LITERATURE

Asia and Africa collection of British Library in London offers books that tell a story of Kurdish language and culture that is not widely known. More than hundred works in Kurdish, especially children's books, that were published in Soviet Armenia in Cyrillic, Armenian and Latin alphabets have come to light again thanks to cataloging efforts of Michael Erdman, library's curator of Turkish and Turkic languages.

Showing that this land is not only a source of tensions and massacres, but also nurtures unforgettable love stories, “Aşiq û Maşûq – Kurdish-Armenian love stories from Armenian sources” brings three unforgettable tales which are part of oral history and handed down from generation to generation. The common ground of these tales is not only impossible loves; they also voice Anatolia, Mesopotamia and all unique Dersim and reveal the life of Armenian and Kurdish peoples.

First published in 1940 and making William Saroyan globally renowned, “My Name is Aram” republished in Turkish by Aras Publishing.

Around the corner from the Chora church sits a wooden building, a cultural hub for the city’s burgeoning Syrian population. This month, Pages, one of Istanbul’s two Arabic book stores, tucked carefully between the back streets of Edirnekapi, is celebrating its first anniversary.

Baronyan had always been running counter to Armenian clergy and elites whom he criticized satirically, and he lived in reduced circumstances because of his conflict with those circles which, in Baronyan's opinion, had been managing the economic resources of the society in accordance with their own interests. Even when he found out that he got tuberculosis at the age of 45, he hadn't given up resisting. (*a Latin phrase meaning “one corrects customs by laughing at them", which was used by French poet Jean-Baptiste Santeul (1630-1697) for the first time.)

Receiving Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with his book of poems “Ozone Journal”, Balakian spoke to Agos on various topics from literature to politics.

The owner of the famous Baron Hotel, which was established in Aleppo in early 20th century by Mazlumyan family from Kayseri, Armen Mazlumyan passed away last week. Mazlumyan's loyalty to his family's heritage, his struggle for keeping Baron Hotel standing and his extraordinary life in Aleppo which he didn't abandon even during the war are subjected to “Barons of Aleppo: A Hotel in Syria, A Family and the Last Century of Middle East” by Flavia Amabile and Marco Tosatti.

The exhibition titled ‘Spectography: Tracing the Ghosts’ opened at Depo on March 14, and Arménouhie Kévonian’s book ‘Gülizar’s Black Wedding’, published by the Aras Publishing House in Turkish, was also launched during the opening. The exhibition features the photographs and videos of three Swiss artists, Anna Barsaghian, Stefan Kristensen and Uriel Orlow, produced during their travels across Anatolia.

Entrusted to her daughter fifty years after she was abducted, the memoirs of Gülizar have been published in Turkish by the Aras Publishing House with the title ‘Gülizar’s Black Wedding’. Gülizar’s story contains messages for us all…

Celebrated novelist Yaşar Kemal died in Istanbul on Saturday at the age of 92.