The Homer International Festival of Literary Arts, which was held last week in Izmir, western Turkey, honored the controversial Syrian-Lebanese-French poet Ali Ahmed Saeed Esber, known as "Adonis", along with 3 Turkish writers and writers. Arab and Turkish intellectuals, as well as activists on social media.

In his speech at the literary festival sponsored by the municipality of Izmir, Adonis, 92, saluted the "poet city", saying that culture in the world - especially in the Islamic world - is almost splitting into the spheres of religion and poetry, adding, "We do not see in the space of religion, especially the European American, Except for violence and wars, destruction and extermination...", while "poetry stands alone and accused."

Adonis - known for his stance against "the revolution that emerges from the thresholds of the mosques" - considered that language is dangerous and can be a tool for obliteration and erasure. of the free and independent self, and “there was no star left in the evening but it was lowered on the helmets of the warriors,” as he put it.

Syrian poet Adonis delivers a speech at the Homer Literary Festival in Izmir (Turkish Press)

The poet and the case

Arab and Turkish reactions continued to honor the poet (born in Syrian Jableh) in Izmir, and the Turkish newspaper "Yeni Shafak" published an open letter to the Turkish publisher Beren Bersigili Mott, criticizing what it considered the Syrian poet's denial - editor of a poetry magazine with the Lebanese poet Youssef Al-Khal - to the issue His people, she said, "There are so many stories we can tell you. Stories from real people, the people of your country where people are scattered like rosary beads.. Girls looking at us with wide eyes from the doors of the makeshift slums, and pretty boys playing ball in the mud in front of the tents they play with. The winds, and mournful fathers buried their lives in their own hands.. How many stories do you have about the suffering of your people that you want to tell us?”

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Bersaigili Mott said, "We host nearly 4 million Syrian refugees in our country... I don't like to use the word immigrant when talking about them... because the word immigrant is a cold expression that consists of numbers only... Like: 300 people came, and 500 remained. person".

"They are our friends, brothers and teachers... They each have a different story and different characteristics, and although they all have different stories, they share a story of common grievances."

She added, "Our Syrian brothers and sisters are now victims of one of the most difficult tragedies the world has witnessed, and the poet must share his cause and suffering with his people."

Turkish publisher and writer Beren Bersigili Mott criticized Adonis's lack of bias towards the cause of his Syrian people (communication sites)

And she added in her speech, "No poet who does not stand against injustice deserves respect in my opinion.. Adonis - unfortunately - chose to defame the Syrian cause instead of siding with the just struggle of his people.. I think that the reason is a purely sectarian approach.. And this frankly raised a great deal." From the heartbreak and anger inside me. I am very, very upset with the poet Adonis. If he had stood on the side of his people, he would have entered history as a hero, and not on the side of the oppressors as he is now."

A similar honoring of Adonis with the Peace Prize for the German city of Osnabrück in 2015, sparked a similar controversy, and intellectuals - including Adonis' translator of German works and Syrian and German critics - criticized the honoring of the poet "who did not distance himself from the bloody repression practiced by the Syrian regime against its people for years."

open letter

And Bersigili Mott - in her open letter to Adonis - had criticized what she considered the Arab poet's neglect of the suffering of his people, while his speeches were filled with many great concepts, as she put it.

The Turkish writer and publisher wondered why Adonis does not tell the story of his people, but rather stigmatizes the rebellious masses with cheap epithets, considering his saying, "I do not believe in any movement that comes out of the mosque," one of the most superficial expressions she encountered in her life, "and almost provokes laughter because of her excessive annoyance." With many examples of the exodus of militant movements from mosques in the Levant, Palestine, Algeria, Libya, South Africa, the Caucasus and others.

The Turkish writer expressed her disapproval of the irony of defaming the supporters of the Syrian revolution as "the ones who have left the mosques", while the Syrian poet sang in his poems the Iranian Qom and its Islamic revolution, noting that the Syrian revolution witnessed the participation of "socialists, Christians, Druze, Alawites ... and others" as well.

The Turkish writer - who noted on her Twitter page that the head of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, called her to thank her for her message - criticized what she considered an obsession with secularism and considering it the center of everything as if it were a holy religion, and classifying people on its basis, and added, "For hundreds of years, since ancient times we have Many wonderful experiences We won, defeated, fell in love, got angry, laughed and cried together..we hurt a lot, bandaged each other's wounds..we sang poems and sang songs..we loved each other just because we are human..we loved each other regardless of nationality or creed. or sect."


The writer, who is affiliated with Izmir, quoted a saying by the German sociologist Max Horkheimer, in which he says that there is only one wind that opens the windows of the houses, and it is the common sadness, and she added, “We did not encounter people like you speaking in memorized texts filled with cold concepts, but our voices trembled during our conversation, trying to calm each other. To hide our enthusiasm..we can't say as much about poetry as you do, but for us, poetry was the light we saw in each other's eyes.The most beautiful poem is to raise your voice against cruelty."

And the writer continued, "We - who came out of the mosque, mercenaries, enemies of secularism... - while we were holding each other's hands, you came and crossed from the city in which I was born and raised... and left without raising the head of a Syrian orphan, without giving a handkerchief to a Syrian woman who lost her husband to wipe her tears, without asking a young Syrian man about his condition.

And she concluded, "And you embraced their killers, why did you not salute them? Why did you not love them, why did you not love us, Mr. Adonis?"