Nazım Hikmet will be commemorated throughout the year in Bursa

Bursa Metropolitan Municipality declared the year 2024 as ‘Bursa Nazım Hikmet Year’ on the 61st anniversary of the passing of the great pen of Turkish poetry, Nazım Hikmet. Throughout the year, various activities will be organized in Bursa, ranging from discussions to workshops, readings to concerts, cinema and theater performances to exhibitions, immortalizing the blue-eyed giant of Turkish poetry in Bursa.
‘Kurtuluş Savaşı Destanı’, ‘Yatar Bursa Kalesinde’, ‘Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları’ are among the unforgettable works by the poet and writer Nazım Hikmet Ran, who signed remarkable works. On the 61st anniversary of his passing, commemorations are being held in Bursa as well as nationwide. Contributing numerous works to Turkish literature and turning his verses into songs, the master poet will be remembered by Bursa Metropolitan Municipality throughout 2024 by organizing various events. The Metropolitan Municipality, aiming for the universal voice, the revolutionary spirit, and the life view that puts human dignity above everything to shed light on the city’s cultural route, will organize discussions and workshops guided by his groundbreaking poems in Turkish poetry. Nazım Hikmet introductions will be held in schools, Nazım Hikmet readings will take place in the streets and squares of Bursa. Concerts, cinema and documentary screenings, theaters, and exhibitions will immortalize the master poet in the city. In addition, the ‘Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Nazım Hikmet Year Award’ will be given to a work published during the year. The meeting where the events to be held within the framework of ‘2024 Bursa Nazım Hikmet Year’ were shared with the public was attended by Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Bozbey, Nazım Hikmet Culture Foundation General Secretary Turgay Fişekçi, Bursa Nazım Hikmet Year Consultant Writer Atilla Birkiye, Metropolitan Municipality Deputy General Secretaries Mehmet Yıldız and Emin Direkçi, Press, Publications and Public Relations Department Head Güney Özkılınç, Culture and Social Affairs Department Head Şafak Baba Pala, and members of the press.
‘A great patriotic poet is Nazım Hikmet’
Mayor Mustafa Bozbey, stating that Bursa is a city where the traces of Nazım Hikmet exist, mentioned that they will be together with the people of Bursa in many different events this year. Starting his speech with the lines ‘The most beautiful sea, yet to be sailed. The most beautiful child, not yet grown. Our most beautiful days, not yet lived. And the most beautiful thing I want to tell you, the word I have not yet said’ by Nazım Hikmet, Mayor Bozbey reminded that writers and artists are the most important values reflecting the spirit and identity of the society they live in. Mayor Bozbey expressed that Nazım Hikmet, the ‘blue-eyed giant’ of our homeland, is one of our most important values. He said, ‘He fearlessly shared everything about life with the people and always kept our belief in ‘beautiful days’ alive. Thus, he managed to be the voice of the righteous and the oppressed, a great master, a great poet. A great patriotic poet who lived the love of the homeland in its deepest, he is an honorable name who never once thought of giving up freedom, brotherhood, and love of the homeland. Expressing the joy of bringing ‘The Free Day in Bursa’ exhibition and the ‘We Are Thankful to Be Alive – With Songs, With Poems Nazım Hikmet’ concert together with the people of our city within the scope of ‘Nazım Hikmet Year’, Mayor Bozbey mentioned that they learned from our Director of Press, Publications and Public Relations, who is also a writer, Güney Özkılınç’s work titled ‘Nazım’s Bursa Years’ that Nazım Hikmet came to the Tayyare Cultural Center without handcuffs for the first time as a reporter on May 24, 1936, to cover the exhibition opened by his friend, the Bursa-based cartoonist Cemal Nadir. We are bringing the exhibition, which we will open to the public, together with the people of Bursa in memory of that day. These valuable names of our country will continue to live in the streets, halls, and works of Bursa as they should. We invite all our people to participate in our events and to listen to the voice echoing with the desire for peace, justice, and freedom of Nazım Hikmet.’
‘We dedicate the year 2024 to Nazım Hikmet’
Mayor Bozbey, pointing out that the great master Nazım Hikmet physically left us 61 years ago, emphasized that the names who had concerns about life and the homeland always live in our memories. Mayor Bozbey stated that the poetry and thoughts of Nazım still stubbornly live today, and his struggle and hope continue to inspire, ‘We believe that his universal voice, labor, justice, and peace, a worldview that puts everything above, will shed light on the cultural route of our city. Therefore, as Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, we dedicate the year 2024 to Nazım Hikmet. Through the events we will organize throughout the year, we will commemorate Nazım Hikmet, and we will hold discussions and workshops guided by his groundbreaking poems in Turkish poetry. Our Bursa has a very important place in the personal life of Nazım Hikmet. I am delighted to bring ‘A Free Day in Bursa’ exhibition and ‘We Are Thankful to Be Alive – With Songs, With Poems Nazım Hikmet’ concert with ‘Nazım Hikmet Year’ to our city. We are introducing the exhibition to the people of Bursa in memory of that day. These valuable names of our country will continue to live in the streets, halls, and works of Bursa as they should. We invite all our people to participate in our events and to listen to the voice echoing with the desire for peace, justice, and freedom of Nazım Hikmet.’
Turgay Fişekçi, the General Secretary of the Nazım Hikmet Culture Foundation, reminded that Nazım Hikmet spent a significant part of his life in prison and most of his prison years in Bursa. Fişekçi, explaining the very close relationship between Bursa and Nazım Hikmet, shared excerpts from the life of the master poet. Reminding that he wrote the work ‘Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları’ and the play ‘Ferhat ile Şirin’ while in Bursa prison, Fişekçi expressed his wish for the meetings between Nazım and Bursa to continue to increase.
Atilla Birkiye, the Bursa Nazım Hikmet Year Consultant Writer, stated that Nazım Hikmet was a genius who did not fit into a single mold. Thanking the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality for the Nazım Hikmet Year, Birkiye mentioned the events to be held throughout the year, emphasizing that the focus will be on poetry.