This is a weekly post wherein I write about things I’ve been reading, watching, and thinking about. The first part is free, the rest is for paid subscribers only.
Parts written by my assistant Ata Armağan are marked accordingly in the subheadings.
As I wrote in my last post, I’m traveling until September, so posts will be more spread out, prioritizing paid subscribers.
This week, we lost Prof. Hilmi Demir, who was a historian, theologian, and analyst, and a dear colleague of ours at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). He was a great influence on me, and I had the pleasure of co-authoring several pieces with him over the years. He passed far too early, at the age of 57.
He grew up poor, in the inner-Anatolian province of Çorum, and worked his way up some very difficult university hierarchies. He was a historicist, a staunch advocate of the Hanafi-Maturidi tradition, and stood firmly against the onslaught of modern literalist movements (like ISIS), as well as heterodox cults (like the Gülenists).
He was clearly a man of the political right, but his curiosity roamed free of any party-political constraints. He devoured books far beyond his own tradition, and had a diverse circle of friends and colleagues.
I sometimes wonder if our generation has the intellectual depth and rootedness that Hilmi hoca exemplified.
He’ll be dearly missed.
The ongoing restructuring of Turkey’s opposition
I don’t cover the day-to-day of Turkish politics here, but I should note that it’s currently going through a massive earthquake.
Last year, the Erdoğan regime arrested İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s most serious challenger.
Then, over the past couple of months, they effectively took over the CHP, the Republic’s founding party and main opposition party of the past generation.
This week, a group of splintered MPs, led by former CHP chairman Özgür Özel, are forming a new party, which has instantly become the new main opposition party.
Already in the early hours of the announcement, massive numbers of CHP members have resigned from the party, and are preparing to join the new one. Everywhere I go, people are talking about who’s staying and who’s leaving. Despite the Erdoğan regime’s best efforts, this place is a rambunctious democracy.
