Prominent professor dies at age of 80

Turkish Constitutional Law Professor and writer Server Tanilli died at the age of 80 yesterday in Istanbul.

Tanilli was a lecturer in Istanbul University Faculty of Law before 1980 and he was also at lecturing on the “History of Civilization” in the State Fine Arts College, also in Istanbul.

He was paralyzed from the waist down after a terror attack on April 7, 1978. He moved to France and worked in Strasbourg University for many years. He returned to Turkey in 2000 and started writing columns for daily Cumhuriyet.

His books titled, “History of Civilization” and “State and Democracy: Introduction to Constitutional Law” were influential in the intellectual environment of post-1980, especially among the youth. His book History of Civilization was a textbook in universities. His other books include “What Kind of an Education We Want?” six-volume “Truth and Heritage of Centuries,” “Dialectic of Change and Revolution,” “Constitutions and Political Documents.” Tanilli was awarded 2006 Sertel Democracy Award.

Tanilli observed the worldview of individuals who become Marxists without reading and understanding Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau is reduced to a slogan. According to him, one cannot understand life without the culture of enlightenment, his former student İnci Hukum told the Daily News.