Omer Seyfettin

Ömer Seyfettin (Gönen, Balikesir, February 28, 1884 - March 6, 1920) was a Turkish writer.

A career military man, after studying at the Edirne military high school and the Istanbul military academy, he was assigned first to Izmir, and then to the village of Yakorit, on the western border of the Ottoman Empire. In 1909 he was an officer of the Hareket Ordusu, in charge of repressing the uprising of the Irtica, religious groups opposed to the recently established constitutional monarchy. In 1911, after abandoning his military career, he collaborated, together with Ziya Gökalp and Ali Canip Yontem, in the newspaper Genç Kalemler ( Young Pens ). He was re-mobilized during the Balkan War, and remained in Greece for a year as a prisoner of war. Upon his return to Turkey in 1914, he worked as a literature teacher at an institute in Istanbul. He died of diabetes in 1920.

Precursor of traditional tales and tales in Turkish literature, he also contributed two great innovations to said literature, since he purified the literary language, preferring words of Turkish origin to the detriment of those of Arabic or Persian origin, in addition to using colloquial language in the literary language, something not common at that time. A simple literary language is the distinctive characteristic of his literary style and of the movement he establishes together with Ali Canip, called Yeni Lisan (New Language). He is of the opinion that everyone should understand literary language and that it is necessary to bring literature closer to everyone. Ömer Seyfettin is therefore one of the most influential writers of Turkish literature of the 20th century, as he contributed greatly to the modernization of modern Turkish narrative.

Prolific author of stories and short stories of manners (one hundred and thirty-eight), which were mostly published in different newspapers, he also wrote articles, incomplete novels, translations, etc. Some of his works are:

• Tarih Ezelî Bir Tekerrürdür (1910)
• Harem (1918)
• Efruz Bey (1919)
• Kahramanlar, Pump, Harem, Yüksek Ökçeler, Yüzakı, Yalnız Efe, Falaka, Aşk Dalgası, Beyaz Lale, Gizli Tatbikat

Spanish translations

• Turkish tales of yesterday, translated, prologued and illustrated by Ertuğrul Önalp, Hyperion, 1996. ISBN 84-7517-472-8.
• Olives with bread, prologue and translation: Rafael Carpintero, Hjckrrh, 2015. ISBN 978-84-942767-2-9.