Long White Cloud Gelibolu (Book)

Long White Cloud Gallipoli is a historical fiction novel written by Buket Uzuner and published in 2001. The work connects events on the Gallipoli Front during World War I with the history of a family, revealing links between the past and the present. In this context, it offers a historical comparison across different cultural contexts. The narrative centers on the journey of a young New Zealand woman to Türkiye to uncover a family secret.

Subject

The novel recounts the journey of Viki Taylor, a New Zealander, as she travels to Türkiye in search of traces of her grandfather, Alistair John Taylor, who was presumed dead in the Gallipoli Campaign. Viki is motivated by family stories suggesting that her grandfather did not die in the war but instead remained in Türkiye. During her trip to the Gallipoli Peninsula, she uncovers a series of clues and testimonies that lead her to discover that her grandfather had crossed over to the Turkish side and continued his life under the name “Alican Çavuş”.

Characters

• Viki Taylor: A New Zealand citizen who travels to Türkiye to learn the fate of her grandfather during the war.
• Alistair John Taylor / Alican Çavuş: A New Zealand soldier who fought in World War I. After the war, he remained on the Turkish side, changed his identity, and married Meryem.
• Meryem: The daughter of Sünnetçi Mehmet. She married Alican Çavuş and had four children.
• White Aunt: The daughter of Alican Çavuş. She serves as a key witness and narrator throughout the novel. Her familial connection to Viki gradually emerges.
• Tour Guide Mehmet: A man who assists Viki in Türkiye and introduces her to the villagers.
• Ali Osman Taylar: One of the grandchildren of Alican Çavuş. He acts as the family’s current representative and manages relations with the press.

Plot Structure

The novel begins in March 2000 in Çanakkale. Viki Taylor, a young New Zealander, travels to Türkiye driven by a family belief that her grandfather, Alistair John Taylor, did not die during the Çanakkale Campaign. Viki begins her investigation accompanied by Guide Mehmet. Each morning she enters the sea at Anzac Cove to pray; this ritual draws the attention of the villagers.

Viki travels to the village of Eceyaylası, believing her grandfather may have lived there. She explains her purpose to the villagers and the village headman. During a conversation at the village café, she claims that the man known locally as “Alican Çavuş” is her grandfather, Alistair John Taylor. The villagers are astonished by this claim. Alican Çavuş is widely known in the region as a war veteran who survived the Çanakkale Campaign and returned to the village as the only surviving male from his generation.

Viki seeks to meet an elderly woman named White Aunt who lives in the village. White Aunt initially resists the request. However, after Viki introduces herself in English and reveals her grandfather’s identity, White Aunt opens her door and the two engage in a long conversation.

White Aunt tells Viki the story of her father. According to her account, Alistair John Taylor crossed over to the Turkish side during an extraordinary event in the Çanakkale Campaign: he emerged from a thick white cloud of mist and encountered a wounded Turkish officer named Ali Osman. The two soldiers spent two days together on the front. Ali Osman died, and Alistair buried him with his own hands. At that moment, he was discovered by a young woman from the village named Meryem. Meryem brought Taylor to the village. There, Taylor adopted a Turkish identity, converted to Islam, changed his name to Alican Çavuş, and married Meryem. The couple had four children; three survived and were named “Uzun”, “Bulut”, and “Beyaz”. The girl named “Beyaz” is the present-day White Aunt.

Deeply moved by this revelation, Viki is faced with a family determined to keep the story away from media attention. Through the lawyer Ali Osman Taylar, the family holds a press conference in which they declare the story to be “nothing more than a misunderstanding”. This announcement fails to generate the media impact they anticipated but helps reduce tensions in the village.

In the final chapters, Viki visits the grave of Alican Çavuş. It lies beside the grave of Ali Osman Bey. With this, Viki completes the journey of her personal past and prepares to return to her homeland, New Zealand, having found inner peace. The novel concludes with the fulfillment of a journey undertaken to trace an individual’s forgotten history.