By: Hambersom Aghbashian

     Murathan Mungan (born 21 April 1955 in Istanbul) is a Turkish author, short story writer, playwright and poet. His family originates from Mardin. After receiving his BA from the Faculty of Letters and Drama at Ankara University, he worked as a dramaturg* before devoting all his time to write poetry, plays, short stories, novels, film scenarios and songs. His first collection of poems, Osmanlıya Dair Hikayat (Stories about Ottomans) was published in 1980, making Mungan an overnight success. His output remained prolific and various poetry books followed . He has written four theatre plays, which earned him wider success. Mahmud ile Yezida, Taziye are two of the most staged plays of the modern Turkish theatre.His short stories were compiled in successful volumes . His screenplay Dağınık Yatak (Messy Bed) was later filmed in 1986. Mungan also wrote lyrics to some of Yeni Türkü‘s songs, and for pop singers .(1)

                             Nimet Seker (http://nimetseker.wordpress.com/english/murathan-mungan/) wrote the following “Born in Istanbul in 1955, Mungan grew up in the city of Mardin in southeastern Anatolia. The easy mix of Muslims, orthodox Christians**, Aramaeans and Yazidi in Mardin instilled in him a sort of instinctive sense of the rudiments of democracy, he would later write of his childhood.(2)

                              According to PanARMENIAN.Net  (May 26, 2013), writer Murathan Mungan said “Every citizen of Turkey has a moral obligation to the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire”. At an Istanbul-hosted Democracy and Peace Conference, Mungan urged for an end to the denial ahead of the Genocide 100th anniversary in 2015. “Not only Kurds and Turks, but Armenians as well live in this country. We all have a debt to the victims of the Genocide, and we have to cover it in 2015,” he stressed.(3)

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*A dramaturge or dramaturg is a professional position within a theatre or opera company that deals mainly with research and development of plays or operas

** To avoid mentioning The Armenians , some writers use Orthodox Christians instead of that.

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murathan_Mungan

2- http://nimetseker.wordpress.com/english/murathan-mungan/

3- http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/159861/

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Nor Or , May 29,2014