Nail Çakırhan 

"His Life " 1998

A series of photographs taken at the opening ceremony of the
Nail Cakirhan & Halet Cambel House of Culture and Arts

Nail Çakırhan

Selen Büke

Erman Sahin, İlhan Selçuk

Tarik Akan, Hikmet Öz

 Oktay Ekinci

Ekin Duru

Nail Çakırhan, a Short Story of his Life

Nail Çakırhan was born in 1910 in Gökabad, the present Gökova (sub-district of Ula, province of Muğla). His primary education was in Ula, his high school in Muğla and Konya. He started writing poems at the age of 12-13, published his first hand-writer magazine at 13, his first printed one at 18 in Konya. At 19 he registered in the medical school in Istanbul, but abandoned it for journalism. At 24 he went to the Soviet Union to study political economy. Back in Turkey in 1937 he was engaged in various jobs, journalism, running a bookshop, accountancy. In 1951 he joined his wife, who had been digging in Karatepe-Aslantaş (Adana) and was now in charge of restoration. He then got involved in building at Karatepe-Aslantaş, where he built the protective shelters, the dig house, the foresters’ buildings, schools and workshops within the frame of the open-air Museum Karatepe-Aslantaş. This activity led to an intensive building activity.

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