Do you know the poem Cüneyt Arkın wrote against America?

'That is why I was always a child who looked on with resentment'

It has been three years since Cüneyt Arkın, the leading man, actor, and heartthrob of Turkish cinema, passed away. I remember him with respect and longing... I read his introspective book, 'Fakir Gencin Hikayesi' (The Story of a Poor Young Man) (Epsilon Publishing). Beyond what is known, I read the unknown stories of 'Fahrettin Cüreklibatır'... Sometimes with great surprise, sadness, and melancholy, with the tone of a reality that is not too distant... Do not ask who Fahrettin Cüreklibatır is now. It is Dr. Fahrettin, of course. We are talking about Cüneyt Arkın, the famous actor of Yeşilçam, with whose films most of us grew up. His life is just like the title of his book... Great hardships, deprivations, and lacks... Isn't there always a part of a person that feels incomplete, no matter what?

His films are still shown on television, but those of middle age and older know him better. He also has films where he stands up against the oppressor and takes the side of the oppressed. For some reason, they are not broadcast much! First and foremost, 'Yıkılmayan Adam' (The Unbreakable Man). He was tried in the State Security Court (DGM) with a 15-year heavy prison sentence under articles 141-142 of the penal code. In his films, he takes the side of the oppressed and the poor against the oppressor. He defends labor, sweat, truth, and honor!

As his fame grew, various power centers went after him. They all wanted him to take roles that served their own propaganda. He resisted, despite his family being in very difficult conditions and facing threats to their lives. In his own words; 'He is generous, brave, and a lover of life'.

A PROJECTION OF AN UNKNOWN WORLD

‘A person resembles the place where they live. The air, the water, the stone, the soil of that place...’ Edip Cansever

In his book, while talking about his childhood and youth, Cüneyt Arkın mostly speaks of the difficult conditions he lived in and his poverty. This work is like a projection of his unknown world.

Perhaps it is the most sincere expression of the wounds opened by the difficult conditions of his childhood and student years, which scabbed over and bled as the days went by... This is not just an ordinary rags-to-riches story or, in more colloquial terms, a 'poverty literature' piece like 'we were crushed so much, we were humiliated so much'. Based on his own conditions and oppression, it is the state of a people, of Anatolia... Do these inquiries not find embodiment in Edip Cansever's lines, 'Laughing is laughing if a people are laughing'...

Anatolia, which is 'ashamed of poverty and has a poor harvest', in the words of Ahmed Arif.

In a country where people die for a morsel of bread, Dr. Fahrettin Cüreklibatır poured his pains, aches, and anxieties into these lines with the sensitivity of an artist, without alienating himself from the humanized nature of man. With a heart like Anatolia, and lines of sorrow on his face...

POET CÜNEYT ARKIN

Cüneyt Arkın provides a brief summary of his adventure in his book: his childhood, youth, acting career, family, and memories of Yeşilçam. He has decorated his memories with verses. We get the opportunity to meet that poetic side of him that we did not know. Sometimes the hero of the poem becomes one of the villages of Anatolia:

“They shot Alişan right in the heart

Born naked, hungry

And poor

He was cold

But stubbornly a man, brave and ignorant

A hero

In the vast, endless Anatolia

He was guarding an inch of land...”

Sometimes poems dedicated to courage, honor, and dignity...

“If it is death, then death

When you are living

If there has fallen to the ground

A piece of human honor...”

He also poured his love for his wife into verses... Then, he immortalized his humanity and sentimentality by adding what he saw regarding the unforgettable actors of Yeşilçam, his love for the homeland, young brides, and young people whose lives had been darkened...

‘I WAS NOT RESENTFUL OF LIFE, I WAS HUNGRY!’

The feeling of hunger was ingrained in Arkın. Even when he became very famous and started earning a lot of money, he always kept bread by his bedside in the hotel where he stayed. He always felt the fear of going hungry. He never smiles in his childhood and youth photos. He expresses the reason with the words, 'I was not resentful of life, I was hungry': “For many years, in the steppe where even a viper could barely survive, when the black wind blew and scorched everything on the ground, our animals, my two older sisters, my mother, my father, and I would experience terrible hunger. In my dreams, I would always see my mother's fresh tandoor bread...”

‘THEY WERE GOING TO KILL MY CHILDREN’

On every page of the book, one gets closer to the little-known world of Cüneyt Arkın.

The danger of Arkın's children being killed, having to go on stage and entertain drunks, the scourge of unemployment, a life bedridden due to an accident on set, the moment he first looked into Türkan Şoray's eyes... Cüneyt Arkın also includes memories that will bring a smile to one's face. When he cut his hair short and dyed it dark black, the time for laughter comes when his wife, looking from the kitchen window, says, 'Young man, Mr. Cüneyt is not home, come back later'...

He also included his memories with the veteran names of Turkish cinema in his book. His crying with Münir Özkul, his friendship with Fikret Hakan, whom he said he 'loved like my own older brother', Eşref Kolçak's unemployment, Erol Taş, Orhan Günşiray, Hüseyin Peyda, who spent his final days in great difficulty, and many others...

Cüneyt Arkın also added his comments on social issues that stand out with his artist's sensitivity to his book. Tekel workers, Gezi, miners, the poor peasants of Anatolia, child brides, bans...

He wrote about American imperialism and many more...

He did not neglect to complete some of them with verses:

“America says die

let us die

But if we are to die

Let there be a letter in our bosom

To our son

About love, passion, and mercy...”

With respect to the actor, producer, and director Cüneyt Arkın, who passed away on June 28, 2022...