Biographical Notes on Mehmet Yashin

1958: Mehmet Yashin was born in Neapolis, a cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Nicosia, in British Cyprus. His parents divorced before he was born. His mother was descended from the Ottoman Court (Divan) poet Mouftu Radji. His father Ozker Yashin, was considered the foremost "national poet" of Turkish-Cypriots.

1963: In the first intercommunal conflict between the two Cypriot communities, his family home was looted and burned by EOKA. His cousins were killed and his grandmother and aunt were made prisoners of war. He escaped in the raid with his mother. They lived, together with his mother, in the Lefka teachers' houses.

1969: He enrolled in secondary school in Lefka. His very first poem "If Only" was published and won a poetry prize in the school.

1974: He and his friends were removed by the United Nations from the siege of Limnidis village during the Greek coup d'Žtat and Turkish military intervention and taken to parents in the Turkish section of Nicosia. After eleven years of refugee life, the family managed to return to their original home in Neapolis, which had been captured by Turkish soldiers. But this time their Greek, Armenian and Catholic origin Cypriot neighbours had left as refugees from the neighbourhood.

1976: He became a student at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations. During the boycots many students were killed through police intervention. In the following years he was elected as the vice-president of 'Federation of Cypriot Students'.

1979: His poems were published by 'Sanat Emegi', one of the established literature journals of the period, in Istanbul. He made contacts with Greek-Cypriot poets for the first time and translated their works into Turkish.

1981: He returned to north Cyprus after the military coup in Turkey. He published a literature magazine which provoked a strong reaction from the conservative literary establishment.

1982: he worked for some Turkish language journals and newspapers in Cyprus. His series of articles entitled "Cyprus Estranged" about the looting of historical sites in north Cyprus presented this material to the international press for the first time, but he was accused by anti-Greek Turkish authorities. He went back to Turkey to continue his postgraduate education in history at Istanbul University.

1984: His first poetry book My Love The Dead Soldier was published in Istanbul. In the words of a critic, "the book had the effect of a poetic bombshell against the vulgarity of war and military culture".

1985: My Love The Dead Soldier was awarded first prize by the "Turkish Academy" and the "A. Kadir Poetry Prizes" in Turkey. In the words of the selection committee of the Turkish Academy Prize for Poetry: "Mehmet Yashin's collection of poems is highly original... It has enormous power and many different modes of expression are successfully integrated into his rich style. The imagery is extremely compelling. He has absorbed the essence of both the Greek and Turkish language traditions in poetry."

1986: Ladder of Light, a second volume of his poetry written on the death of his mother, was published. After this poetry collection, Cahit Kulebi, a leading Turkish poet and the chair of the Turkish Language Academy said that, "Mehmet Yashin is a rising star of contemporary Turkish poetry: he is unique." Yashin got an MA degree from the University of Istanbul. Censorship became stronger. On the first day of the sale of Ladder of Light about to be signed in the main book fair of Istanbul, it was seized by police and banned. He was deported from Turkey as a 'persona non grata' and left Istanbul and north Cyprus for London.

1988: His poetry was celebrated in Greece and first time reviewed in 'Leksi', a prominent Athenian literary magazine. He visited south Cyprus for the first time after fifteen years and performed his poetry in three languages (Turkish, Greek, English) in both parts of Nicosia and in London. He was accused of being a "traitor" by Turkish authorities, because of the anti-nationalist and cosmopolitan quality of his works. In Britain, he was accepted in Birmingham University, Centre for Byzantine-Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, as a postgraduate research student.

1990: Pathos, his third volume of poetry was published. He took courses in the University of Athens in Greek language and literature. In the words of Bekir Azgin, a Professor of the History of Cypriot Culture and Literature and an editor of a literary magazine in north Cyprus, "Mehmet Yashin is a poet who has complete mastery of words. He is not only a good poet, but he is a very good poet. In my opinion, among the Cypriot poets who have come and gone he is one of the very best."

1993: The deportation decision from Turkey was cancelled by the Turkish government and Yashin went back to Istanbul. The ChairMan, his forth poetry collection was published. The book received many reviews in both parts of Cyprus and Gulten Akin, a Turkish poet and a literary critic published an essay about Mehmet Yashin's poetry, emphasazing the uniqueness of his use of poetic language within litarature in Turkish.

1994:Your Kinsman Pisces, Yashin's first novel was published. His anthological research Anthology of Turkish-Cypriot Poetry: 18th to 20th Centuries was published.

1995: The novel won the "Cevdet Kudret Novel Prize" which is one of the most prestigious literature prizes in Turkey. Yashin also published a collection of essays critical of nationalist discourse in modern Turkish under the title of Poeturka.

1996: He went to New York and got married with Yael Navaro. They moved to London where they both work as academics. Since then he teaches comparative translation and literature at Middlesex University, while his wife teaches social anthropology at Cambridge University.

1997: He organized an international conference introducing new perspectives to the literatures of Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey, as well as tri-lingual poetry performances with the participation of Turkish, Greek, Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot poets, at Middlesex University.

1998: To Repair A Day Dream, his latest poetry collection was published.

1999: The anthological research, Anthology of Early Cypriot Poetry: 9th BC to 18th AD Centuries was published in Istanbul. His works published in English language literary journals, such as "Ambit", "MPT" etc. and he has received a wider recognation by British audience.

2000: The volume of essays (ed. by M. Yashin) Step-Mothertongue: From Nationalism to Multiculturalism the literatures of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey was published in London (Middlesex University Press). His poetry collection in English Don't Go Back To Kyrenia (translated and edited by Taner Baybars) is forthcoming by the same publishing house in London.