The purpose of the Nesin Foundation is to take, each year, four poor and destitute children into the Foundation's home and provide every necessity - shelter, education and training, starting from elementary school - until they complete high school, a trade school, or until they acquire a vocation. Aziz Nesin has donated, gratis, to the Nesin Foundation his copyrights in their entirety for all his works in Turkey or other countries, including: all of his published books, all plays to be staged, all copyrights for films, and all his works performed or used in radio or television.

Aziz Nesin was a political activist. After the 1980 military coup led by Kenan Evren, the entire country, including intellectuals, were under strong oppression. Aziz Nesin led a number of intellectuals to an action against the military government, known as "Aydınlar Dilekçesi" (Petition of Intellectuals). In the last years of his life, he devoted himself to fight against ignorance and religious fundamentalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aziz_Nesin

I have been to there, to this house of foundation! However I was quite young, around 11 maybe, don't remember a lot, but I had a book signed by Aziz Nesin as well. A good memory.

BTW today is the 15th anniversary of the Sivas Massacre. In 1993 the Madımak Hotel in Sivas was set fire by the radical islamists gathered in the city, 37 alevi intellectuals were dead. Aziz Nesin was able to escape with blessures.

Yes, Meltem, he was lucky. Remember Georgia from Greece, she is still is a member here, often wondered what happened to her. She supported the Aziz Nesin organisation.

http://www.turkishclass.com/user_k_georgia

Wow, this is such an honorable foundation and mission. Aziz Nesin being so hated by Islamists really contrasts so ironically with those who self-proclaim to be morally superior - by doing such a wonderful work yet being so hated just because he doesn't believe in god. Those so called 'morally superior' Islamists also show their true beliefs in practice when they kill others who don't believe in the same things as they do, while this 'immoral' atheist is saving lives..
Thank you Roswitha for this information.

you welcome, catwoman.
Nesin's marvelous career in satire began with the publication of a seminal weekly satirical paper in 1946: Marko Paşa. Today everyone acknowledges that its publication marks the beginning of a new era for satire and represents a classic, heroic fight against political oppression.

The year 1946 marked the end of six long years of economic deprivation and social disorganization, long periods of martial law and consequent political oppression. Turkey, under national and international pressure, had accepted the multiparty system, and many laws were passed which were respectful of human rights. But under the rule of a traditionally very touchy government, how many such legal changes would become a reality remained to be seen. At that tim, Aziz Nesin, along with Sabahattin Ali, a well-known short story writer, began publishing Marko Paşa. Their aim was simply to satirize life and particularly to expose political oppression through satire. From the beginning the paper was very successful, selling sometimes as many copies as a daily newspaper. As expected, the political circles immediately reacted, and the publication of the weekly was mentioned in the Parliament as the single piece of evidence proving the need for martial law in the country. Thus, after the third issue of Marko Paşa was released, Aziz Nesin and Sabahattin Ali were arrested; they were, however, released after twenty days without a trial. Publication continued. The major writer (Nesin) and the owner (Ali) developed strategies to avoid the arbitrary application of penal law, but in spite of all the planning, both men have been arrested and jailed more than once for their writings in Marko Paşa. They persisted with its publication in the face of this opposition, making modifications in the name, such as Free Marko Paşa, New Marko Paşa, or Well-Known Paşa, or merely giving it the name of its declared owner and responsible director.

Aziz Nesin's fight to keep Marko Paşa alive is indeed an example, on an international scale, of the classical struggle for human rights against political oppression. During the period of its publication, no institutionalized rebellion was possible, but satire, particularly of the high quality achieved by Marko Paşa, could and did exert the necessary pressure to change the responsible institutions and networks. Marko Paşa closed down permanently in 1951. The meteoric career of Aziz Nesin continues. He has written in many different genres, with all the same artistry and boundless energy. The story of his childhood which follows in this volume, though not one of his typical works, is a story of Turkey - a story "just out of Aziz Nesin." We recognize the legacy with pride.
http://menic.utexas.edu/cmes/pub/iboy/iboy.html