Vedat Türkali dies at 97

Vedat Türkali, one of the prominent figures of literature and intellectual world of Turkey, died this morning in a hospital in Yalova, where he had been treated for some time. His actress daughter Deniz Türkali announced his father's passing away via her Twitter account.

Who is Vedat Türkali?

Born on May 13, 1919 in Samsun, Vedat Türkali studied Turkish language and literature in Istanbul University. In 1942, he got married to Merih Pirhasan.

After working as a literature teacher in high schools, he got arrested in 1951 because of his political views and activities. Sentenced to 9 years in prison, he was released on probation after 7 years.

He founded Gar Publising with Rıfat Ilgaz. In 1960, he wrote his first script (Dolandırıcılar Şahı). In 1965, he was awarded with the best screenplay prize in Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. He wrote a lot of scripts and novels.

Vedat Türkali was also a prominent figure in Turkish political history and debates. He was once a member of Turkish Communist Party and he had always taken part in struggles for labor, democracy and peace. In 2002, he was a parliamentary candidate of DEHAP (Democratic People's Party), but he hadn't been elected. However, he had always been writing and expressing his opinions concerning political issue in Turkey.