the longest ever given for such an offense in Turkey...
, a young Turkish man jailed for his refusal to perform mandatory military service. In this column, titled "Conscientious Objection is a Human Right", Mağden stated that the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, of which Turkey is not a member, acknowledges conscientious objection as a human right
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
.
In response to the column, the Turkish military accused her of attempting to turn the Turkish people against military service and filed a complaint against her. A warrant was issued for her prosecution in April 2006 and her trial was in late July; the most severe sentence she could have faced if convicted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code
Article 301 (Turkish penal code)
Article 301 is a controversial article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions...
was three years' imprisonment. Under Turkish law, there is no provision for conscientious objection to mandatory military service.
When asked about her situation, Mağden replied, "It's shocking that they are putting me on trial. I've no idea what will happen. The case could finish tomorrow or it could stretch on and on. The unnerving thing about the courts is they are so unpredictable, it's like a lottery. It's torture."
Her prosecution was criticized by human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
groups around the world and comes several months after a Turkish court dropped a case against Turkish writer Elif Şafak
Elif Safak
Elif Şafak , is a Turkish writer who writes in both Turkish and English. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages.-Fiction:...
, who had been charged with "insulting Turkishness" in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. The European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
closely monitored the lawsuit. In a show of support for Mağden, newspapers in Turkey have republished the column that led to criminal charges against her.
She was acquitted on July 27, 2006. The court concluded that she exercised her right of freedom of speech.
English language bibliography
Two of Mağden's novels have been published in English language translation.The Messenger Boy Murders
The Messenger Boy Murders (TurkishTurkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
title: Haberci Çocuk Cinayetleri) is a 1991
1991 in literature
The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
novel by Turkish writer and columnist Perihan Mağden republished in 2003
2003 in literature
The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No...
by Milet Books
Milet Books
Milet Books is a London publishing company that specialises in dictionaries and dual-language children’s literature.-Turkish-English Short Story Collections:...
in English language translation by Richard Hamer.
The publisher describes the novel as, "a darkly comic, irreverent and hypnotic tale, an exploration of humanity's endless absurdity and its futile attempts to create perfection, cleverly wrapped in a murder mystery," "from a popular and innovative Turkish author."
Maureen Freely
Maureen Freely
Maureen Freely is a U.S. journalist, novelist, translator and professor.-Biography:Born in Neptune, New Jersey, Freely grew up in Turkey and now lives in England, where she lectures at the University of Warwick and is an occasional contributor to The Guardian and The Independent newspapers. Among...
writing in Cornucopia
Cornucopia (magazine)
Cornucopia is a magazine about Turkish culture, art and history, published jointly in the United Kingdom and Turkey.-Content:Cornucopia was founded by John Scott and Berrin Torolsan in 1992. It is an English Language magazine that concerns Turkish culture...
states, "Set in a city that feels Russian but is populated with Chinese names, full of nineteenth-century languor but speckled with Hollywood references and overshadowed by a villainous fertility expert, it is difficult to categorise, impossible to put down."
A review in Sunday's Zaman states, "The Messenger Boy Murders, like life, unfolds its secrets one by one. What is the ultimate secret? Well, now, that would be telling!"
2 Girls
2 Girls (TurkishTurkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
title:İki Genç Kızın Romanı) is a 2002
2002 in literature
The year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...
novel by Turkish writer and columnist Perihan Mağden republished in 2005
2005 in literature
The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....
by Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tail is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It is notable for its translated works, particularly European crime fiction, and is the British publisher of Elfriede Jelinek and Lionel Shriver...
in English language translation by Brendan Freely.
On-line translations
- The Secret Meanings of Unappreciated Words at Boğaziçi University http://www.turkish-lit.boun.edu.tr/work.asp?CharSet=English&ID=1478 and Words Without Borders http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/the-secret-meanings-of-unappreciated-words/.
- Kitchen Accidents at Boğaziçi University http://www.turkish-lit.boun.edu.tr/poetry.asp?CharSet=English&ID=1479.
- Courage Does Not Reign at Boğaziçi University http://www.turkish-lit.boun.edu.tr/work.asp?CharSet=English&ID=1480 and Words Without Borders http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/courage-does-not-reign/.
External links
- Columns for Radikal
- Perihan Magden in the documentary Istanbul: Truth, fear and the value of diversity
- http://www.istanbultelifofisi.com/writer_detail.asp?ID=2
- http://www.istanbultelifofisi.com/writer_detail.asp?ID=2