Counterperson Kadir Balcı, 35, Died in Taksim

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Kadir Balcı was born in Rize in 1942. He worked as a counterperson at a bakery.

He was 35 years old when he lost his life. He worked at the bakery across from the French Consulate on İstiklal Street at the entrance to Taksim Square. He'd gone up onto the terrace to watch the demonstration and to call out to people, inviting them into the bakery. He lost his life when he was hit by a bullet shot from below.

According to the autopsy, Kadir Balcı died as a result of a gunshot injury. The autopsy report states the cause of death as internal bleeding resulting from a bullet wound that damaged the liver and heart.

Reaching the family

I was able to reach Kadir Balcı's daughter, Dilek Balcı, thanks to journalist Neşe Yeşiloğlu, who had spoken with Dilek and her twin sister Özlem Balcı in 2015.

Dilek Balcı was just five years old when she lost her father, but she remembers him from both her own memories, as well as from what her mother told her about him. She recalls what a joyful and playful person he was, and how much he loved to take photographs. She says it is perhaps from her father that she inherited her own passion for photography...

Dilek Balcı tells us in her own words about Kadir Balcı's 35 years of life, about how the family was thrown into turmoil following his death, and the difficulties they experienced.

Kadir Balcı's daughter speaks

There used to be a bakery across from the French Consulate, and he worked there as a counterperson. That day he'd gone up onto the terrace to watch the demonstration and to call out to people to come back into the bakery. My dad was struck by a bullet shot from below and lost his life right there.

I was very young when I lost my dad, and as far as I myself recall, and from what I remember my mum and his friends saying, he was someone who was full of life. He loved taking photos. I get my own passion for photography from him, I think. He was very funny, always playing jokes on people. That's how everyone spoke of him after his death too.

We really struggled

There were four of us kids. The only thing our father was able to leave us was his pension. It was such a struggle for my mum, especially back then, to raise four kids at once. She wasn't equipped to take on the financial burden of it by herself. I won't even speak of the emotional burden.

For years the bread in our home came from the local bakery. Our clothes were hand-me-downs from our relatives or our neighbours. That's what we wore. I can say that we grew up with the help of the people around us. Let me put it this way: We're from Rize, and most of our food for the winter would come from Rize. But we'd buy olives, for example, and we'd nibble at them to make them last as long as possible.

We were all able to finish school

My dad had bought a house before he died. There were still payments that had to be made on it. My mum would go to Tophane every month and make those payments. Back then of course we weren't aware of the gravity of the situation. Later we all came to understand that she had raised us under the most challenging of conditions, herself suffering such tremendous pain.

We were all able to finish school. My mum made that possible, despite the difficult circumstances. Our education was an advantage. My little sister and I both graduated from the School of Fine Arts, and we both work in design now.

My older sister and older brother are university graduates too. My older sister is a certified public accountant in Germany now, and my older brother works at a large firm. All of us have good lives, but the conditions we lived under back then...

It's thanks to my mum, thanks to the fight she put up, that we have the good lives we have today.

1 May was taboo

1 May was taboo for us. We were forbidden from going to the First of May demonstrations. And so I never went. I really wanted to, but my mum never let me.

And for years I was unable to gather the courage to go. I was able to visit Gezi Park only after my mum passed away. And after that, I was able to go to the First of May demonstrations just once. That was in 2014. Exactly 37 years after my dad's death.

He was buried in Rize

After my dad lost his life in Taksim, his body was sent back to Rize, as is our tradition, because his family is there. He was buried in Rize.

My mum wanted to go to Rize too when she was sick. We lost her also, in 2000, to stomach cancer. I mean, the cumulation of so much pain and suffering eventually got to her, and so that's how we lost my mum.

Why him?

For years it seemed unfair to me that my dad died the way he did. I was always asking myself: Why him? Why so much pain? Why all these difficulties?

But as I grew up, I decided that some things have to happen in order to make what comes after possible. There have even been times when I've thought it was a good thing my dad was there that day, and that he died the way he did.

I hope that we come to see brighter days, more fortunate times, but I just don't know. I can only hope that we, all of us together, get to see those days.

(TY/APA/KU/NÖ/VK)

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