Fethiye Çetin
Fethiye Çetin (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈfethiːje ˈtʃetin]) (born 1950 in Maden, Elazığ Province) is a Turkish lawyer, writer and human rights activist.
Growing up, Fethiye Çetin had no reason to suspect that she had other than Turkish Muslim roots, until one day her maternal grandmother, Seher, revealed to her that she was by birth an Armenian Christian, named Heranuş Gadaryan, born to parents Hovannes and Isguhi Gadaryan, who had been taken away from her mother on a death march in the course of the Armenian Genocide and adopted by a Turkish military official, Hüseyin Çavuş, who was unable to have children.[1]
This legacy inspired Çetin's first book, a recounting of her grandmother's story in the memoir entitled My Grandmother.[2] The book, translated into English by Maureen Freely,[1] has become demanded reading piece at some progressive Turkish institutes of higher education, such as Sabancı University.[3] Hugh Pope, reviewing the book for Today's Zaman, characterises the book as "part of a trend in Turkey that is grappling with a history of denial, nationalism and fears of political consequences" in regards to "the lost Armenians".[3]
As a lawyer, Çetin has been representing the family of the murdered Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink.[3]
In September 2010, Fethiye Çetin visited Australia as an invited guest to a public discussion in a Sydney bookstore, about her memoir My Grandmother. She also went to Melbourne as an invited guest to the Melbourne Writers' Festival.[4]
References
- 1 2 Çetin, Fethiye (2008). My Grandmother: A Memoir. Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-169-4. Republished in 2012 under the title My Grandmother: An Armenian-Turkish Memoir.
- ↑ Lawyer and writer Fethiye Çetin: "My identity has never been purely Turkish".
- 1 2 3 Hugh Pope (2 June 2008). Book review; ‘My Grandmother: A Memoir’ by Fethiye Çetin. Today's Zaman.
- ↑ http://livre-sk65.blogspot.com/
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