03.09.2026 22:00
AK Party Secretary General and Izmir Deputy Eyyüp Kadir İnan, in his speech at the opening of the Folkart Nâzım Hikmet Exhibition, recalled that Nâzım Hikmet's Turkish citizenship, which was revoked in 1951, was reinstated in 2009 with the signature of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. İnan said, 'If Nâzım were alive today, he would raise his powerful voice for the innocent children murdered in Gaza, and would say, Free Gaza, Free Palestine!'
AK Party Secretary General and Izmir Deputy Eyyüp Kadir İnan gave important messages regarding Nâzım Hikmet's literary legacy, the pressures experienced in intellectual and artistic life, the poet's deprivation of Turkish citizenship, and the children killed in Gaza during his speech at the opening of the Folkart Nâzım Hikmet Exhibition.
Stating that his high school years were spent reading Nâzım Hikmet's poems and trying to understand the deep love for the homeland in his verses, İnan said that one does not need to look through the same ideological lens as an artist to appreciate their genius and love for their country.
İnan stated, "While reading Nâzım, I saw this reality very clearly: We do not necessarily have to look through the same ideological lens to appreciate a person's genius and love for their homeland."
"MENDERES ENDED NÂZIM'S 12-YEAR PRISON LIFE"
Reminding that the late Prime Minister Adnan Menderes issued a general amnesty law on July 14, 1950, shortly after the Democrat Party came to power, İnan noted that this regulation ended Nâzım Hikmet's 12-year prison life.
Stating that Menderes, despite not sharing Nâzım Hikmet's ideas, did not consent to him being held in prison merely for expressing his thoughts in poetry, İnan expressed that this approach is a fundamental virtue advocated by their political tradition.
İnan said, "Just because we don't look from the same political window, wouldn't excluding new generations from this great literary heritage be the greatest injustice done to the cultural memory of this country?"
"NÂZIM WAS IMPRISONED FOR WRITING POETRY, ERDOĞAN FOR READING POETRY"
Stating that Turkey has paid heavy prices to different thinkers and artists in the past, İnan reminded of the experiences of Sabahattin Ali, Zekeriya Sertel, Cevat Şakir (the Fisherman of Halicarnassus), Necip Fazıl, Can Yücel, and Ahmet Kaya.
Expressing that there is a striking commonality of fate between Nâzım Hikmet and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İnan said the following: "It is a very striking commonality of fate that Nâzım Hikmet was imprisoned just for writing poetry, and our Chairman, President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was also imprisoned just for reading a poem. As members of a political movement that has personally paid the price for poetry, words, and thought, we know very, very well how much time prohibitions and exiles have cost this country."
"WE PUT AN END TO THE DISGRACE OF 1951 AFTER 58 YEARS"
Describing that Nâzım Hikmet spent the last periods of his life longing for his homeland, İnan reminded that during an airplane journey, while passing over Turkish skies, the poet looked down and shed tears saying, "My homeland, my homeland..."
Noting that Nâzım Hikmet was stripped of Turkish citizenship in 1951, İnan emphasized that this historical mistake was corrected 58 years later during the AK Party period.
In the most striking part of his speech, İnan used the following expressions: "Putting an end to the disgrace of the citizenship taken away in 1951 was, exactly 58 years later, in 2009, again granted to our party with the signature of the then Prime Minister, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Turkish citizenship was restored to Nâzım Hikmet."
"NÂZIM HIKMET CANNOT BE REDUCED TO THE MASCOT OF A FACTION"
Stating that great artists, after producing their works, become the common value of the people and language they belong to, İnan reacted to the presentation of Nâzım Hikmet as if he were the property of a specific political group.
İnan said, "Claiming that only a certain segment can mention him is taking Nâzım from being a world poet and reducing him to a 'mascot of a faction'."
Emphasizing that even people with different thoughts showing respect for an artist's works is a victory for art and ideas, İnan said, "Instead of celebrating this victory, don't try to lock your value in a small garden."
"IF NÂZIM WERE ALIVE TODAY, HE WOULD SAY 'FREE GAZA, FREE PALESTINE'"
Stating that Nâzım Hikmet's heart beat not only for his own country but for all the oppressed people of the world, İnan recalled the poet's poem "Little Girl" written for the children who lost their lives in Hiroshima.
Drawing attention to the children killed under bombs in Gaza, İnan stated his belief that if Nâzım Hikmet were alive today, he would stand by the Palestinian people and said: "I am sure that if Nâzım were alive today, he would raise his powerful voice for the innocent children killed in Gaza and say, 'Free Gaza, Free Palestine!' He would shout the line 'The child burning like paper can't even eat sugar' for our little ones in Gaza losing their lives under bombs today."
Emphasizing that Nâzım Hikmet's poems cannot be considered separately from the pains, dungeons, exiles, and longing for his homeland he experienced, İnan said, "Without understanding the Turkey of that period, without understanding those hardships, you cannot understand Nâzım. Nâzım Hikmet did not write those magnificent poems in the comfort of houses with pink shutters; he wrote them in dungeons, in exile, sweating with longing for his homeland."
At the end of his speech, İnan called on Folkart Board Chairman Mesut Sancak and the Folkart family, stating that they would be pleased to see a cultural project worthy of Izmir and Karşıyaka realized that would keep alive the memory of Attilâ İlhan, the Izmir-born poet and one of the great names of Turkish literature.
İnan commemorated Nâzım Hikmet with mercy and thanked Mesut Sancak and all those who contributed to bringing the exhibition to Izmir.