Farewell to Şehzadeler Mayor Gülşah Durbay

Manisa is experiencing another painful loss following the death of Manisa Metropolitan Mayor Ferdi Zeyrek, who recently lost his life after being electrocuted.

Şehzadeler Mayor Gülşah Durbay has passed away at the age of 37. The 37-year-old Durbay had been receiving cancer treatment for some time and had been in intensive care for 14 days. Today, the people of Manisa and political figures are bidding her farewell with ceremonies held in her honor.

The first ceremony was held in front of the Şehzadeler Municipality. Many prominent figures attended the memorial service, including CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Cemil Tugay, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Nuri Aslan, and Dilek İmamoğlu, the wife of Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is currently detained at Silivri Prison.

Following the memorial service, the funeral prayer will be held at Cumhuriyet Square after the noon prayer at Hatuniye Mosque. Durbay's body will be interred at Koldere Cemetery, and condolences will be accepted there at Durbay's home.

CHP'S DENİZLİ AND ÖZEL COULD NOT HOLD BACK THEIR TEARS

Çeşme Mayor Lal Denizli spoke on behalf of Durbay's family. Denizli said, "As the years passed, she both rose in our struggle and completed her education in many fields. No matter what situation we were in, in all our party and life journeys, one of us was the priority of the other. My Gül's beautiful family, she loved being your child very much. She became the pride of her entire family. You fit an unforgettable, beautiful story into your short life and achieved great successes. I have no words to describe the pain in my heart. I am glad you passed through this land; I love you very much. May God place you in the most beautiful corner of His paradise, rest in peace."

"YOU LEFT WITHOUT FORGIVING THOSE WHO SLANDERED YOU"

CHP Deputy Chairman Gökçe Gökçen, who spoke next, noted, "Even when you were in intensive care, you said, 'Don't let them go to any trouble.' You were by my side whenever I needed help. You were fair, you couldn't bear to see those you loved hurt; you were a very good friend not just to me, but to all your friends. I will never forget the immoral people you had to deal with during the days you learned about this illness. As a young woman, you grew your struggle with great effort, you earned your own money through hard work, and despite traveling to all the provinces as part of your job, you served as the provincial youth branch president at the same time. In the 2017 referendum, you worked for a 'no' vote by visiting every corner of Manisa. You left without forgiving those who slandered you, because you were aware that this filth targeted not only you but all women who showed courage."

CHP leader Özgür Özel, who began his remarks by saying, "We thank you for not leaving us alone on this painful day," stated the following:

"When one enters politics, you prepare yourself for everything, but one does not prepare for this much. Just 6 months ago, we all sent off my brother Ferdi Zeyrek together with Gülşah's tears. Gülşah was the child of a very good CHP family, a better CHP member than all of us. When I was a candidate in 2009, she was running around in this party. She lived running, she worked running. When I came to congratulate her recently, I reminded her that we toured this building together in 2014. As the youth branch president in this building, she would go in, knock on doors, and introduce me to all the staff in this municipality by saying, 'Our Metropolitan Mayor candidate is Özgür Özel.' She took on many tasks for this party, running, ahead of all of us.

Gülşah was very close with the Youth Branches. Gülşah had a saying; for example, we would lose an election and hold an evaluation meeting. She would say, 'To win an election, you must have a story; we didn't have a story in this election, that's why we lost.' This time she was very excited; even though this place is registered to Saruhanlı and it wasn't on her mind much, we also wanted a female mayor, we wanted it because Gülşah could succeed. While we were talking about it, she said we would win with brother Ferdi. I asked, 'Do we have a story?' She said, 'This time we do.' She said, 'This time we will write this story.'"