Cemil Meriç, who lived in Antakya until the age of seven, returned to Reyhanlı with his family after his father left the office.
After working as a primary school teacher in Haymaseki village for nine months, he became the deputy chief of the Translation Office in İskenderun the same year.
In 1938, he worked as a primary school teacher in Batı Ayrancı Village, as a secretary at the Turkish Aeronautical Association and as a clerk in the municipality.
He was arrested in April 1939 for the overthrow of the Hatay government and taken to Antakya; He was put on trial for a death sentence; He was acquitted two months later.
Exempted from military service due to the high myopia in both eyes, Meriç published his first translation book Honoré de Balzac's La Fille aux yeux d'or in 1943.
Translated Victor Hugo's play, Hermani, in verse (1948); he taught French at Işık High School (1952–1954).
[4] The work, which aims to break down the prejudices against Eastern civilizations and has emerged as a result of a four-year study, was published twice more under the title Bir Dünyanın Eşiğinde (Turkish: On the Verge of a World).
With this in mind, he wrote a work about Saint Simon, who was one of the leading figures of sociology, but had a hard time finding a publishing house to print.
Meriç gave conferences until 1984 and his work Kırk Ambar (Turkish: Forty Warehouse) was awarded the National Cultural Foundation Prize in Turkey.
Meriç, who lost his wife Fevziye Hanım in 1983, suffered a brain hemorrhage in the August of the same year and paralyzed his left side.