A bullet to the light; the assassination of Ümit Kaftancıoğlu

One spring day, I knocked on Ümit Kaftancıoğlu’s door to conduct an interview for our school’s wall newspaper. It was surprising to me that Uncle Ümit welcomed a child with a respectful attitude that treated me like a "grown-up." With the affection of a loving father, he patted my hair and asked me some questions that piqued my curiosity before we began the interview.

A very short time after the interview was published in the school’s wall newspaper, on April 11, Uncle Ümit was assassinated. I took the interview to the Eğitim Mücadelesi (Education Struggle) magazine, which I had seen at a newsstand. The interview was published in the 7th issue of Eğitim Mücadelesi. This was the last interview conducted with Uncle Ümit.

In this interview, Uncle Ümit emphasized the importance of the education system in social progress and listed the steps that needed to be taken. After pointing out that education should be open to life and the developments of the era, he specifically stated that it should also trigger creativity and imagination. To this end, works of folk culture, such as fairy tales, should also be utilized. Publications like Teksas and Tommiks were dulling the youth.

According to Uncle Ümit, education should provide students with qualities such as debating, interpreting, vitality, and speaking comfortably. Our education system had serious deficiencies in this area.

Uncle Ümit advocated for an education system based on reason and science that called imagination to action. With his books, articles, radio programs, and the extraordinary life path he followed, Uncle Ümit was making significant contributions to the struggle to build a free country where prosperity is shared fairly. Therefore, his execution was deemed "necessary." The twilight forces immediately took action. He was murdered with five bullets in front of the eyes of his daughter, who was a small child at the time. The bullets were also fired at childhood innocence. Like many of our intellectuals, Uncle Ümit had shielded his country and his people with his own body. This dark murder, whose perpetrator is "well-known," has still not been solved.

When I heard that Uncle Ümit had been murdered, a piece of my child’s heart was torn away, and my gaze grew cold. Tens of thousands attended his funeral. However, the democratic forces of that time did not participate in the funeral ceremony in an organized manner. This deficiency is still a pain that aches within me.

In a cassette he recorded before he was killed, Uncle Ümit suggested that in the event of his death, no tears should be shed for him, and that people should go to the cinema or a concert instead. He was saying, "Death is not important at all; there is life like a mountain, there is life like the sky, like the sea..."

With the assassination of Uncle Ümit, this country diminished and shrank once again. Then, the twilight descended upon the country with all its violence and cruelty. Even the sun hid its face from the shame of what was experienced. Despite the terrible persecution experienced after you, Uncle Ümit, they still could not manage to seat this people at the table of fear and despair, and they never will.

Uncle Ümit’s works and his exemplary, resilient life continue to illuminate us in our struggle to reach the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

I know that when we build a free country that respects nature, prioritizes life, and shares prosperity fairly, you will wake up from your eternal sleep and silently join in our indescribable joy, Uncle Ümit.