The Fisherman of Halicarnassus - Bodrum
Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, the son of an Ottoman family graduated from Oxford, was convicted of some obscure crime in 1925 and exiled to Bodrum for three years.
At that time Bodrum was isolated, a simple and poor place where people could make a small living from the sea by fishing and sponge-diving.
Then he became well-known under the name "Fisherman of Halicarnassus" because of his numerous novels, stories and articles that reflected his deep culture. He wrote about happy times in his past; the sea which dominated the town; the air; "dry and bright as if lit by inner light"; the town; "modest and dazzling white with straight lines"; the beauty and richness of western Anatolia and its civilizations, and the humanity of the people from Aegean. He introduced new fishing techniques and also planted palm trees along the quay. Most important of all he told fantastic tales of ancient Aegean civilization and of the desires of the high-spirited and fatalistic people of the sea. The exile fell in love with this simple place and decided to stay there for the rest of his life. Two generations of Bodrum's youth grew up under his spell.
In the 60s, Cevat Şakir gave a group of intellectuals from İstanbul, in search of aesthetic ecstasy and spiritual purification, the experience of the Blue Voyage sailing on a simple boat while enjoying the natural geographical beauty of the coast line and discovering antique monuments and remains of the various rich Anatolian civilizations at the same time. And indeed they discovered many such historic places, which were only accessible from the sea. The Blue Voyage has opened new horizons in every sense of the word.
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