Who am I…
70 years old, graduated from ‘ 72 METU-Ankara Turkey, Middle East Technıcal Unıversity , Chemical engineering .I involved many large projects, both in Turkey and Israel on the Chemicals, Refinery and Petrochemical engineering fields.
I worked for many big companies in Turkey and Israel.
Also worked 3 years as Principal Process Manager at SASOL 2 and 3, Secunda, South Africa.
I took varıous training courses throughout my education and work life.I attended many conferences and spoke there..Now in retirement, already 5 years, and now I’m slowly turning my thoughts, values, life experience, into books.
I have 5 books that are not published yet. My books are based on personal values and some unique stories.
My other Books are: “Sponge Fishermen”, “Fig Leaf ”, “The salt on her Lashes”, “Let’s not Breakup”
Currently I am writing the 6th Book, in Turkısh.
I was born in Turkey, emigrated to Israel at age 25 now live in Israel. I catch up from my chıldhood what are the needs for quality of life style. Today what I see is so dıfferent and all my personal values are somehow spelled wıth special stories in my books and how some people affect one to another…The real Values of lıfe what they are…Any person can fınd hımself ın my books…Thıs ıs correct for Leyla’s Coffee case as a proof.
I have 2 children. They are successful in their day by day life and I am proud of them.
Essence of the book
David is a retired intelligence agent and, in recent years, gives himself up to writing.
Day after day he comes to his old friend’s coffee house in Sarıyer, where he spends over most of his daysi on editorial works. He realizes a cute, extremely beautiful girl who works in the coffee house, and asks his friend who this girl is. He finds out that the girl is an autist and was adopted when she was a baby. The fact that she is affiliated and is autistic. This attracts the attention of David, who has a distinct admiration, sympathy and sensitivity to children with disabilities.
One day, while Leyla was serving David a Turkish coffee and she pours the coffee on the table and on his pants. That’s where the story begins…. David begins to dig Leyla’s past. Ragip Bey, the owner of the coffee house, is a very good friend of him and also the manager of the nearby orphanage. With his help, he begins to gather quite extensive information about Leyla. Finally, David meets with Omar and Neriman, who adopted Leyla. After long long conversations, he finds out why, how and when this beautiful girl was adopted.
Leyla’s mother, Ülfetin, was married an American engineer whom she meet him when he was working in Turkey as engineer, She immigrated to States and married him there. .
Durıng the time, she senses that her husband is an alcoholic, but life goes on and on despite everything. Üjfet has twins from the first year of marriage, and they are very cute and vivid boys. At the beginning, she has a good living and a happy family life. Along the time Ülfet realizes that Edward is a very serious alcoholic, that his family has been completely destroyed in the past that he has nothing in life but to drink and work. She also finds out in time that he has an ex-wife, not divorced according to the rules and he gives her alimony, Edward never mention about her, before.
Edward’s strange past and the reasons of alcoholism dıscussed and talked many times, between them but at the end there was nothing to be done. Through their conversations she realized in what a dıfficult situatıon she is in… and her twins.
Another night of drinking…as a result of an argument between them, Ülfet tries to defend himself when her husband Edward attacks her with a baseball bat. He has done this before many many times. Ulfet accidentally wounds Edward in his head with a candelabra, while defending herself. Edward falls in blood. Eventually the Cops, the ambulance, the neighbors come home. Edward bled to death on the carpet, in the middle of living room.
After long trials, with a lot of publicity, whether thıs was a self-defence case or not…at the end a person dıed.
Ülfet sentenced to 17 years.
This murder case widely covered by the media in Baton Rouge, Luisiana. A murderous mother with twin children, on the other hand a drunken man, father and head of the family… a person with no family life, without responsibility… both persons’ different personal values, their expectations from life…were discussed. İn one hand a simple peasant girl’s clean and pure, full of personal values lifestyle and on the other end a drunken man. The personal contradictions…Conflicts.
What are the family values… The days of a simple clean family life, starting from the early days of Kargicak village in Milas-Turkey …The livin they lead through successful education…The childhood and youth years of the Ülfet, who graduated with a commendation from High School.Ülfet who was proud with her values, in that special way…Finally two teenagers, She and her neighbour boy, Riza, both with the dream of how they can unite their lives in the future… Riza attended military high school and went to become a pilot… Dreams of the beautiful life they will have in the future shortly after becoming a Pilot…. One day, Riza’s plane crashed and he died… The country blown with this news. The sadness and her life.. To express how big and holly was her love, longing pure and spiritual values, trust to each other, with how and what values these two peasant children raised… Two young lovers who explain to each other how the right personalities should be in their life. Exemplary lifestyle…a friendship that many people can’t imagine and live with and the sad end of it.
The court and ıts noıse nation wise, continues and continues. The jury has its contradictions… A mother with cute twins on the one hand, and her lifestyle, on the other hand how a drunken father ruined this beautiful and meaningful life, family…. Discussions on alcoholism in human life and the family drama…that this brings about. Unacceptable behaviours.
Today, these are still many families and many people are affected negatively by alcoholism …what are the lessons to be learned here…These are clearly expressed in this book.
She eventually becomes a “murderous murderer” number 100585, convicted of “taking the life of a person”…and Ülfet begins to live her new life in prison.
Two months before the conviction, Edward one day came home, against her desire, that night he did whatever he did, by force, ın the bed and impregnated her… and Leyla…
Her birth was in a prison-bound dispensary …Leyla immediately given to Omer and Neriman, who are waiting in line for adoption.
Before entering prison, it is decided that the twin boys should be given up for adoption to two separate families for a better future…. And at the end, the life of “100585 prisoner Ülfet” who has three children continues in desperation…There is nothing that will come from her hand, despairing.
Rumors of a General Special Amnesty in the United States begin to speak out… Her file will come up also… The search of the case and findings begins with Helen Swartz, a young lawyer, and presention the case to the court again by her… The lawyer’s research, finding out who was this Edward !. Explanations in the court, what are human rights … a “villain” kills a drunk man by accident while protecting herself. This is done by the lawyers and academics’ analysis, many discussions done and finally the case is exonerated…
Somehow she returns back to Turkey without her three children.
David, after hearing who Leyla is from Omer and Neriman, begins to investigate the matter, but his capabilities are not enough to fınd the facts…He asks for some help from his old American friend John, whom he worked with in the past. John was a former “Agent” who had, and stıll has very good contacts with the CIA and FBI. John gets to the bottom of this court case, which had great repercussions in the past, and investigates and investigates the matter find out Advocate Helen. When he informs David that she had twin children before her conviction, then a daughter (Leyla) was born and adopted in prison, the circle slowly begins to close…
David realızed what the situation is…To spend a Christmas and New Year vacation, he invites both Twıns to their mention in Istanbul. The twins do not known one another… David introduces himself as an old engineer, friend of their fathers, and from where he developed the contacts.
The kids admit the ınvıtatıon, but they don’t know each other.
David asks the Intelligence Bureau, owned by a friend in Ankara, to find the fate of the woman, based on her ID number, whom he learned from Helen many years ago.
He was astonished to learn that this “country woman”, has been working in their mansion since the day she came from America…
And now ın addıtıon to all that, the sad story of the autistic girl Leyla, the Twins, and the story of that poured coffee..all becomes clear to David.
At the end of the Christmas night dinner David gives a great meaningful “speech” and tells all the facts and realites to the visitors… Ulfet’s facts, her twins and daughter Leyla…
Why should this book be published?
First of all, it’s about what family values, a peasant girl was raised with..To demonstrate what and how should be , as an example, the family structure. To show what values people have developed over time, how they feed and grow their families. The moral values…
How “love” starts and develops among young people with clean feelings. What is love, respect, obedience to each other, how they should be, explained ın this book….day by day, today how we are living, the friendship we develop, and what a materialist world we all live in…
An example of bad drinking habits are and how it destroys people and families..there are a lot to learn from this…We think we know everything in our daily lives, but unfortunately there are many among us who still do not understand thıs.. The justıce…The rights of innocent people ın the courts.
A mother’s love to children an example, even the baby is not your own child, and how she connects her life with her, and more important she is an autistic girl !.. The day by day difficulties and coping with them… (Today we must not forget how many Autıstıcs chıldren born day by day…)
Sensitivity to autism is an example of how they are a part of our daily life, their upbringing, their work, occupation, their place in the family of those who should be accepted into society, and all that, discussed indirectly in this book. ..
The emphasis of human values over and over again in our daily lives..Explaining the concept of adoption and its responsibilities. The subject that we still have today… And the explanation of how it happened, handled, are in this book.
The place of husband and woman in family life, spiritual values, especially for mothers to explain what all these means.
All these things, I thought, are the issues that we live day by day and “pass away” without realizing some of them…
These are the maın the points of this book…
Difference from other books
There are countless books on the market today, filled with emotions, describing lives filled with love, values, hopelessness, betrayals, personal contradictions, frustrations…countless books of this type are published Day by day.
Leyla’s coffee is not such an ordinary book. I think it is an interesting and rare book that speaks of a life that is very close to the truth…
A story like “Leyla’s Coffee” do not exıst. A book that covers family values. I thınk it’s different than the others…I think there’s a narrative that attracts the reader…
The target audience.
It’s a story that appeals to almost every age and person. On the one hand, the issue of adoption, alcoholism, autistic children, Justice and Law, Human rıghts, Passıon, Love, Etc..that the reader will think about them. The fact that I am well known both in the community, in the internet and working in Turkey and Israel, this presents a distinct interest to the book in Turkey. There are a lot of people waiting for my book. I was informed by a worthy person ın the literature that such a story might be in a very ınterestıng movıe also…maybe a “script study“ will start soon…
Thıs book is goıng to be nomınated as “best seller” and to be presented to varıous commissions for “rewards”…as they say. Whoever begin to read it, cannot drop it from his hand, as they say ..
We wıll see along the way…Thıs book ıs translated to English by a professıon woman, from Turkish. Before translatıon the Turkish versıon went through an editor and a reductor. The book now a days are ready for publıshıng by a famous and largest book company ın Turkey. The book cover prepared by my daughter.
Brief Summary of book:
Ulfet is a country girl, grown up with traditional Turkish cultures.
Great love from her childhood. After death of her pilot boyfriend, she found a work ın a hotel. in Hotel bar she meets which Edward… Certain time of friendship, he proposes to marry her in States.
She immigrated to USA. She had Twins from Edward there. After certain time she realized that Edward is a serious alcoholic. She has not noticed ıt when they were ın Turkey.
İn the book a very thorough identification of the source of alcoholism, the alcoholic people behaviours, how they destroy their families, lessons to be learned from alcoholism etc. etc.…all these are explains in some chapters.
One night Edward comes home, after heavy drinking… and he cannot control he’s behaviours and begins to hit her which a baseball bat. She defended herself with a chandelier and hits his head and he’s killed on the spot.
Along trails, in Baton Rouge, with the jury… Whether this “case” is a self-defence, or ordinary crime. Interesting discussions, by the court members and in public… At the end She is charged for 17 years.
In the prison she gives a birth to a girl, where she was raped by her drunken husband months ago. And the baby is gıven to adaptation on the spot, sayıng her that the baby dıed durıng the bırth…İmagıne the psychology of a mother…
Her three children are given for adaptation… None of the children know each other where they are. Each at dıfferent famıly.
There ıs National amnesty. Her Advocate Hellen, defends her, and after many years she is out of prison. She returns back to Turkey. She found work in one of the mansion in İstanbul
Leyla is an autistic girl, grown up by an educated family. And now she’s in a boarding school and working from time to time in a coffee shop in the vıcınıty. One day she poor coffee to the “novel writers” pants by an accident, or by mistake. The coffee shop owners are his old friends of the writers. And he tells him that Leyla is an adopted autistic girl… The writer is curious about her. And wants to meet with the family that grow up Leyla… And he hears about some of story off Leyla and her mother Ulfet..
The writer is an old National Security guy, have friends in States, who have cooperated in the past. They worked in FBI and CIA. In one of his talks he tells about the case that he learnt from Leyla’s parents… Old story in Baton Rouge, where it happened years ago, and this case it made a lot of noise in public, in TV and newspapers…
The writer’s friends in USA, fınds The Advocate Helen, and he learns the story of woman called Ulfet… The twins and also about Leyla.
The writers, learns that Ulfet y already returned to Turkey years ago.
Through his friends, workıng in investigation company, the writers fınds out this lady is working in his mansion…
They found also the track off the twins and they are engıneers already. The writer invites them for Christmas holiday, to Turkey as if he was their father old frıend… The twins they don’t know each other. And they came to Turkey.
The Christmas night meal, the writer gives a long emotıonal speech, and tell all the story the twins and Ulfet , the woman working in his house… Saying that Ulfet is their mother, and they are brothers… A Catastrophic night.
Next day they invite Leyla’s family and also Layla to 5 O’clock tea. Where all 3 brothers meet each other…and Ulfet is their mother…
Such a coincidence of “Leyla’s coffee” poured to his pant, and on the tables, and thıs event bring the family together…etc etc.
GENERAL
Today many many people in Turkey and Western read this book with great admiration. Some read the book twice. Some people cannot, yes cannot stop writing their emotions in my Facebook page.
Till now that has been 7 interviews in difference “art and literature newspapers and magazines” about this book… And more will follow during the next months.
This is a very unique story… And there is a lot to learn, On Love, friendship, on alcoholism, on justice, and not to give up on basics of life you believe…etc. etc.
In my book there are very emotional, personal subjects and lessons to learn…
How family life has to be. What are the basıcs ın life in such cases…
Fınally adoption whıch ıs a solution ın some cases.
You get a baby, new burn baby, from the fırst day
and grow her…lıke your chıld…
and at age of 4-5 suddenly you learn that she ıs an autistic gırl,
Do we know enough what autism ıs?
How the dreams of a family collapse, when they know their chıld ıs an autistic…!!
There are all ın my book…
Thıs ıs not an ordinary book…!!!
I believe ıt can be “bestseller” and to be nominated for other Prizes…
