I adopt the saying, “words fly away, writings remain”.

— Yahya Azeroğlu

 Through the following interview, I will try to introduce you to Yahya Azeroğlu —the poet son of Iğdır, the land of Oğuz. Yahya Azeroğlu tells the language, words, hearts and desires of the people in his poems. There is a deep love for the homeland, nation and flag in his poems.

Yahya Azeroğlu is an important poet who is loved and respected by everyone who meets him with his patriotic, polite, friendly and emotional personality. He never hides his feelings in his poems and shows a characteristic that speaks with his heart.

Iğdır is a province bordering 3 countries and the majority of the people living in this province are those who migrated from Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan (Nakhchivan) due to Armenian-Russian oppression during the period of 1915-20 and settled in Iğdır.

They all have a longing for their homeland in their hearts. This longing for their homeland inevitably made them poets and writers…

We can say that Iğdır is the homeland of poets and writers. In other words, Iğdır is the capital of poetry, and poets and writers have also grown up in addition to heroes from the Oghuz land of Iğdır. One of these poets and writers is our famous poet Yahya Azeroğlu, whose fame is rapidly spreading in the international literary arena.

Azeroğlu, an Oghuz Turk, wrote poems and articles that reflect the language, words, hearts and desires of the people in his poems and articles.

Yahya Azeroğlu — a poet loved and respected by everyone with his smiling face and pleasant conversation — has always told about the love of the homeland, flag, nation, Atatürk, freedom, peace and independence in the poems and articles he wrote.

Poet Yahya Azeroğlu — who we can also call the Ashik Elesker of Iğdır — went to Europe many times and met with expatriates and conveyed the air and smell of Iğdır to the expatriate people of Iğdır. When talking to someone, the following poetic words always come out of his mouth: “Beautiful person, how are you?” This sentence requires a separate skill in forming and addressing… But when a person becomes a poet, a man of the heart, the voice and language of the people, he says everything. Here is an exclusive interview of Yahya Azeroğlu, whom we know with the title of People’s Poet of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Türkiye.

Serdar Ünsal

Journalist, Poet, Author,

Türkiye

….

SERDAR ÜNSAL

Mr. Yahya, can you please tell us a little about your background? Who is Yahya Azeroğlu and what are his achievements?

YAHYA AZEROĞLU

Poet and writer Yahya Azeroğlu was born on 24 October,1955 in Yukarı Topraklı village of Aralık district (between the foot of Ağrı Mountain and Aras River) of Iğdır province — the border bey of eastern Anatolia — as the second child of a large family of 11 people, and completed his primary and secondary education in Iğdır.  Later, Yahya Azeroğlu, who settled in Turgutlu district of Manisa with his family in 1970, left his high school and went to Istanbul to enroll in Istanbul Kabataş High School. When he could not enroll there either, he stayed in Istanbul for a long time. In time, he joined the Turkish Literature Foundation chaired by the writer Ahmet Kabaklı. He worked at the Ülker biscuit factory there and also went to the Turkish Literature Foundation. Yahya Azeroğlu received education in literature by attending conferences given by valuable scientists such as Osman Yüksel Serdengeçti, Niyazi Yıldırım Gençosmanoğlu, Ahmet Kabaklı, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Prof. Dr. Ayhan Songar, Mehmet Akif İnan, Camil Meriç, Erol Güngör, İbrahim Kafesoğlu, Osman Turan, Ahmet Arvasi etc., who are the literary figures of Turkey, and he later went to Germany.  Here he received foreign language education for 2 years (German). He resided in various European countries and was active by participating in cultural and artistic activities especially within the framework of Azerbaijani cultural associations, and returned to Turkey in 1983. He settled in Iğdır — the frontier lord of Eastern Anatolia and the land of his father — and first completed the high school, then he left it unfinished and continued his cultural activities throughout Turkey. While continuing to write poems and articles, Yahya Azeroğlu won the Public Administration Department of the Open Education Faculty of Eskişehir Anadolu University, but could not finish the faculty due to various reasons. Later, in 1994, he founded the Iğdır Poets and Writers Association (İLESAM) and served as its President for 15 years. Yahya Azeroğlu, is also a member of the Turkish Scientific and Literary Works Professional Association and a provincial representative, and he wrote “ÇIRPINIŞ”.

“Silent Screams”, “Take an Example from Ataturk”, “Under The Red Flag”, “Alkizil, The Village That Became An Epic In The Aras Valley”, “Turanian Days In Iran” “Professor Hasan Çakmak In Turkish Literature”. He has published 12 books. He has participated in many conferences held in Europe. His poems have won first prizes in many poetry competitions. His poems have been set to music and put to music by composers such as Azerbaijani composer Hüseyin Sözel, I. Ceylan Veysel Yalvaç, etc., and have been the subject of news in the famous BILD newspaper published in Germany. Poet-researcher Writer Yahya Azeroğlu was deemed worthy of the poet of the year award in Antalya in 2020. He was deemed worthy of the literature award of the year in Tabriz in 2021. In addition, Azerbaijani scholar Prof. Dr.  Ramiz Hesemli wrote a book about the poet and writer Yahya Azeroğlu called “Turan Yolcusu”, the second book written about Yahya Azeroğlu was published by poet-writer Banu Musayeva called “Turan Türkün Dünyaki sesdir”, later the third book was written by Azerbaijani poet-writer Sara Şerifov, thus the book written about Yahya Azeroğlu was made into a documentary about his life and art in 2017 by students of Akdeniz University. The life, art and poems of poet and writer Yahya Azeroğlu were given to his student Necati Bayat as a graduation thesis by Celâl Bayar University faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. İrfan Murat Yıldırım, thus Yahya Azeroğlu’s life and works entered the archives of the university, which is a center of science. The articles, he wrote, attracted the attention of Istanbul University faculty member Professor Doctor Oktay Belli. So, he invited the researcher poet-writer Yahya Azeroğlu to symposiums he organized in many parts of Turkey within this framework, more than thirty times.  His scientific articles were published after passing the referee board, and also his articles were published in the famous “Wordsmith International Editorial” magazine of America and became the cover story of the 15th issue of the same magazine. Yahya Azeroğlu’s articles and poems were published in famous international magazines and translated into many languages including English, Persian, Arabic, Greek, Romanian, Russian and Uzbek. He was also deemed worthy of the peace award three times by the World Peace Platform — operating in America — due to his contribution to world peace with his peace poems and articles. Yahya Azeroğlu’s articles and poems were also featured in the Azerbaijani press. Yahya Azeroğlu, who was published in magazines such as the famous Yurt Literature Magazine and Elay Literature Magazine, and became known in literary circles in many countries of the world, including the entire Turkic world. He was awarded a scholarship by the Azerbaijan Science and Education Center on Philology (F) Prof., and a diploma was awarded. Yahya Azeroğlu, who is a member of the Azerbaijan Writers’ Union, Uzbekistan Writers’ Union, Tabriz Writers’ Union, Kirkuk Writers’ Union and Turkey Writers’