January 27, 2002

A tribute to our Fallen Turkish Diplomats

Dear Daughters of Ataturk:

Twenty-nine years have passed since the brutal killings of the Turkish Consul General Mehmet Baydar and Vice-Consul Bahadir Demir in Santa Barbara, California and 20 years since the assassination of the Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan in Los Angeles, California. To this day, I get misty eyed when I go by the hotel in Santa Barbara and by the corner on Wilshire Boulevard where the brutal killings of these three Turkish diplomats took place, their images engraved in my mind forever. Today I pay tribute to them as well as other Turkish diplomats who became victims of ideological hatred. I remember going to the airport to see their lifeless bodies to be shipped home, I remember the Turks singing the Turkish National Anthem and crying. Buried beneath the feelings of sadness, horror, anger, and disbelief we cried.

I had known these three diplomats and had a good, close relationship with them. It seems only a few days ago that I was playing volleyball with Mehmet Baydar and Bahadir Demir when I heard the news of their assassination and it was only a few days ago that I had talked to Kemal Arikan when telephone started ringing announcing his assassination. Tragic events of September 11, 2001 seem to stress this fact even more so as I mourn their death. The days, months, years following were a difficult time for me as well as for many Turks and all those who have been touched with tragedy, to return to our daily lives. I remember Mrs. Demir crying silently during the funeral ceremony; holding back her tears as she gently touched her unborn baby.

My condolences go out to all the families of the innocent victims of these killings who fell because of what they represented. Please take a moment of reverence on January 27, 2002 in their memory even though our words can never repay the debt we owe. We are merely caretakers of their memory. They were men with mission; they were fathers, husbands, sons, brothers; they were the candles lost to terrorism.


Sema Karaoglu,
Daughters of Ataturk