At the age of 21, he married Merih Pirhasan in 1942, with whom he had two children: Barış Pirhasan and Deniz Türkali. An Italian-Turkish singer namely Zeynep Casalini is his granddaughter.
Türkali wrote more than forty screenplays, four theater plays, and eight novels throughout his career since 1958.[9] His novels, including Bir Gün Tek Başına (One Day Alone) and Mavi Karanlık (Blue Darkness) appears in prominent literary works in modern Turkish literature. The year 2004 was artistically referred to as the "Year of Vedat Türkali" by the different people such as writers, artists, human rights defenders, and other people associated with or working in related fields.
In 1951 or earlier, he served in Turkish Land Forces as a military officer, but was dismissed over political issues. Later a military court found him guilty in carrying out political movements against government and for writing on prolonged political issues. The court later sent him to jail and sentenced to nine years. After spending seven years in a Turkish prison, he was released in 1958 under the certain constitutional rules. He was charged multiple times following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, and later went to London and lived there for over one year between 1989 and 1999.[12][13] Later, he joined an old daily newspaper of Turkey Cumhuriyet and served as an editor. He was subsequently removed from the job over writing an anonymous novel under "Hüsamettin Gönenli" name criticising the newspaper owner Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu. The novel was originally written at his publishing company Gar Publications co-founded by him and a Turkish teacher Rıfat Ilgaz.[5]
Özgürlük İçin Kürt Yazıları (Kurdish Writings for Freedom)
1996
Writings and memoirs
The book consists articles, speeches and interviews related to the "struggle of freedom" of the people who were prosecuted or discriminated during the military dictatorship.
23
Güven (Trust)
1999
Novel
The book covers Turkey's events occurred during the WW2. It also covers the era of Communist Party of the country with all dimensions.
24
Komünist (Communist)
2001
Writings and memoirs
The autobiographical book covers writer's life from childhood to college, including his "51 detentions"
25
Yeşilçam Dedikleri Türkiye (They say Turkey Yeşilçam)
2001
Writings and memoirs
—
26
Bu Ölü Kalkacak (This Corpse Will Rise)
2002
Play
—
27
Kayıp Romanlar (The Lost Novels)
2004
Novel
A young girl who starts her new life with a boy who is older than her.
28
Yalancı Tanıklar Kahvesi (The Coffee of Lying Witness)
Covers prisoners' life at Diyarbakır Prison. The book claims real occurrences based on true facts or incidents.
Political activities
In 2002 Türkali established his political associations with the Communist Party of Turkey and later Democratic People's Party. While with Democratic's party he participated in the 2002 Turkish general election as a candidate but lost. He was actively involved in politics[11][5] and choose to become a communist after reading proclaimed-controversial publications at the Gazi Husrev-beg Library. The police raided his friend's house and detained his friend Haig Açıkgöz and started interrogating about Türkali's presence. He was allegedly tortured by the local police over not naming him. Later, he started working secretly outside for Kurdish movement, while Haig Açıkgöz along with his wife Merih established a hideout to escape from arrests. He was actively supported by his vedats such as Behice Boran, Muzaffer Şerif, Haig and Mihri Belli. Türkali escaped several times from arrests and was ultimately detained in 1951.[9]
His funeral was attended by the numerous people, leading the local police to use tear gas to prevent procession marched from Teşvikiye Mosque to Zincirlikuyu Cemetery. It is claimed funeral attendees used "Friendship among peoples" and "Peace right now" slogans during the procession, while some people marched holding cover photos of the poems and novels written by Türkali.[11]
Bibliography
Türkali, Vedat; Uğur, Vildan (198x). Eski filmler. Cem Yayınevi. p. 460. Retrieved 26 May 2020.