Departing slowly

There was a weight growing in my heart that day. My feet felt as if they were paralyzed, unwilling to move forward. Even though I wanted to rush up the stairs to the 2nd floor of İzmir Gazi Hospital without catching my breath, something seemed to be pushing me back. I climbed the stairs somehow, and the door to room 1202 was open. The bed was empty, the sheets had been removed. When I entered the room, his assistant was standing at the head of the bed, her hands clasped in prayer, trying to hide her tears. She could only say, "He's gone..." "Just a little while ago, at 07:30..." She is a kind, friendly Uzbek woman. She was weeping for that brave, revolutionary, Kemalist lawyer Turan Karakaş, whom she had known for the last three months. 

If anyone were to ask me who is a "man of his word, a perfect human being" in this world, Turan Karakaş is the first person who would come to mind. He said goodbye on the morning of Saturday, November 22nd. May his path be bright. As I looked at the empty bed, the packed belongings, and the wilted flowers, our 35-year friendship flashed before my eyes like a film strip. As my knees grew weak, our dear friend Aytekin Tunus walked through the door. He scanned the room for a moment. He seemed to be looking for him in the corners. Swallowing hard, he could only say, "Our condolences. He was a dervish-like friend. An unshakable Kemalist, a great man... Farewell. May the stars be your companions."

 What could be said in that empty room? For a moment, I heard barking from far away, as if we were in the garden. I thought to myself how happy he used to be when he heard them bark. He would listen to his Dobermans, "Cesur" and "Şans," behind the house in Urla Kuşçular, and his Akbash, "Köpük," in the front yard. Now, are those dear friends looking at the door, wondering if their father has come home? They have been left as his legacy. They have been left orphaned. "I'll give him to you... But you have to convince Mehtap first," he used to say... I came to my senses with the suggestion, "Let's make a plan to send off Brother Turan in the best way possible. Let's go downstairs." Mehtap and Meltem are two beautiful children, dear friends. They took such good care of their father. They never left him alone... In the hospital, when we went down to the patient waiting lounge, I reached out to his close friends by phone to offer my condolences and share the sad news. The close friends of the very combative, very brave Turan Karakaş did not leave him alone at the ceremony. 

Led by Ali Adnan Aslan, Mustafa Büyüksipahi, and Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu, his 12punto newspaper comrades and close colleagues came to İzmir to fulfill their final duty. On November 23rd, Mehmet Doğan, Barış Doster, Aziz Kocaoğlu, Yüksel Çakmur, Ziya Çavdar, and other close friends, with whom he had fought side-by-side in many fields, especially politics, were at the farewell ceremony at the Narlıdere Cemevi. 

Was anyone from the CHP provincial administration there? I don't know. I didn't see anyone. He had undertaken very important duties during the SODEP-CHP merger, his time as İzmir CHP Provincial Chair, and in subsequent periods. I believe he served his country and his people to the very end. 

He ran day and night during the Balyoz and Ergenekon trials, fighting relentlessly against any attempts to derail our democracy. As a close friend of Deniz Gezmiş and Uğur Mumcu, he was an elder who always stood in the front ranks in the struggle for an anti-imperialist, fully independent Turkey. His mother was from Thessaloniki, and his grandfather was one of the close soldiers who served in Atatürk's cavalry unit. As the child of a Yörük father of Caucasian origin, he was a pure lover of Atatürk. In the conversations we had in his final days, he left a testament: "Protect my Atatürk." Saying, "I studied and became a teacher thanks to the opportunities provided to us by the Atatürk Republic," Karakaş reflected his love for nature and animals in the children's books he wrote. My dear brother Karakaş, one of the founders of TÜLOV (Turkey Promotion, Research, and Democracy Foundation), saluted those left behind with a soldier's demeanor, placing his hand on his forehead and advising, "The Westerners and their collaborator Easterners are trying to destroy the Chairman Özgür Özel. Do not leave him alone." When he regained his confidence in the hospital, he said, "Take me home. I miss my dear ones, their barking," but we could not fulfill his wish. My friend Dr. Salih Zeki Güçlü, rightly, did not give permission as the conditions were not suitable. We could not take him. We sent him off to eternity at the Bademler Asri Cemetery, between a mastic tree and an olive tree he loved very much. 

After the imam's final blessings, prayers, and condolences, we met with his memories at a table of friends with some of his comrades, including Cemal Canpolat, who had served as Istanbul Provincial Chair during the time of Mahmut Türkmenoğlu Cooperative, where they had fought together. The final word belonged to Yolcu Bilginç with his saz: "Look at the state of this world... They are departing slowly... They have boarded the ferry to the afterlife... They are departing slowly..." My dear brother, "Your cause is our cause. The Republic and the principles of Atatürk will live forever." Rest in peace. Do not look back.