Remembering Alpaslan Işıklı

We bid farewell to Alparslan Işıklı on July 13, 2013, following a heart attack he suffered in Seferihisar, İzmir. Twelve years have passed since then.

I first came to know him through his book, "Self-Management Throughout Theories and the Yugoslav Experiment," which examined the self-management experiment developed by Yugoslavia (Tito) to prevent bureaucratization within the socialist and communist party cadres.

The book caught my attention for two reasons. The first was this: in those years, certain socialist circles in Turkey were seeking solutions in other centers through universalist approaches.

Conversely, I was one of those who believed that socialist analyses needed to be produced under Turkey's own conditions. For this reason, I sensed that real socialist administrations could not be sustainable under rigid bureaucratic conditions.

Secondly, and linked to the first, I advocated for the motto of "Full Independence" in every matter. Professor Işıklı's book, which I mentioned, provided clues that would shed light on these issues.

Professor Işıklı was a Kemalist and a Socialist.

Professor Işıklı was a Kemalist and a Socialist. According to him, there were no contradictory aspects between the two. Professor Işıklı was one of the first leftist intellectuals to realize this.

He explained this issue as follows:

”The Republic of Turkey is under the attack of imperialism; just as Mustafa Kemal did when he led the first struggle for independence, it is necessary to save it from this threat. Today, I have reached the point where being a socialist in Turkey, and the condition for socialism to be successful, is to absolutely take Atatürk as a foundation. I can say that as time has passed, I have come to realize even more that Atatürk is an indispensable, very important, and exciting source of inspiration.

….Atatürk provided leadership in a country where there was no working class. Can we say that the synthesis of populism, statism, and revolutionism that he put forward is not socialism? It is not necessary for him to pronounce it as such. Because Atatürk was a tremendous genius, he also chose his words skillfully.

….I absolutely believe that I am not in a place different from the direction shown by Atatürk. If Atatürk had lived in 19th-century Europe, he would surely have been a very successful socialist labor leader. If Marx had lived in Turkey during the years of the War of Independence, what would he have done? He would have fought in the ranks of the Kuvayı Milliye (National Forces), I have no doubt. This is how I evaluate Atatürk and socialism. They appeared at different times and in different guises, but their directions and goals are the same.”

Because, according to Professor Işıklı, for revolutionary intellectuals struggling in semi-colonial countries in the 20th century, there could be nothing more natural than having one foot in socialism and the other in the heart of the nation.

My friend Cüneyt Akalın, who wrote an emotional piece upon the death of Professor Işıklı, expressed it this way:

“Let us never forget: in a country under the control of imperialism, a revolutionary has one foot in socialism and the other in nationalism. Just like Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Nehru, Ahmed Sukarno, Nasser, Tito, Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Lumumba, and finally Chavez, Morales, and Maduro…”

Professor Işıklı was also one of our most important intellectuals who sheds light on the subject of neoliberalism, or the new imperialism, under the veiled name of globalization today.

For example, in his book "Neoliberalism and the 3rd World War," he sought answers to the question of how the chaos currently being experienced in the world would affect Turkey, which is being pushed into war with its neighbors; he discussed whether the awakening of Latin America and the presence of Russia and China would be enough to reverse this course. Meticulously examining anti-globalization movements and ethnic movements in the Third World, Işıklı also proposed dynamics and solutions in his book that could be a remedy for this great crisis.

In short, Professor Işıklı was a Turkish intellectual who pondered the problems of humanity and the world.

We lost him early. He had much more to say.

I remember him with love, respect, and longing. May he rest in light.