Haluk Levent is a musician who rose to fame in the early 1990s, performing what is known as Anatolian Rock.
AHBAP — short for the Anatolian People and Peace Platform — is a civil society charity that he founded in 2017 to work in education, health, and solidarity and relief after natural disasters. The word ahbap, still in everyday use, means 'a well-liked, respected person, a friend'. Turkish even has the familiar greeting 'hey ahbap' — roughly, 'hey, buddy.' Levent and AHBAP came to national prominence above all through their relief efforts after the 2023 earthquakes.
'SAVE US, FATHER'
Why would a musician found a charity and solidarity association? The question cannot be considered apart from society's search for a savior-hero. A public polarized in politics, in the arts, and in sports looks for heroes as a remedy. One reason for this search is the distrust of official institutions — an endless quest for something to believe in, answered by creating a hero-savior.
After the September 12 military coup, when the ban on his political activity was lifted, Süleyman Demirel, the legendary leader of the center-right, returned to the arena and was greeted with chants of 'Save us, father.''
Demirel went on to become prime minister and then president, yet the public's search for a savior continues — because the public was never saved. This is, in fact, also a consequence of being an unorganized society. A people lacking organizational and trade-union strength of their own — and therefore lacking confidence in themselves — look for saviors of the moment. And these saviors and heroes of the moment, praised to the skies, inevitably end in disappointment. Indeed, they are cast down as low as they were once raised high.
WHAT COMES AFTER HALUK LEVENT
Haluk Levent has been arrested over financial dealings said to run into the billions, in which donation-based relief funds have also become the subject of allegations and accusations. Whether he is guilty will, of course, be decided by the courts. But it is already a fact that he has lost standing in the eyes of the very people who elevated him to the rank of hero. One could even say that the rank itself has begun to be erased.
Society remains distrustful and unorganized. It is sure to go looking for something to trust again. And it is just as certain — with the media's help — that it will go looking for new heroes and saviors.
