Azra Erhat (4 June 1915 – 6 September 1982) was a Turkish author, archaeologist, academician, classical philologist, and translator. A pioneer of Turkish Humanism, Azra Erhat is especially well known for her published works, including many translations into Turkish from the classical literature of Ancient Greece.
Biography
Azra Erhat was born on 4 June 1915 in Şişli, Istanbul. Her parents were Tevfik Bey and Nasibe Hanım. Nakibe and her sister, Mukbile, were the children of Fatma Hanım and Fadıl Bey. Fadıl Bey (1857-1938) was born in Selanik (Thessaloniki),today in Greece, where she completed his primary and secondary education before traveling to Istanbul, where he graduated from law school. Working as a lawyer while splitting his time between Istanbul and Thessaloniki, Fadil and his wife, Fatma, eventually settled down in Büyükada Island, Istanbul Province, in 1923.
The period of Azra Erhat’s birth was a time of upheaval, coinciding with the occupation of Constantinople by British, French, and Italian forces. She moved with her parents to Izmir in 1922 and to Vienna, Austria in 1924, when her father's work was transferred there. Erhat received two years of primary education in Volksschule, Vienna, before her father's work necessitated another move, this time to Brussels, Belgium. There she completed primary school and then attended Emile Jacqmain High School (fr) where she gained a strong interest in literature while studying French, Flemish, Latin, and Ancient Greek. When Erhat's father died in 1932, Azra stayed in Brussels at a friend's home to complete high school while her family moved back to Istanbul. Finishing with the highest achievement level -(), she then rejoined her family in Istanbul. In 1934 Azra entered the Istanbul University Faculty of Arts degree, where her most influential instructor was the Austrian romance philologist and prolific literary critic, Leo Spitzer. Introducing Erhat to Professor George Rodhe of Ankara University in 1936, Spitzer recommended Azra for a student-assistant position translating Rodhe's lessons from French, German, Latin, and Greek content into Turkish. On September 1, 1936, Erhat accepted the offer and transferred to the newly inaugurated Department of Classical Philology of the Faculty of Languages, History, and Geography at Ankara University. Working as a student-translator-assistant up to and beyond graduation in 1939, she continued as an assistant in the University's Department of Classical Philology and became an associate professor in 1946. During this same period, Azra also worked in the Translation Office established by Minister of Education Hasan Ali Yücel with fellow Turkish Humanism pioneers Sabahattin Eyüboğlu, Vedat Günyol (tr), Orhan Burian (tr), and Saffet Korkut, establishing close friendships with them. In 1945, separately and together with Orhan Veli, she translated and published many works from Homer, Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Plato.
With the departure of Hasan Ali Yücel as Turkey’s minister of education following the 1946 elections, the political atmosphere began changing in the Department of Education. In 1948, during a cleansing of left-leaning thinkers, Erhat and fellow faculty members, including Pertev Naili Boratav, Behice Boran, Adnan Cemgil (tr), and Niyazi Berkes, were dismissed from Ankara University. Returning to Istanbul, Erhat continued working from 1949 to 1955 as a translator, an art critic, and news reporter, when she received a position with the Turkish daily newspaper, Vatan, where she worked until 1956. From 1956 until her retirement in 1975, Erhat worked in the library of the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) Near and Middle East Center. In 1971, Erhat, Sabahattin Eyüboğlu, and Vedat Günyol were arrested and charged with violating Article 141 of the Turkish Criminal Code (establishing a secret communist organization) during the coup d’etat of March 12 1971 Turkish military memorandum. Detained for 4 months in the Maltepe Military Prison, Erhat and her companions were released in the first legal session. While she was unable to work throughout the one and a half years until her lawsuit was finally closed, the ILO supported Erhat and protected her staff.