Turkey laughing
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Thanks to Mirada linEa presents An interview to the editors of the magazine Leman
by Elettra Stamboulis, part II The characters This is the result of an interview with one of the founders of the turkish magazine Leman, Mehmet Çağçağ, and somehow also to another master of the same magazine, Tuncay Akgün.
I thought it would be unuseful to present also questions as far as from the answers you can understand the contest. Reading, you will see it is the story of a comics magazine, but at the same time it offers a view of turkish society in the last years. Check also the video interview and the part I.
Kıllanan Adam:
This is a character created by Ahmet Yılmaz. This is a man : opposing, positive conservative, sceptic to the new values, very respectful and protective for the old values but, on the other hand , dreaming of turkish people to go to outer space one day . Sitting with his undershirt and underpants all the time with a glass of tea, he is the most typical turkish father.
Erkut Abi:
This is a character created by Kaan Ertem. This is a heroic character with super powers. He is against the stupidity, cunning, evil... He has many original methods of punishment. He generally ends up the punishment by throwing the evil to the outer space. Non of the ideas, thoughts,opinions from human-beings can surprise him. Everything in the universe is normal to Erkut Abi, all the humans are abnormal.
Bezgin Bekir:
This is a character created by Tuncay Akgün. He is slow, he is calm. He always sat or lie down over his cushions with his cats and his water pipe (nargile). He is a cheer up, relief for people who feel defeated against the speed of our time. He is an activist, an actionist too. He is intellectual but we feel this not because of his talking but because of his actions and his attitude against the events. “Bezgin Bekir” is now and adjective in daily language to describe a certain type of people.
Daral & Timsah:
These are characters created by Mehmet Çağçağ. These characters’ names are used as an adjective in daily language too. Daral is the son of a ver rich father who is searching for the meaning of life. His mother died when he was a child, his father raised him. He has a huge gap in his soul, he can’t fill it, he is very much bored and he does not know what to do.When they meet, in spite of the truth that they have nothing in common, Daral gets connected to Timsah very strongly. Timsah is broke but to jump to a higher class he likes to live like a bourgeois. He is not intellectual, his world is set on trade marks, luxury and sex. He is a Casanova. This character Timsah has became one of the most popular characters of turkish youth. In the first years I created Timsah, he was extreme and imaginary. But today this character has no originality because there are millions of young turkish people like him.
Kozalak:
This is a character created by Mehmet Çağçağ. He is a taxi driver. He is ignorant, rude, vulgar but courageous and aggressive. He is coming from the village and insisting living in his rules in the city. He is immoral but he is very moralist.He has a girlfriend: Şehriye wearing, covering her head with scarf (turban) and he has a tansvestite lover: Fethi. He runs into a different adventure each week. This is one of the most entertaining characters.
Gönül Adamı:
This is a character created by Güneri İçoğlu. This character is an old Istanbul gentleman, a musician, a “neyzen” (reed flute player). He lives in an old Istanbul district placed on Bosphorus, surrounded by old wooden houses. Gönül Adamı and his french friend Jean Pierre always argue about theWest and the East . He throws simit (tukish round bread with sesames) to the seagulls while travelling the bosphorus by boat (vapur), helps the old style fishermen, runs to help if there is an old wooden house on fire... There is always a tear drop on his eyes because he cant stand to see the big buildings taking place of the old houses one by one. Gönül Adamı too, is an adjective used in the daily language, to describe certain type of people.