Ahmet Telli

Life & Legacy

Ahmet Telli (2 December 1946 – 10 July 2026) was a Turkish poet, teacher and editor. He is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the second generation of socialist-realist poetry that emerged in Turkey after the 1960s. His poetry combined themes of love, grief, longing and memory with political resistance and social struggle.
Telli published his first poem in 1961 and his first poetry collection, Yangın Yılları, in 1979. Among his best-known collections are Hüznün İsyan Olur, Dövüşen Anlatsın, Su Çürüdü, Belki Yine Gelirim, Çocuksun Sen and Nidâ.