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Today my body is in the tropical summer but it freezes because in my heart it’s winter in Istanbul. Galip died alone this morning in his Istanbul apartment. Cartoonist, illustrator, scenarist, Galip Tekin was a giant, one of the finest, purest, most talented artists Turkey has known in decades. And Beyoglu -the central district of Istanbul- lost a son, an important part of its soul. Galip Tekin depicted like no other the modern Istanbul of the mobs, the starlets, the prostitutes, the cabarets, the street vendors, the gitans, the poverty, the darkness, the anxious solitude but also the deepest humanity. Galip is the “sutlu kardes” (brothers in arms) of all the fantoms of that city where for many years I lived. And I knew well Galip… I helped introduce him and his work to editors and scenarists abroad and he asked me to curate the first exhibition of his original drawings. Anyway…deep in me and I am sure for the ones who knew him well, we figure exactly how he died.Today the Amazon, the forest, is a barrier for me. It’s wet, it’s hot. I would like to be at his funeral tomorrow and pay him a tribute and to all my too often lonely Turkish artists friends. I am grateful to my friend Zeynep for having suggested to write also my name on her flower crown. RIP Galip / Charles Mordret @canadienerrant #galiptekin #beyoglu #istanbul