Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
Four years have passed since the death of Sezai Karakoç, the poet, writer and thinker whose work helped define the “Second New Movement,” widely regarded as the last major breakthrough in modern Turkish poetry.
Born Ahmed Sezai Karakoç on Jan. 22, 1933, in the Ergani district of Diyarbakır, he was the son of trader Yasin Bey, who was captured on the Caucasus front during World War I, and Emine Hanım. Karakoç spent his childhood in Ergani, Maden and Piran (now Dicle). He finished primary school in Ergani in 1944, graduated from Maraş Middle School in 1947 and from Gaziantep High School in 1950.
A passionate reader from an early age, Karakoç devoured epic tales such as “Battal Gazi” in primary school, moved to Namık Kemal, Ziya Paşa, Tevfik Fikret and Ziya Gökalp in middle school, and turned to Western classics in high school.
Karakoç was a devoted follower of the magazine Büyük Doğu, published by Necip Fazıl Kısakürek. While awaiting the results of his entrance exam to Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Science, he visited Kısakürek – a meeting that shaped his intellectual life.
“Until that day, Islam was an inner belief we kept hidden,” he later wrote. “But we saw that in a magazine published in Istanbul, there was a pen defending it in a contemporary style. It was Islam’s rising, new, vivid voice.”
Karakoç began publishing his first essays in Büyük Doğu in the 1950s while directing its arts and literature pages.
He graduated from the university’s finance department in 1955 and the same year began working at the Ministry of Finance. He became an assistant inspector in 1956 and a revenue controller in Istanbul in 1959, a post that allowed him to travel extensively. He completed his military service in Ankara and Ağrı between 1960 and 1961.
First poetry book: “Körfez”
In 1959, Karakoç self-published his first poetry book, “Körfez” (The Gulf), printing it in a small shop that normally produced business cards. “I didn’t have enough money to publish all my poems,” he said. “I separated the more metaphysical and personal ones under the title ‘Körfez’ and borrowed money from friends to print it.”
From 1963, he wrote daily columns for the newspaper Yeni Istanbul under the signature “Karakoç,” continuing until 1974, when he withdrew from all publications except the magazine he founded, Diriliş (Resurrection), starting in 1975.
His poem “Mona Rosa,” which became one of the best-known works in Turkish literature, won him a devoted readership. In 1990, seeking to bring to life the intellectual vision expressed in his poetry and essays, he established the Diriliş Party, serving as its chairman until it was closed in 1997.
Karakoç devoted his life to what he called “diriliş,” or resurrection – a conceptual framework he first articulated in 1954. He aimed to inspire a renewed intellectual awakening in the Muslim world after the traumas of global conflict.
His early magazine venture Yeni Ay, which featured his essay on the independence wars of Tunisia and Algeria, was seized by prosecutors before distribution. A second attempt, the journal Şiir Sanatı (The Art of Poetry), published two issues and featured poets such as Cemal Süreya, Gülten Akın, Nuri Pakdil and Muzaffer Erdost.
Writer Murat Güzel described Karakoç’s poetic world as a fusion of love, freedom, search and death, blending the everyday with profound metaphysical associations. “Karakoç, with his words and poetry, seeks to sweep away the veils before truth,” Güzel said.
“Diriliş” and its legacy
Frequently banned and confiscated during its publication run, the magazine Diriliş became both a literary platform and a hub for Islamic thought and political discourse. It introduced Turkish readers to figures such as Seyyid Qutb, Muhammad Iqbal, Malik Bennabi, Malcolm X and contemporary African writers, while publishing translations from classical Islamic and Western thinkers including Rumi, Ibn Hazm, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Rilke and Pound.
Throughout his career, Karakoç used numerous pen names, including Mehmet Leventoğlu, Zülküf Canyüce and M. Cemil.
He received several awards, among them the MTTB National Service Award (1968), the Silver Liberty Medal from Hungarian writers in exile (1970), the Turkish Authors’ Union Story Award (1982) and the World Academy of Art and Culture Award (1991).
Karakoç died on Nov. 16, 2021, at his home in Istanbul, saying he had “completed his exile on earth.” He was buried in the courtyard cemetery of Şehzadebaşı Mosque – the place he evoked in his poem “Before Dawn in Şehzadebaşı.”
His poems appeared in leading journals including Büyük Doğu, Hisar, Mülkiye, Pazar Postası, Türk Yurdu, Soyut and Diriliş. “Mona Rosa” captured national attention in the early 1950s, and his poem “Rüzgar” (The Wind) was published in Hisar in 1951.
