BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- Turkish political life has lost a real lover of democracy, science has lost an important physicist, and the Turkish nation has lost one of its most modest, tolerant and mature sons. Erdal Inonu, the son of Turkey's second President Ismet Inonu, died yesterday at the age of 81. I first met him back in 1957, but only got the chance to know him better after he helped found the Social Democracy Party (SODEP) in 1983. For a short period of time when he was party leader, I served as deputy secretary general.
Erdal Inonu was a person of deep maturity. He knew how to act like the son of a national hero, a president, how to carry the position of a well-known scientist and first-class intellectual, and how to be an exceptionally modern, moderate figure with a unique sense of humor. There were times when I disagreed with certain of his political decisions, but he had nothing but good intentions behind them, as he believed a mass social democratic movement would ensure a bright future for Turkey, and he had no other dreams or ambitions. Unfortunately, inter-party squabbling exhausted him, and so he left active politics. He decided to read, write and be with his students and thus completed his life calmly, which better suited his personality.
One of the most important characteristics of Inonu, in the words of journalist Altan Oymen, was that he never stopped `being like himself.' He never tried to ape the people he admired, including his father. He was the same person in every environment. I would like to end this column with the words of Ozden Toker, his surviving only child: `Erdal Inonu always enjoyed being an Inonu. He always worked for a modern Turkey. He never fell apart. He never questioned Turkey's situation. He always believed that Turkey would get better. He was a very good person . He was a Kemalist. He was a son of the secular republic. He lived his life believing all of this."