Role: Author

Kemal Yalçın (born September 5, 1952) is an internationally recognized, multi-award-winning Turkish-German author, poet, and journalist whose documentary-style historical novels focus on minority rights, peace, and cross-cultural reconciliation. Originally a philosophy teacher and newspaper editor in Turkey, he was forced to flee to Germany as a political refugee following the 1980 military coup, later publishing his extensive body of work from exile. Yalçın gained global prominence for tackling deeply sensitive, taboo historical events within Turkey, most notably in his landmark book You Rejoice My Heart (Seninle Güler Yüreğim), which explores the lives of hidden, crypto-Armenians and advocates for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Over a career spanning several decades, his poetry, short stories, and novels have been translated into more than ten languages, earning him widespread acclaim from human rights organizations and literary communities worldwide.