Breaking News: Yalçın Küçük has passed away

Yalçın Küçük, one of the most important intellectuals in the history of Turkey's revolutionary struggle, has passed away in Ankara at the age of 87.

WHO IS YALÇIN KÜÇÜK?

Yalçın Küçük was born in İskenderun in 1938.

After completing his secondary education at Kabataş High School, he graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University in 1960.

Following his graduation, he began working at the State Planning Organization, where he held positions such as Head of the Long-Term Planning Department.

He began his career as a faculty member at METU in 1966, was promoted to associate professor in 1971, and was dismissed from his post following the March 12, 1971, coup.

He wrote articles in support of socialist revolution for journals such as Yön, Emek, and Ant. Between 1973 and 1976, he managed the economics desk of the Cumhuriyet newspaper.

In the 1970s, he participated in efforts to establish the second Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) and served as the editor of the Yürüyüş newspaper, which was published by the party, starting in 1975.

In 1979, he began publishing the Sosyalist İktidar (Socialist Power) journal along with others who were expelled from the TİP with him. That same year, he became a faculty member at the Ankara Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences. He was removed from the university once again after the September 12 Coup.

Küçük, who made great efforts to organize intellectuals against the junta administration after the September 12 coup, organized the Intellectuals' Petition Movement together with Aziz Nesin.

In 1983, he was arrested and imprisoned due to his book titled "For a New Republic."

He retired in 1993 from Gazi University, where he had received his professorship in 1987.

He returned to Turkey in 1998 from France, where he had gone in 1993, and was found guilty of "Kurdish separatist propaganda" and sentenced to two years in prison. He was released in 2000.

In 2009, he was arrested as part of the Ergenekon conspiracy case and was released shortly thereafter.

In 2011, he was arrested once again as part of the OdaTV case, which was merged with the Ergenekon case, and was held in prison for 3 years. He spent approximately 7 years of his life in prison.

Yalçın Küçük had been receiving treatment for health issues for some time.

WHAT DID THEY SAY AFTER HIS DEATH?

Doğu Perinçek: We are in deep pain over the loss of my 60-year friend Yalçın Küçük. From the Science Board of the Workers' Party of Turkey to the Ergenekon case, we shared the struggle for a classless world. He was a columnist for the Aydınlık newspaper for many years. He was one of those who stood tall during the Ergenekon case. We had a profound intellectual life in a six-square-meter room in Haymana prison. He had an unforgettable place in Turkey's intellectual life. With his kalpak and red scarf, his position was always clear; he was enthusiastic and productive. I offer my condolences to Temren, Devrim, all his loved ones, and all my brothers and sisters who are committed to the cause of Scientific Socialism.

Kemal Okuyan: Turkey has lost one of its most productive, original, passionate, and revolutionary intellectuals. He opened horizons and provided excitement. Even his inconsistencies were the product of a revolutionary search. There are thousands of people who will say, "I learned a lot from him." I am one of them. And I am glad I did...

Özgür Çelik: I learned with sadness of the passing of our teacher Yalçın Küçük, a great thinker of leftist politics. We are witnesses from our recent history to the struggle he waged in dungeons and courtrooms against conspiracy cases. May his soul rest in peace, our condolences.

Barış Terkoğlu: "He always described being an intellectual as walking against the wind. He was a brave thinker who could say 'no, it is not like that' while the crowds thought the exact opposite. I learned from him how to stand tall."

Bahadır Özgür: Writer Yalçın Küçük has passed away... He was an intellectual who was impressive, colorful, controversial, and carried all the contradictions of his era in every aspect. In the speech he gave on the day he was released from Silivri, he had said with enthusiasm, "Long live the Republic of the working people." As a reader, I will remember him with these words...

TKH: THE UNBREAKABLE PEN OF THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALIST POWER: WE HAVE LOST PROF. DR. YALÇIN KÜÇÜK

As the Communist Movement of Turkey, we have learned with deep sadness of the passing of Prof. Dr. Yalçın Küçük, one of the most original, productive, and uncompromising names of Turkish socialist thought and the Marxist tradition. Yalçın Küçük was not just an academic or a writer; he was a stance in himself. He was an intellectual who dedicated his life to Turkey's progressive accumulation, the gains of the Republic, and the struggle for socialist power. Küçük, who turned his pen into a tool of struggle against the ideological blockade of the ruling classes, has been etched into memory as an intellectual who analyzed Turkey's recent history and social contradictions with a Marxist perspective.

In his production, which extended from the chairs of Mülkiye to the classrooms of METU, and from the pages of journals to dozens of books, his compass never wavered: Independence, secularism, labor, and socialism.

The life of our teacher Yalçın is a line of resistance that passes through the ideological battles of the last half-century in Turkey. With his identity as a planner, he did not take a step back from defending public property and statism. With his aspect as a historian, he courageously parted the curtains woven by official ideology and reactionism. With his political stance, he never avoided paying the price by taking his place on the side of the working class.

Our teacher Yalçın, who was torn from his chair on March 12, faced dungeons on September 12, and was later held captive for many years by being made the target of political conspiracies, knew how to transform all these pressures into a source of new intellectual production. He proved what intellectual courage is not only with his theory but with his life itself. His studies on the Soviet experience and his original analyses extending from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic carried him beyond being an academic figure and made him a political reference point.

Our teacher Yalçın fulfilled the historical responsibility of an intellectual completely. He built an unshakable barricade with his pen against the relations of dependency on imperialism, the liquidation of the Republic, and the siege of reactionism.

As the Communist Movement of Turkey, we know that his stubborn, uncompromising, and ever-questioning presence was an indispensable dynamic for the leftist thought of this country. In every period when the price of telling the truth was heavy, he was willing to pay that price.

The greatest legacy inherited from him today is the unbreakable bond between scientific doubt and revolutionary will. This legacy will continue to illuminate the path of the struggle for socialist power in Turkey.

As the Communist Movement of Turkey, we respectfully salute Yalçın Küçük, who took the side of the people and enlightenment throughout his life. We offer our condolences to his family, friends, students, and the entire progressive public.

Salutations to Our Great Intellectual

His memory will continue to live on in our struggle and in the bright future of Turkey!

News Source: 12punto