Obituary

Necdet Sara

(1958-2002)

Monday 3 February 2003

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Necdet Sara has died due to heart failure at the age of 44. He had joined the Turkish section of the Fourth International just before the coup of 1980. During the military dictatorship, Necdet belonged to a small clandestine group. At the beginning of the period of ’normalization’ in 1985, he became the legal founder of the publishers ’Yazin Yayincilik’, which published the revolutionary Marxist classics (including books by Ernest Mandel and Leon Trotsky).

In 1986, he played a key role in the publication of ’Ilk Adim’ the first legal socialist magazine of this period. In 1988, he became the editor of ’Yeniyol’ (the organ of the Turkish section of the FI). He also took an active part in the electoral campaigns of the far left in 1987 and 1989.

Although he ceased to be a formal member of the section in 1992, following a political disagreement, Necdet never abandoned his convictions or his activism: he pursued them under other forms and in other frameworks, particularly as a journalist who was known and respected for the quality of his professional work, whether in print or on television.