Armağan S. Karal Desem wears many hats; a trained physician
(gynaecologist), an accomplished poet, a journalist, a
self-rebellious writer and a well known intellectual thinker on
philosophical, environmental, social and political issues in
Cyprus.
Born in
Lefke, Cyprus in
1954, Desem finished her early education in Lefke and later in
Nicosia. During 1972 to
1978 she studied at the
Ege University
Medical School in Izmir, Turkey from where she graduated as a
Medical Doctor; specialising in Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
Following her studies Desem worked across Turkey’s heartland in
Anatolian cities like Agri, Bitlis as well as in metropolitan
centres like Izmir and Ankara.
Living in Turkey
and experiencing the culture has deepened her passions for social,
political problems. The military intervention in Turkey at 1980
reserved an important place in her experiences due to her leftist
political views when her tenure as medical doctor at the Izmir
Municipal Medical Centre was terminated by the military regime at
1980. This has not stopped her going to the eastern cities of
Turkey after being dismissed, to help the Kurdish people as
medical doctor.
After her spell
working in Turkey, Desem moved to London, England where she worked
at the
Middlesex Hospital in 1987 following which she returned to her
native Cyprus.
Desem’s natural
empathy with the social problems in the societies she lived in
stems not only because she is a doctor helping to heal people but
also she is a passionate believer in standing up to injustices in
society – be it social, political or otherwise. For years she has
been a vociferous opponent to the political establishment in the
north of Cyprus after 1974 which led to her unemployment in the
“state hospitals”. Desem currently has a private practice in north
Nicosia as well as working on a humanitarian duty on the south
side of the city since 2003.
Writing always
has been in the very first place in her life. Apart from her other
unpublished writings, she has numerous political articles written
in the last fifteen years in the various local Turkish newspapers
of Cyprus. She has a published book on “Coffee”, and has another
book ready to be published, on “Catastrophic Effects of Mines on
Human Health`. Philosophy and politics are some of her other
important concerns. Desem is also an accomplished poet and
story-teller, her works published in local papers. Freedom; has
been her most important theme in her life and either in her
writings. She writes for the leftist Turkish-Cypriot daily
Afrika
and weekly Yeni
Çağ.
Apart from her
native Turkish, Desem speaks English, Greek. She is married and
has a daughter.
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