WHAT DID THEY WRITE ABOUT HIM?



Mahmut Dikerdem (1916-1993)

NÂZIM HİKMET AND PEACE

"The lesser known aspect of Nâzım Hikmet, who is wealthy and generous in every aspect of his personality, is that he is a peacemaker. His contributions to the struggle for peace and to peace in the world are not sufficiently known. The research made on Nâzım's life and works, and the articles published do not clarify this issue. I think the main reason for this negligence is the fact that his artistic personality and splendid, vibrant, and enchanting poems were always privileged and thus they attracted all attention and concern. Another reason is that he joined the struggle for peace while he was abroad, during the compulsory period of exile. In those years, as was the name of Nâzım Hikmet, the word 'peace' too was prohibited in Turkey; the foreign politics of Turkey was geared toward war. In fact, those whom Nâzım thought to be friends witnessed his activities concerning the peace movement while abroad, but they misinterpreted the great poet's pro-peace side. Furthermore, one of those friends acted rather unfairly when claimed that Nâzım took the peace congresses as an opportunity to visit capitalist countries.
"However Nâzım Hikmet's aspiration for peace gained further meaning in the last ten years of his life and made it easier for him to endure the separation from his country brought by exile. We can clearly see this in his unique and beautiful poems which reflected his impressions during the trips, undertaken in behalf of the peace movement, to various countries.
"Nâzım became involved with the world peace movements soon after he went to Moscow. During those years, the effect of the Cold War left severe marks throughout the world. The atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima gave start to a political struggle period that would last for 40 years, as well as to a mad competition for armament. On the other hand, scientists, artists, philosophers and writers from different parts of the world who were concerned with humanity's future came together-regardless of their different political views-in order to resist militarism and the incitement to war, and to protect peace in the world. As a result of this, in 1950, the World Peace Council was established. Among the founders, there were Picasso, Neruda, Aragon, Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes. Frédéric Julot-Curie, the famous French physicist, was elected the first president of the Council. Within a very brief period, many other great scientists, artists and politicians joined this Council. One of them was Turkey's great poet Nâzım Hikmet. In the subsequent years, the world peace movement began to influence and enlist masses of people, the proletariat being in the first place. Taking place in these peace movements, Nâzım Hikmet never ceased to struggle for a peaceful and egalitarian world.
"Nâzım's struggle for peace has never been a tool or a toy for his self-satisfaction or a spare-time activity. His fight became an important part of his work in the last years of his life. In his trips to Asia, Africa and Latin America, he influenced people with his art and with his friendly personality and inspired many young people and thus contributed to the energy of the world peace movement. It is because of these volunteering actions that he has been awarded the World Peace Prize. His short but deeply influential poem entitled 'The Girl', which is an elegy for those who died in Hiroshima, has been translated into many languages. The English version has been set to music by Paul Robeson and became the choral song sung for peace at the peace congresses.
"Nâzım Hikmet's attitude toward peace is not simply the consequence of his deep love of humanity but also of the ideology which he embraced. First of all, the proletariat could not let the human labour, which is the creator of all value, be destroyed through wars. Nâzım Hikmet never gave up defending the proletariat. And with this identity, his distinguished place in the peace movement is never to be forgotten. (September 1990)