Prominent journalist Hasan Kılıç dies aged 79

ISTANBUL

Senior journalist Hasan Kılıç, a former employee of Hürriyet and the Turkish Journalism Association (TGC) member, has died at the age of 79 on Dec. 18.

Kılıç, who worked at Hürriyet for 34 years, died of a heart attack.

Born in 1944 in the Bafra district of the northern province of Samsun, Kılıç began working as a journalist in 1970 after graduating from the Journalism Department of the Istanbul Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences.

He worked at Günaydın, Tan and Sabah newspapers before being transferred to Hürriyet in 1989. He retired after working continuously until 2014 but later returned to the newspaper as a managing editor in 2017.

Kılıç was married and had a son named Baran. Kılıç will be buried at the family cemetery in Karacaahmet after the farewell ceremony in Istanbul's Üsküdar district on Dec. 19.

Hürriyet employees also shared their memories of Kılıç. "Hasan Kılıç was a fixture at Hürriyet. He worked for Hürriyet since 1989. He would come in the evenings, read the news in the proofs one by one and correct typos by underlining them. He was very polite and quiet,” they said.

Emphasizing his passion for Bafra and pita bread, they noted, "He was in love with his hometown, Bafra. He always talked about how the best 'pide' [a type of pita bread] was made in Bafra, and at the end of the conversation, he always ordered pita bread for everyone. No matter how full you were, you had to have a piece of this 'pide,' otherwise he would get angry.”

TGC also published a condolence message on its social media account following the death of Kılıç.

"We are saddened by the loss of our member Hasan Kılıç, who served in the journalism profession successfully for many years. We extend our condolences to Kılıç’s family and the press community,” the association said.