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Yusuf Akçura

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Yusuf Akçura
President of Turkish Historical Society
In office
8 April 1932 – 11 March 1935
Preceded byTevfik Bıyıklıoğlu
Succeeded byHasan Cemil Çambel
Personal details
Born(1876-12-02)2 December 1876
Simbirsk,Russian Empire(nowUlyanovsk, Russia)
Died11 March 1935(1935-03-11)(aged 58)
Istanbul,Turkey

Yusuf Akçura(Tatar:Йосыф Хәсән улы Акчура,romanized:Yosıf Xäsän uğlı Aqçura;Russian:Юсуф Хасанович Акчурин,romanized:Jusuf Hasanovič Akčurin;2 December 1876 – 11 March 1935) was a prominentTurkishpolitician,writer and ideologist of ethnicTatarorigin. He developed into a prominent ideologue and advocate ofPan-Turkismduring the early republican period, whose writings became widely read and who became one of the leading university professors in Istanbul.

Biography

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Yusuf Akçura in his early days

He was born inSimbirsk,Russian Empireto a Tatar family[1]and lived there until he and his mother emigrated to theOttoman Empirewhen he was seven. He received primary and secondary education inConstantinople[1]and entered the Harbiye Mektebi (Military College) in 1895. He took up a post in the Erkan-i Harbiye (General Staff Course), a prestigious training programme for the Ottoman military.[2]But in 1896 he was accused of belonging to the Young Turk movement and was exiled to Trablusgarb inFezzan,Ottoman Libya.[3]

He escaped exile in 1899 and made his way toPariswhere he began to emerge as a staunch advocate ofTurkish nationalismandPan-Turkism.There he contributed toMeşveret,a periodical published by the exiled members of theCommittee of Union and Progress.[4]He returned to Russia in 1903, settled in Zöyebașı beside Simbirsk[5]and began to write extensively on the topic.[3]He garnered most attention for his 1904 workÜç Tarz-ı Siyaset(Three Policies), which was originally printed in theCairo-based magazineTürk.[6]The work encouraged the formation of an Ottoman Nation with a citizenship based on Islam and compared such a nation withGermany,SwitzerlandandFrancewhich according to him had also emerged from different races.[1]Further on, he demanded to abandon the multi-ethnic concept of the Ottoman Empire and to focus on theassimilation of the non-Turks.[1]He was one of the co-founders of theIttifaq al-Muslimin,a Muslim party in Russia.[7]In 1908 he returned to Istanbul[8]where his ideas began to gain more interest after theYoung Turk Revolutionand the proclamation of theSecond Constitutional Era.[3]In 1911 he founded the Türk Yurdu Association together withAhmet Ağaoğlu,Ali Hüseynzadeand others.[9]In November 1911 The association began to publish a magazine bearing its name,Türk Yurdu,which sought to become the intellectual force behind Turkish nationalism.[10]In June 1911, he became a leading force within theTurkish Hearths,acting as their Vice-President.[11]

In 1915 he founded again with Ahmet Ağaoğlu and Ali Hüseynzade the Turco-Tatar Committee (TTC) in Istanbul which had the aim to defend the rights of the Turco-Tatar Muslims in Russia.[12]In June 1916 the TTC sent a delegation to the Conference of Nationalities, but it could not present a united resolution. Every delegate had to represent his nation. Akçura therefore spoke for the Tatars and demanded the same civil, politic and religious rights as the Russian Orthodox and the right to teach in their native tongue. In July 1916 he visitedZurichand made contact withVladimir Lenin.He wanted to know what the fate of the Turkic peoples would await from the leader of the revolutionaries.[13]In Summer 1917 he was given the task to negotiate the liberation of the Ottoman prisoners in Russia by the OttomanRed Crescent.He therefore first travelled to Denmark, Sweden and stayed about one year in Russia.[14]

After having accomplished his mission for the Ottoman Red Crescent, he returned to Turkey and joined the newly founded partyMilli Türk Fırkasıin October 1919.[15]Differing from the regime somewhat, he defined the Turkish identity in purelyethnicterms and came to look outside the borders of the country for a kinship with otherTurkic peoples.He also called for creation of a national economy and a move away fromIslamicvalues (an area in which he clashed withZiya Gökalp,as Akçura wanted asecularTurkey, fearing thatPan-Islamismwould hinder nationalist development), meaning that he was largely sympathetic toKemal Atatürk.In 1923 he was elected MP for Istanbul, which he stayed until 1934, when he was elected MP forKars.[16]In 1932 he became president of theTurkish Historical Society.[17]

He died inIstanbulin 1935. He was laid to rest at theEdirnekapı Martyr's Cemeteryin Istanbul.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcdPoulton, Hugh (1997).Top Hat, Grey Wolf, and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic.C. Hurst & Co.pp. 72–75.ISBN0-81476648-X.
  2. ^Thomas, David."Uc Tarz-i Siyaset (Three policies), Yusuf Akcura (1876-1935)".Archivedfrom the original on 22 February 2005.Retrieved28 September2019.
  3. ^abcAkçura, Yusuf (2013),"Three types of policy",Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States: Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe 1770–1945: Texts and Commentaries, volume III/1,Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe 1770–1945, Central European University Press, pp. 218–226,ISBN9786155211935
  4. ^Hakan Yavuz (July 1993). "Nationalism and Islam: Yusuf Akçura and Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset".Journal of Islamic Studies.4(2): 196.doi:10.1093/jis/4.2.175.JSTOR26195511.
  5. ^Georgeon, François (1980).Aux origines du nationalisme turc.Paris: Éditions ADPF. p. 23.ISBN2865380084.
  6. ^"Uc Tarz-i Siyaset (Three Policies), Yusuf Akcura (1876-1935)".22 June 2006.Archivedfrom the original on 22 June 2006.Retrieved28 September2019.
  7. ^Shissler, Ada Holland (2003).Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey.I.B.Tauris. pp. 124–126.ISBN978-1-86064-855-7.
  8. ^Landau, Jacob M. (1981).Pan-Turkism in Turkey.London: C. Hurst & Company. pp. 40–42.ISBN0905838572.
  9. ^Karpat, Kemal H. (3 May 2001).The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State.Oxford University Press. pp.377.ISBN9780195350494.
  10. ^Ada Holly Shissler.Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey,I.B.Tauris, 2003, p. 158
  11. ^Poulton, Hugh (1997), pp.82–83
  12. ^Georgeon, François (1980).Aux Origines du nationalisme turc: Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935).Paris: Éditions A.D.P.F. p. 78.ISBN2865380084.
  13. ^Georgeon, François (1980).Aux Origines du nationalisme turc: Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935).Paris: Éditions A.D.P.F. p. 79.ISBN2865380084.
  14. ^Georgeon, François (1980).Aux Origines du nationalisme turc: Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935).Paris: Éditions A.D.P.F. pp. 79–80.ISBN2865380084.
  15. ^Georgeon, François (1980).Aux Origines du nationalisme turc: Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935).Paris: Éditions A.D.P.F. p. 81.ISBN2865380084.
  16. ^Georgeon, François (1980).Aux origines du nationalisme turc.Paris: Éditions ADPF. p. 82.ISBN2865380084.
  17. ^Sever, Ayşegül; Almog, Orna (2019).Contemporary Israeli-Turkish Relations in Comparative Perspective.Springer. p. 17.ISBN9783030057862.
  18. ^Kocatas, Onur."The Cemeteries of Istanbul: Escape from the Hustle and Bustle of the City « I was in Turkey".iwasinturkey.com.Archived fromthe originalon 14 April 2021.Retrieved29 September2019.
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