Everyone has a story. That story can be long or short. It can be boring or interesting. It may be instructive, even cautionary. Of course, everyone's story has different sides, but there are two important common features in all stories: What is expressed is the truth, and that truth can only be written once, and never again.
Every person's story is a slice of the passing time lived with a mortal body. It is only a particle of humanity. In some places, it intersects with other people's stories, and in some places it only shows its own characteristics.
Everyone's story can be written. Some stories create a useful, noteworthy legacy for people. In such stories, a lot has been squeezed into the life span of the human body. These are stories that concern not just one person, but many people. In fact, they describe the period, society, country, ideas, and principles. The body will return to its creator, but the traces of what it has experienced will remain. Therefore, it would be good if these stories were written.
Mehmet Kemal Dedeman's story concerns his immediate circle and the business world as well as the society he lived in. His life has its own characteristics as much as his personality. Mehmet Kemal Dedeman's story is one that needs to be written. After the long and meticulous work he did to write this story, I am also grateful for the time, care, attention and closeness he spent for me.
Mehmet Kemal Dedeman kept notes starting from his youth, recording almost everything with the date, place and sometimes time. He recorded some parts of his life story by keeping diaries, and some of his memories were included in verses he called "fakes" or "fictitious". He kept the documents of many events that made up his life story in orderly files. These were so meticulous that even the dates he reviewed or edited were recorded. The source of the document in his hand was always stated; if a correspondence or a document had a story of its own, it was definitely noted. It is impossible not to be amazed how this meticulousness was maintained during a busy business life. Mehmet Kemal Dedeman did not stop there, and with his fountain pen, which he always had with him, and with a pearl-like handwriting, he wrote countless lines. In these lines, where he deals with subjects such as life, people, God, nature, daily tasks, and his family, he confides in his troubles, prays to God, and criticizes himself harshly.
The care he showed in writing and recording events, as well as in his experiences, played a major role in the writing of Mehmet Kemal Dedeman's life story. Mehmet Kemal Dedeman became the architect of his own story. All the material had already been meticulously prepared by him, in all its details.
I am very pleased to have had the chance to get to know Mr. Mehmet Kemal Dedeman, who holds a unique place in Turkey's history and the business world, due to the writing of this story, which reflects the energy and color he brought to work and life.
