Yaşar Kayacan – Businessman, Journalist and Civil Society Leader (1977–2025)

On 22 August, I lost a very dear friend. As he turned 48, he said, "Every age is a rebirth... This year, just like a butterfly, I am reborn," and sensed that death was a rebirth, but we did not know your intuition. Of course, your family has lost the pillar of their home, and I have lost a brother, but the Western Black Sea Movement has been deprived of a concrete example embodied by you. Civil society will greatly miss this community figure; I hope your place will be filled.

In your productive life, which did not reach half a century, you played important roles both in the business world and in the Devrekani-Kastamonu-Western Black Sea civil society, and you also guided the Kastamonu press community. You earned a place in people's hearts with your modest personality, smiling face, and social contributions. That is why friends from Iran, Ankara, Çankırı, Kastamonu, and Manisa attended your funeral in Istanbul. Kastamonu, Çankırı, and the Western Black Sea civil society fulfilled their final duties to you.

When you left Fındıkzade Middle School at the age of 12, you wanted to shake off the poverty of the region and spent 36 years as a businessman: you added value to your country and your community in the fields of printing, marketing, press and publishing, education, foreign trade and consultancy. In the words of your brother Orhan, "We raised ourselves under difficult conditions. As children of a family that could not read or write, we grew up hungry for education and knowledge."

In your professional life, you always chose humanity, equal opportunity, loyalty, and protecting your employees and friends over money. Let us listen to your brother Orhan Kayacan again: "In 2016-2017, Yaşar Kayacan wanted to continue in the printing industry as well as in education, catering, construction, and dairy products. 'Brother, let's stick to what we know. Let's withdraw from the industry. Our earnings are more than enough for us,‘ I said; my brother Yaşar Kayacan became serious and said, ’Brother, look. Things don't work that way. As the Kayacan family, we must always be the giving hand. Let's be useful to people and society. We shouldn't only think of ourselves. There are 235 people working with us right now. These people are bringing bread to their homes. We cannot abandon these people. If one person does not pray, another will. That is enough for us.‘

The elders call this ’digerkam," meaning someone who looks after others without considering their own interests. What a fitting word for you. How fitting for the people of the Western Black Sea, who sent human resources to all the fronts of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire without ever being occupied.

Now let us listen to the educator and writer A. Kadir Yolcu: "I had been friends with the late Yaşar for nearly 30 years. He was a very valuable friend, a companion, and a brother. He loved to help people, warned them when he saw something wrong, and gave advice based on his experience. He had a very affectionate personality.

Years ago, I had borrowed money from the printing house where he worked. He knew me and trusted me, so he seriously pleaded with his employer to give me more time, preventing my business from being disrupted. A legal action that would have been taken would have seriously shut down our business. He had been instrumental in the growth of our business. In addition to this critical intervention, my friend, my brother, was very experienced and knowledgeable about printing and paper. In this sense, he also prevented us from incurring losses. His advice has always benefited those who work with him. On the other hand, he was an education volunteer and opened private schools, but the country's economic situation changed, the dollar and inflation rose, and he was not successful. However, he did not give up. This time, despite COVID and other reasons, as someone who believes in equal opportunities in education, he did not give up on his passion for education and took on the task of online education. He worked very hard, achieved significant successes, but his life was not long enough to take this work further. He worked tirelessly, putting his heart and soul into it, but that was his destiny. I deeply feel the pain of losing a friend and an education volunteer. May he rest in peace; he was a good person, a real man."

‘No matter what, soldiers from Kastamonu and Çankırı would not flee the front lines. They would become martyrs, but they would not flee.’ How much you resembled the people Nihal Atsız was referring to...

You created a perspective called Kayacan entrepreneurship in the business world. You were active in different sectors and became an influential figure in the business world of Kastamonu and Istanbul.

You did not neglect journalism and media either. As the founding honorary president of the İstamonu Newspaper, you brought Sinop and Tekirdağ together with Kastamonu and Istanbul. As a member of the Kastamonu TV board of directors, you contributed to the development of local and regional media.

You took steps towards civil society by uniting the district's associations as the President of the Devrekani Federation (DEVREKANİ FED). You expanded your scale as a member of the Board of Directors of KASDER (Kastamonu Association) and a member of the Board of Directors of KASİAD (Kastamonu Industrialists and Businessmen Association).

As Yaşar Kayacan, you became one of the leading figures in civil society in ‘civil society efforts for the regional development of the Western Black Sea’. You stated that this is the optimal scale, and that if we organise ourselves on this scale in Istanbul, other major cities, and throughout Turkey, we will free the region from the cycle of poverty and ignorance, and you demonstrated your entrepreneurship. You were a founding member of the BAKFED (Western Black Sea Equal Opportunities Association) board of directors (2019) and served as BAKFED Vice President from 2019 to 2025. As one of the founders of the Western Black Sea Movement, you contributed to regional development, equal opportunities, and diaspora organisation.

For the first time in the 7,000-year history of the Western Black Sea, Western Black Sea natives gathered in Istanbul Oligark, and you were the host.

Istanbul Oligark Western Black Sea NGO Meeting (23 January 2022)

18 November 2024 BAKFED General Assembly

In 2024, the General Assembly was held in Istanbul, and you were once again the host.

The observations made by the BAKFED Deputy President at the WESTERN BLACK SEA ASSOCIATIONS consultation meeting on 23 January 2022, which gave momentum to the Western Black Sea Movement, are still fresh:

“BAKFED, the Western Black Sea Equal Opportunities Association, is Turkey's first regional equal opportunities association. It is clear that narrow-scope (provincial-level) lobbying activities have not achieved anything. We see that, particularly in Istanbul and Ankara, but also throughout Turkey, people from the Western Black Sea region are not represented in government (in elected and appointed senior management positions such as mayor, governor, rector, and member of parliament) in proportion to their population. In our work, we will prioritise institutional lobbying (to address these inequalities) and will continue to operate as a think tank under all circumstances.

You were born as a child of the Western Black Sea region who did not get their share of wealth, education, or prosperity, who paid the price in the War of Independence and before that in the First World War, but who was then forgotten. But you did not say that geography is destiny.

You said you could become a good businessman without reading, and you did. You said education forever, and you developed yourself. You became one of the founders of the Western Black Sea Movement, which will have a say in the Turkey of the future.

On 25 October 2025, you were going to speak about the tablet book project and, above all, educational equality. It did not happen. You have passed away, but your good morals live on like a lighthouse and your ideas live on like a perpetual sun in the Western Black Sea Movement.

However, the Western Black Sea Movement, which you shaped with a few friends, needs a definition embellished with your life and views:

Western Black Sea Movement

The Western Black Sea Movement is a civil society movement rooted in the peaceful, just, democratic and humanist values of ancient Turkish-Islamic culture, aiming to surpass Atatürk's goal of ‘reaching the level of contemporary civilisations,’ and focused on regional development and social solidarity.

The social fabric of the Western Black Sea is based on an inclusive cultural foundation that has rejected discrimination throughout history. The people of the region have not marginalised ethnic (e.g. Kurds), sectarian (e.g. Alevis) and religious-ethnic-cultural (e.g. Greek, Armenian, Jewish communities) differences. The Greek Orthodox Christians of the population exchange, the deported Armenians, the Sephardic and Crimean Jews, and Turkish citizens are living witnesses to this historical tolerance.

However, the region has paid a heavy price historically. After the 1826 Incident, the Western Black Sea Turks, who became the country's ‘reservoir of soldiers and martyrs,’ have also been forced to bear the financial burden of the PKK terrorism experienced over the last fifty years, through investments that were never made. This process has depleted both the region's human resources and its development opportunities, turning the Western Black Sea into the poorest region of today's Turkey.

Among its many objectives, the Western Black Sea Movement prioritises increasing regional visibility, accelerating educational and cultural development, ensuring equal opportunities, maintaining a balance between burdens and benefits, preventing representation bias, and strengthening regional development and social solidarity.

The mission of the Western Black Sea Movement is to stand against ignorance, inertia, poverty and discrimination; and, in contrast, to establish knowledge, action, prosperity and equal opportunities.

The Movement's vision is to establish an accountable, transparent and rule of law-based management approach, first at the regional level, then at the national and global levels, and to create a just Turkey together with the actors in the field and to spread this understanding of justice on a global scale.

The Western Black Sea Movement is a social movement nourished by a historical culture of solidarity and the labour struggle, which has become institutionalised today through local and regional organisations such as BAKFED. The vision of this movement, which has flourished with the ownership of the region, continues to be determined by the people of the Western Black Sea. The actors who bring regional development to the national agenda and mobilise the social base are mostly distinguished figures such as Yaşar Kayacan, who are active in NGOs. In this context, the Western Black Sea Movement is important both in terms of preserving regional identity and embracing development goals on a social level. The increasing strength of this movement is rooted in the cooperative culture of the region's people, which dates back to the Ottoman period (the Ahi and Guild traditions). Workers' movements centred in Zonguldak have raised social awareness among the people of the region (mining and labour struggles). Western Black Sea natives who migrated to Istanbul, Ankara and abroad have maintained their attachment to the region through fellow countrymen associations. (Migration and Diaspora) The cuisine of Kastamonu and Sinop, the architecture of Safranbolu and Amasra, and the natural beauty of Bolu and Bartın, along with the skilled workforce of Düzce, Karabük, and Zonguldak, have strengthened the socio-cultural foundation of the movement. (Cultural Richness)

In the coming period, this model is expected to serve as an example for other regions. May your soul rest in peace, Yaşar Kayacan.

References

- Kastamonu İstiklal Newspaper (2025). The Sad Loss of İstamonu Newspaper: Yaşar Kayacan Passes Away. https://www.kastamonuistiklal.com

- Facebook İstamonu Official Page (2025). Funeral Announcements and Messages. https://www.facebook.com/istamonu

- Instagram Posts (2025). Kastamonu TV and İstamonu Newspaper Duties. https://www.instagram.com

- BAKFED Official Website and Activity Reports (2019–2025). https://www.bakfed.org.tr

- Local Media and NGO Archives (2020–2025), Devrekani Fed, KASDER, KASİAD

- TÜİK Data (2024). Regional Development Statistics.

- Karabük University Publications (2023). Civil Society and Development in the Western Black Sea Region.

- BAKFED Activity Report (2024). Opportunity Equality Studies.

- Ateş, S. (2025). Notes on the Civil Society Structure in the Western Black Sea and the BAKFED Model.

- Zonguldak Mining Workers' Historical Archive (2019). Labour Struggle Documents.