Prague Embassy makes Nazım Hikmet doc

ISTANBUL

With the initiatives of Türkiye’s Prague Ambassador Egemen Bağış, legendary Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet's life and photographs, taken in 1956 in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia at the time, and found in the Prague National Theater archives, have been made into a documentary, titled "Nazım and Prague.”

Bağış said that Nazım Hikmet is one of the important figures in the common history between the Turkish and Czech people and that he had to live in many different countries and cities, including Prague, during the period he was banned in Türkiye.

Stating that Nazım Hikmet met his friends and other thinkers at a venue known as Slavia Cafe in the documentary, which includes never before published photographs taken during the theater plays he prepared in Prague between 1956 and 1958, Bağış said that the play “Podivin,” one of the theater plays written and directed by Nazım Hikmet, was staged by the Czechoslovakia State Theater and the booklets of this play were found by the researcher Özgür Öztürk.

"Like in many cities, Nazım left his mark on Prague. Today, there are photographs of 12 great global thinkers in Slavia Cafe. One of those 12 photographs belongs to Nazım Hikmet," said Bağış, adding that they later organized a commemoration night for Nazım Hikmet in this meaningful place.

“As the Embassy, we try to do our best to find the values in our common history and to share them with the Czech people as well as Turkish people. We organized the Nazim Commemoration Night with the owner of Slavia Cafe on the occasion of Nazım's birthday in order to revive his memories of Prague. Czech artists read Nazım's poems in Turkish, English and Czech. Roksana Mendel, a musician from Istanbul who lives here, gave a concert of songs composed with Nazım's verses. The leading intellectuals of the Czech Republic talked about Nazım and expressed his role in Turkish-Czech friendship. It was a very meaningful ceremony for us, and we will make it a tradition. We made a preliminary agreement with the owner of the venue to organize a night to commemorate Nazım Hikmet in Slavia every year,” he said.

About Nazım Hikmet losing Turkish nationality, Bağış said, "Nazım is really important as a figure whose works have been translated into many languages and even taught in textbooks in different parts of the world. He is one of the poets who used Turkish language most beautifully and described our War of Independence with the most beautiful verses. It was a shame for our democracy that such an important poet of ours lost his citizenship from the Republic of Türkiye."

Bağış, who talked about the efforts to restore the citizenship of Nazım Hikmet after 58 years on Jan. 9, 2009, said, “Being a part of the team that restored Nazım Hikmet's citizenship is one of the most important legacies I will leave to my children.”