Author. Born in the eastern Turkish city of Þanlýurfa, he was a prolific Kurdish author who wrote in his mother tongue despite the Turkish government's ban on the language, which ended in the early 1990s. From 1977 to 2005 he lived in Sweden as a political refugee. During his exile he wrote a dozen Kurdish language novels and essays; his body of works are considered to have shaped modern Kurdish language literature. He expressed criticism of the ban on the Kurdish language in a 2000 public speech in Diyarbakir and was charged with separatism; international public pressure caused the charges to be allowed to expire. In 2005 he settled in Istanbul. Uzun died in Diyarbakýr from complications of cancer.
Author. Born in the eastern Turkish city of Þanlýurfa, he was a prolific Kurdish author who wrote in his mother tongue despite the Turkish government's ban on the language, which ended in the early 1990s. From 1977 to 2005 he lived in Sweden as a political refugee. During his exile he wrote a dozen Kurdish language novels and essays; his body of works are considered to have shaped modern Kurdish language literature. He expressed criticism of the ban on the Kurdish language in a 2000 public speech in Diyarbakir and was charged with separatism; international public pressure caused the charges to be allowed to expire. In 2005 he settled in Istanbul. Uzun died in Diyarbakýr from complications of cancer.
Bio by: Fred Beisser
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