The voice of the Turkish world in novels: Cengiz Aytmatov

“Man cannot explain everything, and words are not enough to explain everything…”

His greatest ideal was the creation of a ‘Common Turkish Language’…

The 15th anniversary of the death of Cengiz Aytmatov, who wrote “Cemile”, which French writer/poet Louis Aragon called “the most beautiful love story in the world”, and who made the voice of the Kyrgyz people heard in the Turkish world with his novels…

At the heart of his works are the oral culture, tradition, tales, epics and folk songs of the Kyrgyz.

His father was shot…

Chingiz Aitmatov was born on December 12, 1928 in the village of Şeker, located in the Talas valley of Kyrgyzstan. The first child in a family of 4 children.

Cengiz, who spent his first years of education in Moscow due to the duty of his father, a statesman, Törekul Aitmatov, had to interrupt his education because Törekul Aitmatov was accused by the regime.

Törekul Aitmatov was declared an “enemy of the people” by the Russian leader Stalin in 1937, because he only defended the Kyrgyz Turkish. For this reason, Törekul Aitmatov was torn from his home and family, and was shot to death. The Aitmatov family learned about 20 years later that their father had died.

“I understood everything, at least I felt that we would never see each other again”

On the first page of the Chingiz Aitmatov tragedy was his separation from his father:

“We were four siblings with little Rosa, who was only 6 months old. My father took us to Kazan station. The train was there. Its doors were open. One of the wagons consisted of sections reserved for us. There were bunk beds on top of each other. My father placed us in two of them. And he said goodbye. How my mother cried and (…) Meanwhile, the train started to move and started walking. My father ran for a long time beside the window as much as he could, waving and waving at us… I was on the top of the bunk bed, I understood everything, at least I felt it. We would never see each other again.”

“The place that kneads the destiny of man”

The death of Törekul Aitmatov led them from Moscow to the village of Şeker. Sugar village, in Chingiz Aitmatov’s words, was a place that “kneads the destiny of man”.

Cengiz Aytmatov’s grandmother Ayimkan Hanım and Karakız Apa told Cengiz tales, legends, and folk songs. These narratives not only remained “narratives”, they also healed Genghis’ injured body.

The Aitmatov family moved to Kirovskoye in 1938. Cengiz continued his education at the Russian regional boarding school here.

Started writing stories, translating

II. In 1942, the most difficult year of World War II, he left school and became a secretary to the village soviet (kolhoz) despite his young age, worked as a tax officer and teacher of Russian. Aytmatov, who grew up behind the front by personally observing the pain reflected on the faces of the hungry, miserable, helpless people who lost their child/wife, included the effect these observations had on his memory in almost all of his works.

After the war, he moved to Cambul with his family and entered the Veterinary Technical School in 1946. Here, under the influence of his teachers, he began to read Russian classics. Although he also wrote poetry, he turned to the story with the advice of a teacher, and did writing and translation studies.

His story was published in the newspaper Pravda

After studying at the Veterinary Technical School for 2 years, he completed his higher education in 1953 at the Agricultural Institute in Bishkek.

Aitmatov’s readings became more frequent and larger during the years of the Agricultural Institute.

Chingiz Aitmatov wrote his first story, “Journalist Cyuda”, which was translated into Russian and published in the newspaper Pravda in 1952. Aitmatov, who attracted the attention of literary critics with his writings, was invited to the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow, where he taught creative writing, in order to further develop his writing skills.

“The most beautiful love story in the world”

In 1958, he wrote the story “Cemile”, which he made his real debut, and the story was published in the Soviets’ most famous literary magazine, Novy Mir (New World).

The story, which had wide repercussions in the Soviet literary world of the time, was subjected to unfair criticism. Amid criticism and controversy, the story caught the attention of French writer/poet Louis Aragon. Aragon described Cemile as “the most beautiful love story in the world” and translated it into French and published it widely.

Aitmatov’s works, which had a great impact in the world, were translated into world languages ​​after Aragon’s presentation, and the discussions ended spontaneously.

Central Asian correspondent for Pravda newspaper

Stalin’s death allowed Aitmatov to act more freely. He was admitted to the Soviet Communist Party and the Union of Soviet Writers in 1957, and to the Faculty of Letters in Moscow in 1958.

He became the editor of Novy Mir in 1959 and continued his duty there until 1967. After Novy Mir, he was the editor of Literaturnyi Kyrgyzstan magazine and the Central Asia correspondent of Pravda Newspaper for five years between 1960 and 1965.

Kyrgyzstan national writer: Aitmatov

In 1963, he was awarded the Lenin Prize for Literature for his work, Stories from the Steppes and Mountains, consisting of the short stories “The First Teacher”, “Camel’s Eye”, “Cemile” and “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım”.

He received the Great Soviet Literary Prize in 1968 and was named the national writer of Kyrgyzstan in the same year.

Senior memberships

In 1969, he was elected Vice President of the Organization for Cultural Solidarity of the Asian-African Peoples.

In 1978 he was awarded the “Hero of Socialist Labor” by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

He has been a member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters and the Kyrgyzstan Academy of Sciences, as well as many high-level memberships such as the Presidency of the Issyk-Gol Forum and received awards.

Winner of many international awards

In 1983, the Day Happened won the “Great Soviet Literary Prize” for the second time with Asra Bedel, and was subsequently awarded the Pablo Neruda Prize.

Between 1985 and 1991, he served as the Chairman of the Kyrgyzstan Cinematographers Union, the Committee of Culture and National Languages ​​of the Soviet Parliament, and the Secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers.

The author, who received many international awards; He received the Japan Institute of Oriental Philosophy Academy Award in 1988, Ilesam Distinguished Service in 1992, Austrian European Literature State in 1994, Friedrich Rueckert in 1998 and Alexender Men and Leo Kopelev awards in 2004.

He represented his country as ambassador

In 1996, he was appointed as the UNESCO representative of Kyrgyzstan.

Aytmatov, who also served as a deputy for the Talas region, represented the Soviet Union and Russia in Luxembourg between 1990-1994, and Kyrgyzstan as ambassador in Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium until 2008.

He died on June 10, 2008.

He fell ill on May 16, 2008, when he went to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, for the filming of the novel “The Day Happens Asra Bedel”. Chingiz Aitmatov was taken to Germany for treatment with the diagnosis of kidney failure.

Cengiz Aytmatov, who was treated in Nuremberg, Germany, died on 10 June 2008. The writer, who is married and has four children, was buried with his father in Ata-Beyit in Bishkek in 1937, where 137 intellectuals were secretly shot and buried.

Experiences and a mythical sensation

The three main elements of Chingiz Aitmatov’s mythopoetics are:

1. Tales/legends/ folk songs/beliefs which are thousands of years of oral tradition of Kyrgyz culture, especially the Epic of Manas.
2. The influence of writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Pushkin from Russian and world literature, whom he knew through Russian
3. Gorky Literature Institute, which guided and shaped Chingiz Aitmatov academically, and the high creative writing courses he took at the institute

In his stories and novels, he puts daily experiences into his philosophy of life. In his works, which reflect the problems of the people of his age, the narration is combined with a mythical sensation after a point, and the heroes get rid of their narrow personalities and become identified with the heroes of Manas on a mythical plane.

In Aitmatov’s world, nature and its elements are as important as human beings. He reflected these in his works with a poetic style and successfully.

The author who introduced the concept of “mankurt” to the world literature

Aytmatov used the concept of “mankurt” in his novel “The Day Olur Asra Bedel”, which he wrote in 1980, to warn the nations of people who are offended by their history, forget their past, alienate their family, their nation, their core values ​​and have no purpose.

Azerbaijani actors staged the play “Mankurt” in Bishkek last year at the theater festival “Aytmatov and the theater”.

Chingiz Aitmatov was a bilingual writer. While he used to write his works in Kyrgyz and translate them into Russian, he later chose to write in Russian and translate them into Kyrgyz.

Some of his works are: Face to Face, Cemile, Camel Eye, First Teacher, Cypress Boylum Let’s Write, Mother Earth, White Ship, She-Wolf’s Dreams, Farewell Rose Yellow, Red Apple…

“Words are not enough…”

With the works he wrote, Cengiz Aytmatov became the voice of the Turkish world and the Kyrgyz people. In his works, which he kneaded by feeding on tradition, he talked about the period of the 2nd World War, the experiences, pains and culture of the Kyrgyz people, but:

“Man cannot explain everything, and words are not enough to explain everything…”

Graphic: Hafiz Yurt Ates