Ahmet Hamdi

Top state officials bid farewell to former President Gül's father

Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül's father, who died on May 7 due to old age, was laid to rest in his hometown Kayseri at a funeral attended by top state officials on May 8. 

Ahmet Hamdi Gül, 91, died at the Acıbadem Kayseri Hospital.

On May 5, Gül, Turkey's 11th president, visited his father in Kayseri. 

How did it happen in Turkey but not elsewhere?

On the plane to Sydney, Australia this week, I took to reading Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s “The Time Regulation Institute” (1961). I had time; the flight from Abu Dhabi to Sydney takes 12 hours. Penguin Classics recently published an English translation by Maureen Feely and Alexander Dawe. It is a lot of fun to read and I highly recommend it.