In the wake of İlber Ortaylı

Turkey has lost an intellectual, an important scientist. I have known him since his years teaching at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences and have followed him with admiration. The massive lecture halls of the Faculty of Political Sciences would overflow during İlber Hoca's classes. He would mesmerize each of us with his command of the podium, his fluid narrative style embellished with wit, and his immense intellectual depth and knowledge.

It is gratifying to see how, over the years, he gradually became a public intellectual, a societal intellectual, with his knowledge sharing expanding from university classrooms to television screens and public lectures. It is very important that the knowledge produced in university campuses is transferred to society and made accessible to the public. Knowledge that is woven into the daily life of the people and transformed into practice has reached its true value. In this sense, İlber Hoca did what was necessary with due diligence. He succeeded in telling history like a fairy tale. The Turkish public loved listening to him and learning their own history from him. This was the reason why the television programs he participated in reached such high viewership ratings.

İlber Hoca was a true patriot. His advice to young people was not to abandon their homeland and to continue working with determination for their country. He would insistently say, "Go, travel, see, learn, but in the end, return to your own country and continue living here." Because he knew that every person only gains value in their own homeland, and grows and is exalted as they integrate with their own homeland.

He used to say, "The first thing you do as soon as you graduate from university should not be to go furniture shopping." He saw the cultivation of visionary generations as necessary for the country's development. For this reason, he advised young people to travel, see, examine, interact with different cultures, and communicate with people from every race and every society. He suggested that they travel the world, expand their knowledge base, and then come back and build their lives in their own homeland.

İlber Hoca had no tolerance for ignorance. And he was not wrong. We see and know that ignorance is at the root of all the evils and negative things that befall humanity. Furthermore, a human being is a creature with reason. By using their reason, educating themselves, reading, traveling, seeing, and gaining experience, one can mature and turn toward doing good things. It is impossible to accept that someone with reason would keep their distance from knowledge, persistently stay away from scientific knowledge and education, especially in this period called modern times. In this respect, he would occasionally say, with a touch of humor, "I have ceased conversation with the ignorant." Although some circles interpreted these witty remarks of his as arrogance, it had nothing to do with that. He wanted all people to receive an education, to read, to develop their reason-focused intellectual faculties, and to place their lives on a rational, humane foundation. Was he asking for too much? No, he was saying too little. Since God has given man reason, what man must do is to use this reason as it should be used, to build a life consistent with reason, and to create a humane world.

Throughout his life, İlber Ortaylı was a person who stood tall, did not shy away from saying what he knew, and lived according to his own values and choices. His entire life was in the public eye. Because throughout his life, he always thought, and he always said what he thought. He never got stuck within the limitations of a particular ideology. He did not give space to dogmas in his intellectual world. There were those who criticized him from time to time, but he never paid any attention; he continued on the path he knew to be right.

He loved Atatürk, the founder of our Republic, very much. He deeply embraced his principles and defended them with all his might. When he opened his eyes after recovering from a serious illness in the hospital, he could not hide his joy when he saw the female nurses and doctors around him; he was proud of the success of the Turkish woman and shared his thoughts on how Atatürk's revolutions had reached their goal. From time to time, he got angry and criticized the actors of politics and policies, but he never made negative expressions regarding his country or his state. In every country he went to, in every international environment he was in, he represented his country with pride. Because he was a true patriot.

He left us too soon. He still had much to say to the Turkish youth. Lessons were left unfinished, sentences were not completed. But he did not pass away with his eyes open. Because Turkey embraced him, and will continue to do so. Young people loved him very much. The advice he gave will be a lesson to be remembered, and the views he put forward will be a guide for minds.