Approximately 25,000 books owned by researcher and writer Yaşar Alparslan, who lost his life in the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş on Feb. 6, will be used to create a new public library in his memory for the recovering city.
Known as a book lover in Kahramanmaraş, where many poets and writers grew up, 75-year-old Alparslan, who steered Turkish literature, lost his life along with his wife Aysel Alparslan after their house collapsed on Feb. 6.
After graduating from the faculty of theology, Alparslan, who worked as a teacher for years, collected thousands of books, including books he wrote and manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish. Over the years, Alparslan transformed a three-story house in the city's Dulkadiroğlu district into a library.
The death of Alparslan, known as "Yaşar teacher" by everyone in the city, saddened many fellow citizens, especially ones in literature circles.
A researcher of the War of Independence, history, traditional professions, customs and tradition, his library was utterly destroyed in the earthquake.
After the disaster, his children mobilized to save the literary treasures they had inherited from their father.
They were able to save some of the books in the library by sifting through the wreckage and also carefully used construction equipment to recover other items.
Mürüvet Alparslan Nazlı, who talked to Anadolu Agency (AA), said that books had particular importance for her father.
Explaining that her father spent most of his time in his library, Nazlı said: "It wouldn't be an exaggeration if I said that he regarded each of them as his children. My father used to say that he had books that he bought by spending all of his salary. My father's happiness was his books. With his last acquisitions, he had reached 25,000 books in his library."
Nazlı noted she was distraught when she came to the library building, which was destroyed after the earthquake, and that she could not control her tears.
Pointing out that the most important legacy left to them by her father is his books, Nazlı noted she and her family managed to retrieve some 10,000 books, which they plan to exhibit by creating a new library, to keep works collected by him alive.
Nazlı said that most of her father's books have since been digitally scanned within the scope of the project they carried out with the Dulkadiroğlu Municipality.
Mentioning that she and her father had recently published a book about the food culture of Kahramanmaraş, Nazlı stated that she saw this work as her most excellent memory.
