Farewell to a great friend, an older brother with a heart full of love

I am not well, yes... But I am at peace...

I am at peace having bid farewell as one should to a great friend, an older brother with a heart full of love, a man of deep understanding, a vast intellectual, and a wise person.

We lost Turan Ağabey over the weekend, with whom I had been confiding, exchanging ideas, joking and laughing, feeling sorrow, and discussing journalism and the recent past almost every day for the last three to three and a half years of my life.

I know and am certain that we had formed a very special bond.

Turan Ağabey was, yes, a wise man; he was one of the true intellectuals of Turkey, whose numbers are dwindling every day. He was a very special person focused on science and reason, a great patriot.

He always said that one should look through the window of science.

He read a lot and wrote, even when it was difficult for him.

Turan Ağabey possessed an extraordinarily strong sense of justice... He was on the side of the truth under all circumstances. He always advocated fighting against injustices through the law. He would say, "The law does not bend or break; the truth is the truth."

Whoever he thought was being treated unjustly, he would put on his robe and defend them without calculation, self-interest, or expectation.

But Turan Karakaş was beyond all of this.

Unfortunately, he was already ill when we met. The first thing he taught me was to fight without giving up.

He fought against his illness as if mocking it, surprising even his doctors.

So much so that, with his determination to live and produce, I had come to believe that he had defeated that cursed disease that gripped his body.

His commitment to life seemed to be a driving force for me whenever I was drowning under depressive attacks and fits of anger.

Turan Ağabey was in love with nature. One of our plans and topics of discussion was to start a farm and grow walnuts. He was more determined about this than I was.

"Let us be together, civilized people who understand each other; we can survive by providing solidarity in the process we are in, we can feel good," he would say.

They say the feelings of animals and children always reflect the truth. He loved animals, nature, and children very much, and children and animals loved him back.

We would talk about faith with him... He would get very angry at politics being conducted through religion, sects, and identity, at acting through these concepts, and at merit and reason being pushed into the background.

To him, the superficialization of faith and God, and their being squeezed into certain molds, was not right.

He defined life as an infinite, boundless love, an all-encompassing power, and an extraordinarily beautiful wholeness.

And of course, he advocated that this must be honored. "One must be on the side of love, Mustafa, one must look at life that way," he would say.

One day I asked him, "Turan Ağabey, does this encompass everything, I mean this tolerance of yours... Does it encompass everything?"

Before he could answer, I continued:

"I know you are hurt... You have been wounded, I know there are those who abused your good intentions. I know about those who took refuge in your material and moral support during your difficult days, and who fell at your feet begging for help to protect themselves from the evil of their betrayal of old friends... I know... And I also know that these people, whom you helped and ran to for every trouble, distorted the truth for their own small interests and stabbed you in the back... Are we going to love them too?"

He did not hesitate at all... "We will love them. That is where the difference is revealed," he replied.

Yes, he loved, but I could not. To be realistic, my anger toward those who hurt him only increased as I got to know him better.

But still, for the sake of my Turan Ağabey's wisdom and loving heart, I tried to remain neutral...

His struggle, his resilience, his stance in favor of reason and science...

His revolutionary spirit, his courage, his kindness, his compassion...

His vast heart, his patriotism, his values and principles...

His Atatürkism, his republicanism, and his advice have remained with us, Turan Ağabey.

We left him to the nature he loved so much, to the bosom of Mother Earth; he will sleep there in eternal peace.

As for us, we will keep him alive in books, stories, our memories, gatherings of friends, what we write, and his teachings.

Finally, with a lump right in the middle of my chest and a few drops trickling from my eyes...

"My beautiful brother who said, 'I will not let my honor be crushed by my shadow'...

You always lived with honor and left that way... My promise to you... We, too, will live without letting our honor be crushed even by our shadows, and we will always be with you.

My promise to you....