I WILL NEVER SEE THE WORLD

SERIF AYDIN

 

Ahmet Altan was born in 1950, Ahmet Altan, one of today’s most important Turkish writers, was arrested in September 2016 for his work as a journalist. An advocate for Kurdish and Armenian minorities and a central figure in the Turkish cultural world, he is the author of five successful novels. He has been awarded the Grand Prix from the Akademi Publishing House, the prestigious Freedom and Future of the Media Prize from the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig and the International Hrant Dink Award. In February 2018 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Turkish state.

I Will Never See the World Again is Ahmet Altan’s memoir describing his arrest and custody. It is a short book with 19 essays divided into brief chapters, 5 of them are no longer than two pages; each of them gives details about the author’s life in jail. In addition, pages that Ahmet Altan wrote by hand in prison have been translated and incorporated into his new book.

I woke up. The doorbell was ringing. I looked at the digital clock by my side; the numbers were blinking 05:42.

‘It’s the police,’ I said.

Like all dissidents in this country, I went to bed expecting the ring of the doorbell at dawn. 

I knew one day they would come for me. Now they had.” (Altan, 2019, p. 14) 

The book begins with this impression, which gives an idea about the main subject of I Will Never See The World Again. The author, the book, the country, the arrests, and the prison all help create the framework of I Will Never See The World. The book was written by Ahmet Altan. 

Ahmet Altan is a prominent Turkish journalist and author. Brave, intellectual, open-minded, and creative. For more than 25 years, he served in all stages of journalism. Altan also worked in several Turkish newspapers such as Hürriyet, Milliyet and Radikal. He was fired from Milliyet in 1995 because of writing an essay titled “Atakürt,” which presented an alternate history of Turkey. In 2007, Altan began to work as editor-in-chief of Taraf, a daily newspaper known as a defender of democracy. After the failed July 2016 coup, Altan was arrested on September 23rd, 2016. He was accused of sending “subliminal messages.”  He describes this incident in his book; “The prosecutor started his interrogation. He didn’t ask me a single question about the military coup the putschists or the ‘subliminal message’ we were said to have given.” (Altan, 2019, p.55) 

I Will Never See The World begins with Altan being picked up at his home at 5:42 in the morning and taken away by the policemen. Altan shares a profound irony and an interesting detail about this morning. “While the policemen searched the apartment, I put the kettle on.

‘Would you like some tea?’ I asked.

They said they would not.

‘It is not a bribe,’ I said, imitating my late father, ‘you can drink some.’” (Altan, 2019, p.15) 

One paragraph later, on the same page, he shares a memory about his father, shedding some light on his family background. “Exactly forty-five years ago, they had raided our house and arrested my father on a morning just like this one.

My father asked the police if they would like some coffee. When they declined, he laughed and said, ‘It is not a bribe; you can drink some.’” The phrase “It is not a bribe” actually has a historical background. It was used by Fuzuli, a poet that worked in the Ottoman Empire palace in 1534. The reason for using this sentence in his poem was to explain the corruption in the State of Ottoman.

In his book Like A Sword Wound, Altan defines himself as a “novelist living his novel.” But what made Like A Sword Wound so important, and why did he say that he is living his novel? Altan answers these questions in his 11th article titled The Novelist Who Wrote His Own Destiny. In this article, he describes being in a room after his arrest In September 2016,  waiting for the verdict. “I am living what I wrote in a novel. Years ago, as I was wandering in that unmarked, enigmatic and hazy territory where literature touches life, I had met my own destiny and failed to recognize it. I am now under arrest, like my protagonist. I am waiting for the decision that will determine my future as he had. My life imitates my novel.” (Altan, 2019, p.102) 

I Will Never See the World Again is Ahmet Altan’s memoir describing his arrest and custody. It is a short book with 19 essays divided into brief chapters, five of which are no longer than two pages; each of them gives details about the author’s life in jail. In addition, pages that Ahmet Altan wrote by hand in prison have been translated and incorporated into his new book. 

I Will Never See The World has been translated into many languages with one exception: Turkish. Ahmet Altan did not want his book to be published in Turkish. His experiences caused him to be embittered to his state. His book is about travelling to many countries, from one city to another, from one hand to another. But the author is between four walls, saying that he will not see the world again.

Amazon’s editors selected I will Never See The World Again as one of the 12 best books to read last October.

Source:

ALTAN, AHMET, (2019). I Will Never See The World Again. New York: Granta Books