AKDENİZ, Sabri

Writer (b. 18 February 1919, Lefke / Cyprus). He attended the Lefke Primary School (1934), secondary school in Nicosia, the Turkish High School (1936), Adana Teacher Training School for Boys (1939), and graduated from the Ankara Gazi Institute of Education, Department of Music (1942); Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography, Department of English Language and Literature (1948), and from New York City University, Hunter College (1963). He worked as a music teacher and a teacher of Turkish and English at secondary schools and high schools in Rize (1942), Ankara (1946-50) and İstanbul (1951-60).

He served as a lecturer at İstanbul University, School of Foreign Languages (1959-60), as the Chief Secretary at the United States Cultural Attaché (1960-63), as an assistant to the General Director of Higher Education (1960-63), as a lecturer at İstanbul Advanced Institute of Islam (later to become Marmara University, Faculty of Theology) between 1965 and 1983, and retired. When he was working as a teacher at the Faculty of Theology, he also gave lectures on Educational Sociology, English Language and Literature at İstanbul Atatürk Institute of Education, Işık School of Engineering and Şişli School of Political Sciences.

Since the 1950’s his articles, stories, reviews and poems have been published in newspapers and journals such as Yeni İstanbul (art page), Bilgi, Anadolu (1958-59), Bizim Anadolu (1968-75), Emekli Öğretmen, Sönmez, Bayrak (1980's), Bugün, Diyanet, Millî Gazete, Zaman (1988-89) He is a member of the Anatolian Guild of Intellectuals.
A lawsuit of defamation was filed against him by Yekta Güngör Özden, the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the period, because of an article he wrote about headscarves in 1973 entitled Bu Ne Yobazlıktır? (What a Bigotry It is?). The case was dropped following an apology in the press.

WORKS:

STUDY-RESEARCH: Türkiye'deki Çözüntünün Nedenleri (Reasons of Dissolution in Türkiye, 1969), Millî Eğitimimizde İmam Hatip Okullarının Yeri ve Köy Enstitüleri (The Place of İmam Hatip Schools in Education and the Village Institutes, 1971), Türkçede Yeni Gelişmeler (New Developments in Turkish, 1973), Çağımızda Nüfusun Önemi ve Türkiye'nin Nüfusu (Importance of the Population in Our Century and the Population of Türkiye, 1974), Toplumumuz ve Eğitimimiz (Our Society and Education, 1982), Kültür Sömürgeciliği (Cultural Colonialism, 1986), Bağımsızlığın Temelleri (Foundations of Independence, 1992), MHP Genel Başkanı Sn. Alparslan Türkeş'e Açık Mektup (Open Letter to Mr. Alparslan Türkeş, the General Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, 1993), Düğümlenen Güneydoğu Sorunu Nasıl Çözülür (How Can the Tangled Problem of the Southeast be Solved?, 1994).

POETRY: Düşler Ülkesi (Land of Dreams, 1998).

His three plays, one three-act and two one-act, were published.

In addition, he has translated worksfrom English.