We have lost Kalo!

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We have lost Yılmaz Yakut, known as Kalo*, to cancer; he was one of the distributors of Özgür Gündem newspaper (and its successors), who have come down in the history of the Kurdish press as the "Junior Generals of Apê Musa" [Kurdish journalist Musa Anter].

He had long fought epilepsy. In his childhood and early youth, he was detained for several times while he was distributing newspapers; he was threatened, tortured and survived the blows of so-called Hizbullahists' choppers. But he did not die! They could not kill him...

But today, we unfortunately heard that he succumbed to cancer, which he had long fought. He passed away at the hospital where he was treated.

My consolation is that they "could not intimidate" Yılmaz, they could not kill him; I mean, he was not defeated by the worst of the worst, the cancer of fascism. But the biological one has taken him away from us.

He was the child of a poor and large family forced to work as village guards and made to emigrate from their village. His two siblings and cousins used to distribute newspapers once a day like him and would sell candy apples, pastry, sunflower seeds after the distribution.

Life was really difficult for them; it was so difficult that they faced a death risk while distributing newspapers under the shadow of choppers and they were so courageous...

Kalo's brother Nihat joined the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] in 1996 or 1997, if I am not mistaken, and lost his life in the rural side of Lice [in Diyarbakır]. So did his four cousins... In over 40-years of conflict period, they were a family who perhaps suffered the most losses of life.

But they were also the ones who wanted peace the most. As a matter of fact, Yılmaz's cousin Vilayet Yakut (a PKK fighter) came to Turkey with a group of PKK fighters and named "Peace Group" in the period that has come down in the political literature as the "Habur Process".

Kalo was known for delivering newspapers and magazines to readers by camouflaging them with watermelon seeds. In the book titled "Ape Musa's Junior Generals" (Apê Musa'nın Küçük Generalleri), which was edited İrfan Karaca, journalist Bedri Adanır talked about Kalo in his article titled "Bride Price" (Başlık Parası) roughly as follows:

One of the ones who distributed the highest number of newspapers was Yılmaz. As they got a commission per newspaper, he was also the one who earned the most. Taken together with the business that he did after the distribution, he was asked what he did with the money. He would always say that "he was collecting bride price."

I do not know whether he could collect the money or not or whether he could get married or not but, lastly, he was dismissed from the municipality where he worked by the trustee. He could perhaps not be treated even with a "Green Card" [Health card for the uninsured in Turkey]!

The streets where you were chased after with choppers will not forget you, Kalo! Diyarbakır will not forget you! (UAA/APK/SD)