Ka is the protagonist of the novel. He is a Turkish poet and an exile whom the novel describes as good, kind, and “a modern-day dervish” (76). However, under the influence of an overwhelming passion for İpek, Ka’s character transforms deeply over the course of three days in Kars.

Necip tells Ka that he has never seen someone who looked more unhappy, and Ka admits that his unhappiness is why he came to Kars. Ka feels like an outsider in Frankfurt, but he is also an outsider in Kars. He notes that “everyone he [meets] in Kars [speaks] in the same code” that he struggles to understand (244). Part of this is due to Ka’s comfortable upbringing in Nişantaş, Turkey, and his time in Western society. Poverty intrigues him, taking on a “metaphysical charge” as something he does not understand (18). Though Ka begins to understand poverty more deeply through his interactions with locals in Kars, his focus remains finding comfort in the beauty of snow and pursuing the love of İpek.

Ka’s disconnection from reality and his distaste for politics are clear in his response to the coup: Right before the coup, when there is a riot in the theater, he is focused on remembering the poem he just recited and seeing İpek again.