Evrim Alataş

Evrim Alataş — Biography

Evrim Alataş was born on 15 April 1976 in the village of Gölpınar, in the Akçadağ district of Malatya, to a Kurdish family, and is remembered as one of the first female Kurdish writers in Turkey. She entered journalism in 1994, working as a reporter and editor for left-leaning outlets such as Yeni Politika, Özgür Bakış and Ülkede Özgür Gündem before becoming a columnist for Evrensel and BirGün, where much of her writing focused on Kurdish issues in Turkey.

As a screenwriter, she is best known for the 2009 film Min Dît: The Children of Diyarbakır (released internationally as Before Your Eyes), which received the grand jury prize at the 46th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. Alataş died of cancer on 12 April 2010 at her home in Diyarbakır and was buried in her native village of Gölpınar. More than a decade and a half later, journalists continue to mark the anniversary of her death, and an award bearing her name, the İLEF Evrim Alataş Prize, has been given to figures in Turkish journalism in recognition of her enduring legacy.