Ali Ergur
FOR BARLAS TOLAN
Speech delivered at the ceremony held at Galatasaray University on 10 December 2014, before the funeral ceremony of Prof. Dr. Barlas Tolan
Dear colleagues, dear students, dear friends and all those who loved Professor Barlas, I greet you all with the deepest respect.
Dear Mrs. Tolan, Deniz, Nilay, Alexandre, I would like to extend my condolences to you and to your entire family, together with my warmest and most heartfelt feelings of friendship and sympathy.
Today, we are gathered here to bid farewell to Professor Barlas. I feel both happy and deeply saddened to have the honor of speaking about him.
I first met Barlas Tolan in 1987. At the time, I was still a third-year undergraduate student in the Department of Public Administration at Marmara University. Our course on Rural and Urban Sociology was taught by two different professors: Sema Erder and Barlas Tolan. Professor Barlas was responsible for the “rural sociology” part of the course. From the very first moment he entered the classroom, I felt a particular sympathy for him as a warm-hearted and approachable person. I remember very well thinking: “What a likable person; I wish I could become his research assistant.”
In 1990, five research assistant positions were opened in the French-language Public Administration Department at Marmara University, which had been established two years earlier. I had just begun my master’s studies. Professor Barlas encouraged me by saying: “A research assistant position is opening; why don’t you apply?” I took the examination and was successful. This is how I began my academic career, thanks to Professor Barlas’s guidance.
When I was told, right from the beginning, “You will work with Professor Barlas,” I was extremely happy. At that institution, and later at Galatasaray University, throughout my entire academic career, I was known as “Barlas’s person.” I suffered quite a bit because of this label; yet I have always felt proud of this distinction.
In order to portray Barlas Tolan, I would like to emphasize several of his distinctive qualities:
First and foremost, Barlas Tolan was a social scientist. He was a sociologist who became interested in urbanization in the late 1960s, at a time when this phenomenon was only beginning to be recognized as a major issue in Turkey and was emerging as a field of sociological research. However, rather than focusing on the gecekondu phenomenon, which was one of the mainstream research topics of that period, he preferred to direct his attention toward the broader profile of urbanization. This choice itself shows that he was a scholar who did not easily follow academic trends.
His questioning of the city led him to two major concepts of our time: anomie and alienation. For him, the transformation of the city brought not only structural problems but also a profound crisis of meaning and a problem of isolation. Indeed, his most important work, the book
Çağdaş Toplumun Bunalımı: Anomi ve Yabancılaşma
(
The Crisis of Contemporary Society: Anomie and Alienation
), which established his reputation among sociologists in Turkey, was the result of this line of thinking.
One of the friends who offered me his condolences today was our dear colleague Nadir Suğur from the Department of Sociology at Anadolu University. Nadir expressed his respect for Professor Barlas by saying: “I was not one of Professor Barlas’s students, but we knew him through his book
Anomie and Alienation
. It was a book that broadened our horizons.” In this way, I know that there are many sociologists across different parts of Anatolia who became, indirectly, students of Barlas Tolan. He continued to reflect on the contemporary forms of anomie and alienation.
Barlas Tolan was also an educator. He trained countless students at Gazi University in Ankara and at Marmara and Galatasaray Universities in Istanbul. In his teaching, he always placed great importance on human connection. By enriching his lectures with anecdotes and examples drawn from everyday life, he had a subtle way of showing his students that theory was not an inaccessible summit. He treated his students, as he treated everyone else, with kindness and sincerity.
Barlas Tolan was a founder. He possessed a particular talent for organizing and managing institutions. Most of us know him as one of the founders of Galatasaray University. However, he was also the founder of the French-language Public Administration Department at Marmara University. This department, where I myself began my academic career, was the first higher education institution in Turkey to provide education in French. In a sense, it can be said that, by establishing this department, Professor Barlas carried out a kind of rehearsal for the foundation of Galatasaray University.
Barlas Tolan, who was involved in the Galatasaray project from beginning to end, personally contributed to the establishment of the University and worked under often difficult conditions. Moreover, Professor Barlas was also the founder of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Sociology.
Barlas Tolan was a true Galatasaray member. Galatasaray was his home. In a fluid world where rootlessness has become the norm, Galatasaray was the home to which he was deeply attached. He assumed many responsibilities within various institutions of the Galatasaray community. He devoted his life to Galatasaray. He never sought personal gain from all that he did; he expected nothing in return. He only wished to be appreciated.
When I was his student in one of his undergraduate courses, he somehow realized that I knew French and asked me which high school I had graduated from. When I answered “Galatasaray High School,” I remember him coming down from the elevated platform where he was standing and shaking my hand.
His death, in a way, took place in the most fitting manner and perhaps in the way he would have wished most: at a Galatasaray Ball, where he enjoyed himself wholeheartedly and was happy. He ended the evening in the environment he loved and where he felt safest, taking pleasure in good food and conversation. When he returned home, he sat down in an armchair and quietly and peacefully fell into eternal sleep. He left this world in the way good people deserve to leave it. In a sense, he placed the cherry on top of the cake and gracefully left the stage.
Barlas Tolan was a supporter of research. He always encouraged his students to turn toward subjects that could be investigated concretely. I can say that I learned what field research truly meant thanks to him. During my master’s studies, in Professor Barlas’s course, we conducted a field study comparing the future expectations of university students and young workers. We travelled through the capillaries of everyday life, from the Atatürk Industrial Site to Dudullu İMES, from small, poorly equipped workplaces to garment workshops. I would not trade what that experience taught me for any formal education. While encouraging field research, Professor Barlas never neglected theory. It was from him that I first heard about his mentor Lefebvre, as well as Marcuse and Merton.
Barlas Tolan was, above all, a human being. His human qualities, his refinement, and his sense of courtesy were exceptionally developed. He did not view the world through a hierarchical lens; he was an egalitarian person. He treated people from different class backgrounds, professions, and social statuses with the same respect and kindness. Whoever entered his office—whether a Rector or a staff member—he would always stand up and, most often, shake their hand. He always sought to resolve conflicts between people through politeness and gentleness.
Barlas Tolan was a person who left this world wounded. His goodwill had been taken advantage of; he had been wronged, his efforts had not received the recognition they deserved, and, most painfully, he had experienced this treatment in Galatasaray, the home he loved most. Barlas Tolan was a person who felt betrayed by Galatasaray.
Now I imagine a table, a feast somewhere far away: I think of Behice Boran, Mübeccel Kıray, Ünal Nalbantoğlu, my esteemed professors. Professor Barlas is now with them, becoming part of that table, freed from the burdens and impurities of this world. I too hope that, one day, I may become part of that table.
May his soul rest in peace.
Ali ERGUR
Professor
Galatasaray University
Department of Sociology