Tayfun Benol, a Beautiful Person

The people who know Tayfun start giggling when one starts to talk about him...Then the story begins and develops with an utter chain of absurdity that ends with black humor as people saying "That is Tayfun guys, Tayfun!" A single story cannot tell his idiosyncratic personality. That's how Tayfun is.

He loves people. He wonders all of them, that's why he tails after everyone he meets somehow and enters their lives, share their problems, tries to solve them. But he is easily distracted. He may have met with some others on his road but it doesn't mean that he will let you down. He is always late but he always comes. In his every return, he comes back with a story to make you laugh telling how he handled the problems in a complicating (firstly for himself) way. He will be late but he will always return with an impish smile and a story starts with "geeeez, do you know what happened...."

For this reason, even though their friends received his death knell from tens of sources after the bombs exploded on Saturday in Ankara, they didn't believe his death until they found Tayfun in morgue. Everyone hoped he would come out of somewhere. Everyone kept telling each other "This is Tafyun, who knows where he is bustling about, forgetting all about himself to run for others' help, he will show up soon..." The days passed saying "He would have called his wife Gülderen but maybe dropped his phone, he doesn't memorize anyone's number..." No, no...Tayfun will turn up soon...

My daughter was raised with Tayfun. We thought with Yüce about how to tell her. While trying to tell my daughter in my mind, trying to find responses to her imaginary questions, attempting to understand through her mind what is going on, I realized how we take for granted the possibility of getting killed at any moment...How horrendous to try to comprehend the question "but why" through my child'd mind...

Is there a way to explain the death of Tayfun without rocking her belief in this world or human goodness?

I guess not.

Thus, we've decided to not tell her. We slide over when she asks about Tayfun, and say he has moved out of town if she insists.

Children forget somehow or other, let her forget him, forget his name...May pain of this preposterous massacre not contuse her memories of the excitement of taking Pati outside, joy of waking up grappling in the bed every morning, all the beauties Tayfun's stainless spirit have incorporated into our daughter. May Tayfun remain within our daughter as a goodness, happiness, and light whose name is forgotten.

My dear child. They killed your uncle Tayfun. We will hide it from you because we want to hide from you a bit more what a bad place the world is.

You grow up and learn with your losses, your soul shall not be damaged. It shall not be damages so that you can become a person who doesn't lose her faith in humanity not even for a second, brave enough to hold every hand bestowed without losing your conviction, fair and beautiful just like your uncle Tayfun. This is Tayfun's revolutionary heritage to us. Because being revolutionary necessitates initially to have faith in people and love them. (GA/HK/TK)

Tayfun Benol was in Ankara to contribute to peace call on October 10, 2015. He left by her wife's, Gülderen, side to ask his laborer fellows how they are in the cortege of the Building Worker Union's of which he is one of the founders. The explosion took pace his near-by. All of his friends looked for Tayfun hospital by hospital whole day. We received his death knell late night hours.

Tayfun Benol, İstanbul Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler bölümünden 1988'de mezun oldu. Lise yıllarıdan itibaren sosyalist mücadele içinde oldu. Politika Gazetesi'nin sorumlu yazıişleri müdürüydü. bianet için  Ermeni Soykırımı'nın 100. Yıldönümü dolayısıyla hazırlanan "100leşme" yazılarından birini kaleme almış ve Leman Halasının hikayesini paylaşmıştı.

Tayfun Benol gradu from İstanbul University, Department of International Relations, in 1998. He was involved in socialist struggle as of his high school years. He was the managing editor of Politika Newspaper. He had penned one of "100leşme"* articles prepared due to 1000th Commemorate of Armenian Genocide and shared Leman's story.

* 100leşme means Face off or Confrontation. 100 is spelled as "yüz" in Turkish, which means "face".

Click here to read the article in Turkish