Gagauz writer Todur Zanet celebrates 60th anniversary

Chisinau, 14 June /MOLDPRES/- Poet, prose writer, playwright, folklorist and translator Todur Zanet, winner of several literary awards, holder of the Labor Glory Order, today celebrated 60 years.

He was born on 14 June 1958 in Congaz village, Comrat district. In 1981, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Chisinau. In 1988, he founded the newspaper "Ana Sozu" ("The Mother's Word") in an effort to resist the Gagauz russification and to standardize the spelling of their language. He was editor-in-chief of this newspaper, with an interruption in 1994 and 1999.

During the collapse of the Soviet Union he wrote the original Gagauz anthem, officially adopted in June 1990. In 1993, he translated the opera "Bajazet" by Jean Racine, considered retrospectively as a moment in the history of the Gagauz theater. He is the founder of the literary magazine "Kirlangic" for young readers.

In 2010, he published an anthology of poetry and folklore, "Gazauzluk: Culture, Ruh, Adetlar", used as a record of the Gagauz in Turkish and comparative linguistics. In 2013, he published his volume of poems "Koorlaşmiş ateş", published in Turkish and Azerbaijani.

Todur Zanet is a winner of several literary awards, including the Literary Prize of the Writers Union of Moldova, Honorary Citizen of Louisville, Kentucky, USA (2003). In 2010, he was awarded the Labor Glory Order.

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor A. Răileanu)