Yaser was a friend of mine for 16 years. We studied at the same secondary school, where we started making music, and graduated from the same high school. There we formed a band called Hep Yek with Ender Avcı on electric bass, Serdar Baykan on electric guitar, Yaser played drums and I played darbuka. Later on, a Mongolian friend of us , Andre joined our band as a vocalist. Throughout our high school years we performed with a repertoire of mostly covered reggae, Latin rock, funk and blues. We performed at METU Bilkent, Hacettepe and Ankara university festivals. In the beginning I never imagined that I could perform with such a band as darbuka player. Although we were teens around 15 years old, Yaser wisely foresaw what could be done with darbuka. He always included me to the new projects that he found out. He encouraged me for my current music career. In other words Yaser, as an architect, wasn't not only designing architectural projects but also he designed my early career.
Yaser’s love of music and musical instruments was worth to be observed. He was able to have intense studio practice hours, when needed. He intensely worked on songs which we wanted to play until the next studio time. He used to play in studio and on stage with the same enthusiasm. I remember he used to close his eyes while drumming, he had an intense concentration on music and performance. Yaser was living with music, he was able to feel the passion, lyrics and tunes of any composition. I could say, apart from his career in design, Yaser was an achieved musician as well.
Yaser was also a good drawer, painter and a passionate traveler. He traveled the globe from Europe to America and the Middle East. As he traveled all around the globe, he was able to communicate in different languages of diffirent cultures, including English, Italian and Flemish. He was well-read in Turkish literature and Western literatures. More importantly, he was inspired from the centuries old classical Turkish architecture and reflected his classical ideas to new modern style works.
Yaser had a strong character, words are not sufficient to describe his personality. He was virtuous, honest, loyal and humble. He was really energetic and happy. Yaser always injected courage to people around him, whenever a misfortune befell, he supported his friends to stay hopeful, optimist and self-confident with their lives. He was the reason of most achievements around himself. Above all, he was a respectful and polite gentleman, passionately loved by all of his family members and friends.
All in all, as one of his closest friends, I would like to request the clarification of obscurities and criminal stages of the investigators and police officers, that caused such an unfortunate suicide. I’m quite sure that, a happy and bright person like Yaser, would never ever commit this kind of suicide. I really wonder what pushed Yaser to such an unfortunate end. Suspicions over the investigation and detaining procedure of our beloved friend should be made public. Yaser was part of our souls, and the mistreatment of police officers took him from us.
Sait Arat - Musician
Dec,19, 2011 - Mexico City
