Fatih Kalu enlisted in the army after freezing his registration in the university. He was preparing to join the army in 15 days when he was martyred by a helicopter shooting at civilians in Beştepe on the night of July 15th attempted coup.
He learned about the coup attempt during the call of President Erdoğan to the streets on that night. He asked his mother what was going on and his mother answered, “They will hang our President like they did to Adnan Menderes. It will be like Syria or Egypt.” Kalu hit his chest with his hand and said, “I may not have any weapon but I have my life. I will give that to my country.”
Fatih didn’t answer his phone all night and didn’t come home that morning after the coup. His family searched all the police stations and hospitals but were not able to find him. His family eventually found out that he was was in the Atatürk Hospital, after they called the Ministry of Health. When they arrived at the hospital, they received the news that their son was martyred.
“I may not have any weapon but I have my life. I will give that to my country.”
Ümmü Kalu Fatih’s mother, wanted to enlist as soon as possible, describing the events of the night to Yeni Şafak, “My son was in Bolu, he came to Ankara that night. We were sitting in the house. We heard gunshots as we live near the MIT (National Intelligence Organization). We were following the news on TV. My son asked what was happening. I told him ‘They will hang our President like they did to Adnan Menderes.’ My other child started crying saying ‘mom, if they hang our President, they will take our Quran and hijabs too!’ My son got very angry and said, ‘How can they shoot at our own people? I will shoot the commander ordering to shoot at civilians. They can shoot at me! I have one life to give to our country, I will give it. I don’t have any weapons, I have a life, and I will give that to our country.’ After saying this, he left the house like he was flying. He was martyred by a helicopter. We found out about it in the morning. He was studying in a university but he didn’t care for school all that much. All he truly cared about was his country. He froze his university registration and said, ‘I need to enlist in the army, I need to save my country.’ He always told me, ‘Mom, I will be a martyr and you will be the mother of a martyr.’ May God stop those traitors who want to hurt our country, adhans, and the Islamic world.”
Fatih was going to go to İskenderun as a marine on August 1st. He was buried in Gerede as a martyr (just like he had hoped) on Monday, July 18th.
The name Martyr Fatih Kalu was given to an Anatolian imam hatip high school in Manisa.
