Cavit Orhan Tütengil was one of Türkiye’s leading sociologists and political economists. Born in 1921 in Mersin, he completed his education at Istanbul University and earned his PhD with a dissertation titled The Political and Economic Thoughts of Montesquieu. Throughout his academic career, he published over 100 articles and made significant contributions in areas such as underdevelopment, migration, rural issues, Kemalism, and research methodology. Tütengil viewed underdevelopment as a multifaceted issue and argued that its resolution lay not in external aid but in internal structural transformation. His works, including Notes on Ziya Gökalp, Türkiye’s Highways, and The Causes of Underdevelopment, left a lasting impact both academically and socially. He sought to synthesise scientific scepticism with Atatürk’s philosophical legacy, a hallmark of his intellectual stance. Tütengil was assassinated in Istanbul in 1979, cutting short a prolific career, but his legacy endures as a source of inspiration in the social sciences.