A Daily Sabah opinion piece takes an unusual detour through literature to make a point about modern Europe, and it's more interesting than that sounds. Writer Orhan Sali reaches back to Ivan Turgenev's 1862 novel "Fathers and Sons" and its famous protagonist Yevgeny Bazarov, the nihilist who dismissed tradition, romance and every received idea, only to be undone by the messy human realities he refused to acknowledge.
In the novel, Bazarov's clash with the aristocrat Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov ends in a duel, but the real fight is between two worldviews: the old order versus confident modernity. Sali's argument is that Bazarov's tragedy wasn't being wrong about everything — it was his inability to imagine that his own certainties might fail. He only understood what he'd rejected when he was dying.
From there the piece pivots to the continent. Europe, Sali argues, built a post-World War II identity on assumptions it stopped questioning: that war was finished, borders mattered less every year, prosperity would guarantee social peace, and American power would always underwrite the security umbrella. After the Cold War these became near-dogmas. The Russia-Ukraine war, rising nationalism, migration tensions, double standards over human rights, energy dependence and surveys showing young Europeans unwilling to fight for their countries have all cracked that comfort zone.
His sharpest point is the generational irony. Bazarov was yesterday's radical; the postwar order he resembles has now produced its own establishment defenders — its own "Pavels." Europe, the author suggests, risks losing the willingness to question itself that once made the order worth defending. An economic giant, the EU still struggles to act as a geopolitical power, with capitals speaking in different voices and joint decisions endlessly delayed.
This is an opinion essay rather than a news story, and travellers won't find itinerary tips here. But it's worth a read if you're heading to Europe and want context for the mood on the ground — the political tensions, debates about defence spending and identity politics you'll encounter in conversation from Berlin to Warsaw are all part of this bigger reckoning. Understanding where European anxieties come from makes for a more perceptive trip, and Sali's literary framing is a genuinely fresh angle on a familiar debate.
Worth knowing: the piece is written by an Istanbul-based journalist and reflects his personal views, not the newspaper's editorial line — a reminder that outside perspectives on Europe often cut sharpest.
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