These photos taken on 12-9 of the memorial of Celalettin Kesim, a teacher and member of a leftist Turkish worker's union. I learned about this murder at the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, and visited the memorial tonight at the corner of Kottbusser Damm and Reichenberger Straße, the site of the murder. His killer was never found, though seven members of the Turkish youth organization the Grey Wolves (attached to the political party MHP) were taken into custody. The memorial states (bottom photo) that he was killed by a right-wing extremist Turkish group.
Celalettin Kesim's death is significant because it marks the conflict between fascist and antifascist Turkish groups in Germany on 5. January, nine months prior to the coup d'etat in Ankara. Kesim was in the area that night as part of a protest against the threat of a military dictatorship in Turkey, which would become a reality on 12. September that year. Born in 1943, Kesim came to Turkey in 1973 as a guest worker.
The top picture is of a quote near the top of the memorial, which reads, "Onlar ümidin düşmanıdır," (they are the enemy of hope). This is a quote from Nazım Hikmet's letter to his wife Piraye. The full poem reads:
Onlar ümidin düşmanıdır, sevgilim,
akar suyun,
meyve çağında ağacın,
serpilip gelişen hayatın düşmanı.
Çünkü ölüm vurdu damgasını alınlarına :
— çürüyen diş, dökülen et —,
bir daha geri dönmemek üzre yıkılıp gidecekler.
Ve elbette ki, sevgilim, elbet,
dolaşacaktır elini kolunu sallaya sallaya,
dolaşacaktır en şanlı elbisesiyle : işçi tulumuyla
bu güzelim memlekette hürriyet...
link: http://www.siir.gen.tr/siir/n/nazim_hikmet/piraye_icin_yazilmis_siirler.htm
They are the enemies of hope, my love,
the enemies of a life
that grows and develops
of a tree that bears fruit
of water that flows.
Because death is stamped on their foreheads—
their teeth rot
their flesh decays—
They'll disappear
and never come back.
And surely, my love,
surely this lovely country of mine
will be a garden of brothers
without masters or slaves...
December 6, 1945
http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/nazim-hikmet/poems-for-piraye-9-to-10-o-clock-poems/
