Ahmet Tufan and his love for children

The spiritual values ​​that you love and respect at the level of mother, father, sibling, child are so narrow that you consider them identical with their essence. Until twenty years ago, I had a door and a spiritual father in Ankara. According to his heart's voice and the writings he wrote about me, I was supposedly a person who improved himself. But he was not my "supposedly" but my spiritual father who improved himself from the heart. At that time, despite his age exceeding eighty and his weakness coming out of his knees, if I had a problem in Ankara, he would go and get a result.

He was the spiritual father of many of our friends who are no longer with us. I first met him through one of my spiritual brothers, Mehmet Zeki Akdağ .

Ahmet Tufan Şentürk had no children. That's why we all competed to be his adopted children. In one of his poems that impressed me, he wrote that he had never had a father:

“No child has ever said to me, ‘Dad!’

I've never been a 'father'!

The sweet voice that says 'Father!'

I heard it on the streets, from the neighbors.

I saw them on the streets, among neighbors.

They were running, laughing, playing,

They were saying, 'Mother!', 'Father!' they were saying,

They were running and hugging their necks.

Mothers and fathers their children,

They were kissing, caressing, loving...

No child is sincere, affectionate,

He didn't throw himself on me, he didn't hug me.

I never had children!

The most sacred love is the love of children,

The most beautiful voice is the voice that says 'Father!'

I always listen to this folk song.

I always hear the voice saying 'Dad!'

If a child runs towards me from afar,

I suddenly embrace him with my warm soul.

If a child cries far away at midnight,

I hear it before his mother or father.

During the news hours of the day,

On the radio, on television,

In magazines, newspapers,

On the roads, in the streets,

They say, 'He was killed.', 'He died.'

'Ah! .. My baby! ..' I say..

However, I know neither the dead nor the killer.

Desperate, I take my head and go away.

With crying mothers and fathers,

I forbid my eyes from sleeping.

But no child ever called me 'Dad!'

I have never been a 'father'!”

Ahmet Tufan Şentürk, the son of Fatma Hanım and Ali Şentürk, was born on May 12, 1924 in the village of Esentepe in the Ermenek district of Konya. He attended primary school as a free boarding student in Ankara and Ermenek. Şentürk, who completed middle school in Bilecik and high school at Istanbul Haydarpaşa High School (1944), attended Ankara University Faculty of Law for a while, but left the faculty without graduating. Afterwards, he worked as a tax and real estate officer, real estate chief and director at the Ankara Provincial Special Administration Organization, and retired in 1975 while he was the director of real estate and expropriation.

Ahmet Tufan Şentürk's first poetry book, Sarhoş Dünya , was published in 1958. He wrote many poetry books afterwards. Another book he wrote in the memoir genre , Sarıveliler in the Corridor of Memories (2000), was a beautiful example of this genre. We sent Şentürk off to his eternal journey on May 9, 2005.

He used a plain, pure Turkish that everyone could understand in his poems. While he was writing poetry about his village, the nature of the Taurus Mountains, and his memories, he did not neglect local sayings and words. When he put words together, he paid great attention to the harmony of sound and meaning that they would create between them. He tried to give words a soul and a life. The basic subjects in Şentürk's poems, who generally used syllabic meter, were Atatürk and Atatürkism, love for the flag, homeland and nation, natural beauties, longing for the village, love, love for people and children. In addition to these, it is seen that social issues were also addressed in his poems from time to time.

He glorified humanity and humanist traces were seen in his poems. He emphasized the feelings of peace and brotherhood.

In tomorrow's article, I will talk about Ahmet Tufan Şentürk's "Song of Humanity".