Erol Olçok, who had worked with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since 1993 and had a large role in AK Party advertisements, promotions and campaigns since its foundation, joined the resistance with his 16 year old son on the Bosporus Bridge in Altunizade where the attacks were intense during the traitorous coup attempt. Olçok and his son were martyred while trying to convince soldiers to give up.
A life full of success from Çorum to Istanbul
Olçok, who was Circassian, was born in in the village of Mecideyekavak in Çorum on March 5, 1962. After finishing elementary school in the village he studied at a Quran course in Çorum for two years. He then continued his education at the Çorum imam hatip high school. He came to Istanbul for the first time to study at Istanbul University in 1982. He graduated from the university’s Aesthetics and Art History Department in 1986. He founded Slayt Reklam in 1987, Rekpa Reklam in 1988, and Ajans E in 1989.
He managed his first election campaign for the March 27, 1994 local elections. He then started working as a press consultant at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Istanbul Ulaşım. In January 1995, he became the press consultant for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He married his wife Nihal in 1998 and had his first son, Abdullah Tayyip, in 1999.
He founded Arter advertisement agency in 1998. Olçok, who had worked with Erdoğan since his time as Istanbul provincial head in 1993, came up with and designed the AK Party’s name and logo, created slogans and carried out organizational identity work of the party. He managed the AK Party general election campaign for the Nov. 3, 2002 elections.
‘This country is ours, nobody can take it from us’
Olçok went to the streets right after he heard about the coup attempt. Olçok, who was getting prepared to leave his house in Altunizade, told his son Abdullah to stay with his mother and siblings. Abdullah Tayyip did not listen to his father and answered: “I’ll go where you go.” After this, they left the house to stop the coup attempt.
Olçok and his son went to Altunizade at first. He encouraged the people on the streets by saying: “This country is ours, nobody can take it from us. Things are bad at the bridge, we should take it back.” Olçok was leading the crowd with young people as it grew on the way to the Bosporus Bridge got .
He was martyred with 3 bullets
Shots were fired at the crowd as it was moving chanting “Allahu Akbar” and other slogans. He tried to convince the soldiers to stop. He wanted to take his son to a safer place after he saw that they would not be convinced. Then he was shot. His son was shot by two armor-piercing bullets as he was running to help his father. Abdullah Tayyip Olçok was martyred at the scene and Erol Olçok succumbed to his wounds at the hospital.
Erdoğan: Erol was my road companion
Olçok and his son was buried in Karacaahmet Graveyard after the funeral that was held at the Marmara University Faculty of Theology Mosque. Erdoğan, who gave a speech at the funeral, was not able to hold back his tears. After he said: “Erol was my road companion,” he said he could not talk anymore and was so sorry. Erdoğan recited the Quran by the Olçoks’ graves.
‘Erol gave so much to us’
Former President Abdullah Gül also said he was very close friends with Olçok and said: “We had a very special friendship. We had met recently. We agreed to meet again. He was a very talented friend. We are all saddened by his death. May he rest in peace. May his son, our son, Abdullah, rest in peace as well. It’s true that Erol gave so much to us. He gave so much to this cause as well. We shall never forget him. May God rest his soul. May he rest in peace.”
The name of the martyr is eternal now
After the martyrdom of Olçok, Beylerbeyi Sport Club, which is a third league football team, changed the name of their stadium to Martyr Erol Olçok Stadium. His name was given to a cinema at Uşak University, the Çorum Education and Research Hospital, a municipal park in Meram in Konya, the Maltepe campus of the Social Security Institution, an Anatolian imam hatip high school in Kahramanmaraş, an elementary school in Karatay in Konya, an Anatolian imam hatip high school in Çorum, an Anatolian imam hatip high school in Ümraniye, a middle school in Hakkari and the library in the Ardıçlı IMKB Regional Boarding Secondary School in the Hassa district of Hatay.
