Mustafa Cambaz

Yeni Şafak employee Mustafa Cambaz was among those who came down to the squares on the night of the July 15 invasion attempt. He was from the Western Thrace Turks.

“I don’t serve as a soldier for Greece,” said Cambaz, who was an idealist over the deterrent Greek policies of the time and he left his village in Komotini and arrived in Istanbul as a fugitive. At the time, he was married to Ms. Semra in Istanbul and his only son, Alpaslan, was eight months old.

The Cambaz family, who lived in Zeytinburnu, changed houses three times in the last 10 years and three of these houses were in Çengelköy. Mustafa Cambaz was a lover of Istanbul and loved Çengelköy as a domicile. Cambaz had moved back to Çengelköy for the fourth and last time. To Çengelköy cemetery...

It was exactly one month since they moved to their last home. In one month, they had just laid the carpets on the floor of the house where they settled, and they could now stay in their home comfortably, then July 15 took place.

Her son Alpaslan expressed the period as follows: “While we were arranging the house with my mother, my father was constantly watching the Bosporus from the balcony. We placed the books on the shelves although he had said ‘Don’t touch, I’ll arrange them’ before, he did not want to touch anything that day. We wouldn’t know that actually my mom and I was preparing a condolence house, and he was spending his last days relieving his tiredness.”

“We are going out on the street with the request and order of Commander Erdoğan”

On the evening of July 15, Mustafa Cambaz was in Çengelköy with his friends. When he returned home, his son told me that soldiers had cut the road in Beylerbeyi and that something was going on, and they talked about it and argued. Mustafa Cambaz didn’t take those who didn’t take them seriously, called his friends, and said, “Brother, we don’t know that there was a coup going on next to us.”

Then, he understood the seriousness of the situation upon what he watched on television. Immediately after the call of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “Get to the Square”, he said on his social media account, “Those who do the insurrection should not sit as they did. They shouldn’t even sit at all. We go out with the request and order of Commander Erdogan.”

Two G3 bullets stuck in his chest

Cambaz went to the police station in Çengelköy, which coup plotters tried to take over. He was at the forefront when the coup-plotters opened fire on the citizens who came to defend the station. He looked for his son from the wall where he was hiding. His son Alpaslan told those moments as follows: “My father phoned me fifteen minutes later. He said, ‘Soldier raids police station, shooting at the public.’ I’m just trying to figure out how, at that time, shots come from behind. I said, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I’m at the bottom of the wall.’ I said, ‘Don’t make sudden moves.’ His friends know him. He makes sudden moves, he’s hot-tempered... The phone stopped after a while. Of course, I lost control. I went inside and immediately took my ablution. I have a t-shirt, and it says, “We’re from him, we’re going to him,” and I put it on. If there were guns in the house, I’d take a gun with me. I took a pocket knife... Think about it! At that moment, stick or pocket knife, whatever... I went down to Çengelköy and it was not possible to move. There was such an intense shot... They shouted, ‘Take the right, take the right.’ I look around, people were shot, the shot ones were carried... I looked at everybody carried whether my father is it or not.” Alpaslan could not find his father despite all his efforts and he returned home after staying there for about an hour and a half. His mother was alone at home and she was devastated. He kept calling his father’s phone, but it was not answered. Finally, an officer from the hospital in Çengelköy opened his phone and told him that his father was taken to another hospital injured. “Either Ümraniye State Hospital or Haydarpaşa Numune,” said the voice on the phone. Alpaslan took his mother and rushed to Ümraniye State Hospital. He told those moments in an interview he gave:

“We went to Ümraniye State Hospital, we already had a brother in Numune. I called and asked him could he look for? He couldn’t reach my father. By the way, my father was stateless, so he has no identity card. He has been married for 30 years, has a 25-year-old child, but has no identity card... So, how did this man live up to now? Nobody ever believes it. I could not see the name on the list at the hospital entrance and I supposed they couldn’t find his identity card. I found out someone was in the morgue and there were people in intensive care unit. A brother of mine entered the morgue, and he said, "It's not him." But he couldn’t convince me. Everybody was saying something sketchy. They were stalling us. But he wasn't really in the morgue. They removed his body from the intensive care around 5:30 in the morning.”

Cambaz was martyred but kept some time in the intensive care. His son announced his martyrdom from the social media account: “He was shot from the best fit to a martyr. From his chest. With two bullets. I hope I’m a child of a martyr.”

The news spread among all his beloved ones. Everybody knew him, including cats... Some people saw one of the cats he fed in the garden do something he had never done before and enter the newspaper building and start walking around the floor where Cambaz was working.

“No one saw him sulking”

Our colleague Cambaz's funeral was brought to the Topkapı Albayrak Holding building and blessings were received from his colleagues. Albayrak Holding Chairman Ahmet Albayrak, Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Albayrak, Albayrak Holding Board Members Nuri, Muzaffer and Kazım Albayrak, Albayrak Group Senior Manager Ömer Bolat attended the ceremony held at the headquarters. In addition, Yeni Şafak Editor-in-Chief İbrahim Karagül, our writers Salih Tuna, Mehmet Şeker, Ayşe Böbürler, Fatma Barbarosoğlu, Özlem Albayrak, and Yeni Şafak's former Chief Editor and writer of Karar newspaper Mustafa Karaalioğlu were also at the ceremony. Anadolu Agency Assistant General Manager Metin Mutanoğlu, Star Newspaper writer Halime Kökçe, Habertürk TV General Manager Veyis Ateş were among the names who attended the ceremony.

Albayrak Group Chairman Ahmet Albayrak stated that the highest authority was martyrdom after prophecy and said, “There is not much more to say for our brother. He reached the rank of martyrdom, which is a high authority. We will do everything that falls upon us from now on.”

Mehmet Şeker, the author of the newspaper,“ You cannot come across anyone who speaks against Mustafa or says ‘He made me wrong.’ Mustafa came from Komotini to study in Istanbul. Mustafa, who did not serve as a soldier for Greek territory, lived in Turkey with a temporary identity (residence certificate) took two bullets from the coup-plotters, and died for his beloved land. He went to his beloved land before all of us,” said in the program held.

Yeni Şafak News Manager Recep Yeter said, “He's still smiling, even when he's drinking sherbet of martyrdom. He didn't sulk once in his life. No one saw him sulking. He always laughed, always made us laugh. There were two things he loved so much. One was his cats and the other was to take pictures of mosques in 81 provinces of Turkey. Those who made up the fairy tale of love and tolerance would understand what kind of lie they had been living if they had known Mustafa.”

After receiving the blessing, Cambaz’s funeral was taken to the Marmara University Faculty of Theology, Tatbikat Mosque, accompanied by prayers and sayings of “God is great.”

President Erdoğan, 11th President Abdullah Gul, ministers, MPs, colleagues, relatives, and many citizens attended the funeral ceremony. Following the funeral prayers here, the body of Cambaz was buried at the Çengelköy Cemetery.

Mustafa Cambaz was the only artist to take photographs of all the prominent mosques in Turkey, and he was a recording photographer. The website www.mustafacambaz.com has a large archive of thousands of photos and footers. He opened this archive for free. He mainly photographed historical buildings and voluntarily contributed to many researchers and art history students. One full month before his martyrdom, he carried out his biggest dream had gathered the photographs of all prominent mosques in Turkey in a single book. This study was a first in the history of the Republic and published by the Prime Ministry Atatürk Cultural Center Presidency under the name of Grand Mosque in Turkey. Cambaz was taken to Turkish citizenship after he was martyred. IETT, who wanted to keep the memory of Cambaz alive, changed the name of the Topkapı Metrobus station near the Yeni Şafak building, to Şehit Mustafa Cambaz.

Ayhan Keleş

Furniture Maker