April 9 2026 Thursday
18:30-21:00
Venue: Hrant Dink Foundation Anarad Hığutyun Building
Papa Roncalli St. No: 128 Harbiye, Şişli/İstanbul
*The talk will be in Turkish and there will be no simultaneous translation.
To register for the event, please fill out the form.
We are gathering at the Hrant Dink Foundation on April 9, his birthday, in memory of Nazar Büyüm-our Advisory Board member, our friend, and a publisher, writer, translator, and advertising professional-who has been with us since the very beginning of the foundation.
Born in Everek (Develi), Kayseri, Nazar Büyüm graduated from Surp Haç Tıbrevank Armenian High School and later from the Department of English Philology at the Faculty of Letters of Istanbul University. He became known as a publisher, writer, and translator who left a profound mark on the history of publishing in Turkey.
After working in communications and copywriting in the 1970s, he took part in the founding of Ajans Ada in 1975. In the 1980s, he continued his work in publishing by establishing Adam Publishing, Merkez Agency, and Anadolu Publishing. At Adam Publishing, he oversaw the publication of the complete works of many poets and writers, including Nâzım Hikmet, Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, Orhan Veli, Aziz Nesin, Memet Fuat, Server Tanilli, and Yaşar Kemal. At Anadolu Publishing, he published major reference works such as the Yurt Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Notable Figures from Turkey and the World. Through agreements with the Walt Disney Company, he brought reference series such as My First Encyclopedia and Journey into the World of Knowledge to young readers. In 1986, together with Selahattin Beyazıt and Osman Kavala, he co-founded Ana Publishing, leading the publication in Turkey of encyclopedic works such as AnaBritannica, Temel Britannica, and Britannica Compton’s.
His articles published in the newspaper Agos were later compiled into the book Dönüp Baktığımda, offering an important testimony both to his own life and to Turkey’s cultural, artistic, and intellectual history.
Through his writings, translations, and cultural production, he made significant contributions to the struggle for freedom of thought and expression. With his critical perspective, intellectual rigor, and commitment to dialogue, he worked to build bridges between different communities. He left a lasting mark not only through his writings but also through his stance and generosity.
Nazar Büyüm never withheld his support and effort from our foundation since its establishment. The pomegranate sapling we planted together in the garden when we moved to the Anarad Hığutyun Building still stands there today. That tree has grown and now bears fruit. Likewise, the ideas he developed and the paths he opened over the years continue to leave their mark on the foundation’s work.
At the memorial lecture, held for the first time this year, academic, poet, writer, and translator Cevat Çapan will join us with a talk titled “Working Together.”
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Cevat Çapan Photo credit: Yusuf Araf Cevat Çapan is recognized as one of the prominent figures in the literary world of Turkey, known for his poetry and his translations from world literature. He was born in Darıca in 1933. He completed his secondary education at Robert College (1945–1953) and his higher education in the Department of English Literature at the University of Cambridge (1953–1956). He worked for one year in the Turkish section of the BBC in London. He served as a faculty member at the Department of English Language and Literature at Istanbul University Faculty of Letters (1960–1980), the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (1980–1996), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yeditepe University (1996–2012), and the Theatre Department of the Conservatory at Haliç University (2012–2017). He also taught at Boğaziçi, Marmara, Anadolu, and New York universities. Since the 1950s, his poems and translations have been published in journals such as Varlık, Yeditepe, Cumhuriyet Kitap, Adam Sanat, and Sözcükler. His first poetry collection, Dön Güvercin Dön, was awarded the Behçet Necatigil Poetry Prize. Among the awards he has received are the Golden Orange Poetry Award, the Erdal Öz Literature Award, the Sedat Simavi Foundation Literature Award, the Ceyhun Atuf Kansu Poetry Award, the Metin Altıok Poetry Award, and the Yunus Nadi Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry books, he has written theatre criticism and critical essays, and prepared anthologies as well as radio and television programs. He has also translated works from world literature-primarily poetry, but also plays, critical essays, and novels. |
