Sevim Belli laid to rest
Sevim Belli, a writer, translator, and one of the leading figures of the Turkish socialist movement who passed away recently, has been laid to rest. The funeral, held at Şişli Mosque, was followed by a procession accompanied by slogans to Feriköy Cemetery.
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Sevim Belli, one of the leading figures of the Turkish socialist movement, passed away at her home in Istanbul at the age of 99. Belli's funeral was held following the funeral prayer at Şişli Mosque, attended by a large crowd.
Following the service, the crowd marched along Halaskargazi Street in Şişli, chanting slogans such as "Sevim Belli is our honor." After the procession, Sevim Belli was laid to rest at Feriköy Cemetery, beside her husband, the writer Mihri Belli, who was also a pioneer of the socialist movement.
Born in Istanbul in 1925, Belli graduated from the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine before traveling to the United States and subsequently beginning her residency training in Paris.
During the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students, which she attended from there, she met Nâzım Hikmet in Berlin in August 1951 and took on the role of a courier between the foreign and domestic leadership of the TKP (Communist Party of Turkey). After returning to Turkey in this capacity, she was apprehended while traveling back from Istanbul to Paris. A large-scale operation against the TKP was launched.
She was detained in the operation known as the "'51 Arrests" and was imprisoned alongside Communist Party of Turkey Central Committee members Şefik Hüsnü Değmer, Zeki Baştımar, Reşat Fuat Baraner, Mehmet Bozışık, Halil Yalçınkaya, and Mihri Belli. She married TKP leader Mihri Belli while in prison in 1957.
Because physicians convicted of communism were stripped of their right to practice, she took her children and moved abroad in 1964 to work as a doctor in Algeria. She returned to Turkey in 1966.
She was arrested again during the March 12 period and spent 3 years in prison. She went abroad again after the September 12 coup. She wrote her memoirs in a book titled "Boşuna Mı Çiğnedik" (Did We Tread in Vain).