Ertugrul Ozkok (Editor in chief of Hurriyet ) | April, 1996
He s a man of nights. Amiable batman of ours, who comes to the office late afternoon and works at nights, mostly alone.
Every day I read his strip in the newspaper and think how this night owl could depict the happenings of daylight so accurately.
I am talking about Necdet Sen, the young cartoonist of Hurriyet, a lonesome man who write and draw the graphic story "Wind Of Change" in Hurriyet.
I am a fan of Necdet Sen. You may not have seen him. Let me tell about him a little. He is a quiet, calm, and lanky fellow with a pair of glasses. I don't know him much, but I think he is a bit of peevish. Nevertheless let me be fair. This might be just a vague feeling. I am still very fond of him.
I have been a regular reader of his strip called "HIZLI Gazeteci" since his days in Cumhuriyet. He brings out the sociologist in me. I know very well the world of intelligentsia that he satirizes. I can pick up my acquaintance amongst them.
I almost understand the solitary of HIZLI Gazeteci and his shattered soul washed away in a whirlpool of hypocrisy, insincerities, decaying personalities, and the rapid putrefaction surrounding him. Everyday I think over how this friendly chap lives at nights and makes sociological observations so precisely. Does he only see through the fingertips of his soul?
How delicately he is able to untie the bundle, which is comprised of the grievous life of his neighbor living in one storey down, the tragic faith of their single daughter, the sorrowful human nature of travesties that we don't know, and the ironic dilemmas of the radical revolutionists.
I have an academic background and call myself sociologist. That's why I sometimes get lost in amazement. Necdet is writing a three chaptered book in a 4X9 cm panel. He is writing and drawing. Sometimes, I see myself in those square boxes. From time to time his drawings make me uncomfortable and sometimes gloomy. At the moments that he makes me smile I forgive myself and find reasoning for my behaviors with an excuse of being only a human, anyway. Afterwards, I love this excuse: "we are only human". I believe that human intelligence cannot find more powerful and better tranquilizer than this. I think that it is a human nature to have weaknesses. Necdet Sen portrays group of intellectuals in Turkey everyday. He reveals his incredible inner world, which has been well known since 1980s.
He is telling the story of every one of us i.e. the radical leftist, the journalist, the journalist but still revolutionist, the television producer, the most marginal people, the religious zealots, the anti-religious zealots. He depicts of people whose liberal opinions are just bigotry in disguise, of those so-called intellectuals who are most intolerant and prejudiced. Those fascists in disguise, so to speak. He satirizes the highbrows who give up their sexuality, the most humane part of them, which they think it is contradicted to being leftist.
All these things are coming out of the pen of our amiable batman. He comes to the newspaper late afternoon and starts working at dusk. His eyes are adjusted to night. He sees what has been happening in daylights by looking through the nighttime. That's why I am fan of Necdet Sen. I love him because he stirs the suppressed drawer in me to action. I love him because he provokes the crushed sociologist in me.
You may not know Necdet Sen. I tell you who he is.
He is a lanky, lonesome guy.
If you have not looked at him like I do, tag alone and try to capture the soul of a man who sees the day at nights.
Translated by Camay Ozalp
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