From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals

This article aims to analyze the memories and autobiographies of six intellectuals who witnessed and contributed to the foundation of the Turkish Republic and played important roles in the cultural policies of the era of the early Republic of Turkey. In the analysis, the sociological concept of gene...

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Main Authors: U. Ceren Ünlü, Mehmet Ertan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Istanbul University Press 2023-12-01
Series:Siyasal: Journal of Political Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/FFFB71125CD74B459EFC0A711611FB42
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author U. Ceren Ünlü
Mehmet Ertan
author_facet U. Ceren Ünlü
Mehmet Ertan
author_sort U. Ceren Ünlü
collection DOAJ
description This article aims to analyze the memories and autobiographies of six intellectuals who witnessed and contributed to the foundation of the Turkish Republic and played important roles in the cultural policies of the era of the early Republic of Turkey. In the analysis, the sociological concept of generation is utilized as a conceptual framework. Characterizing a group of people that not only share approximating birth dates and locations but also have experienced similar historical moments or political and socioeconomic transformations as a generation, this article regards Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Süleyman Edip Balkır, İsmail Hakkı Baltacıoğlu, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Ahmet Emin Yalman and Hasan Âli Yücel as members of the same generation. An in-depth analysis of the memoirs and autobiographies reveals two common themes among these people’s memories: first, because they were born and grew up on the western side of the Ottoman lands, they were all strangers to Anatolia before World War I or the foundation of the Republic; and, second, all six intellectuals believed in the fact that the path of turning Anatolia into a modernized and secularized homeland passed through education. Their strangeness to Anatolia and the importance of education for its socio-cultural development were highly related because the transformation of Anatolia through education not only aimed to create a homeland but also ended the strangeness between these intellectuals and Anatolia.
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spelling doaj-art-af7fbf53dc594a108d0ec9724fd2bf092025-08-20T02:27:35ZengIstanbul University PressSiyasal: Journal of Political Sciences2618-63302023-12-013218110010.26650/siyasal.2023.32.1354697123456From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of IntellectualsU. Ceren Ünlü0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9973-7103Mehmet Ertan1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8055-9063İstanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi, İstanbul, TürkiyeDüzce Üniversitesi, Duzce, TurkiyeThis article aims to analyze the memories and autobiographies of six intellectuals who witnessed and contributed to the foundation of the Turkish Republic and played important roles in the cultural policies of the era of the early Republic of Turkey. In the analysis, the sociological concept of generation is utilized as a conceptual framework. Characterizing a group of people that not only share approximating birth dates and locations but also have experienced similar historical moments or political and socioeconomic transformations as a generation, this article regards Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Süleyman Edip Balkır, İsmail Hakkı Baltacıoğlu, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Ahmet Emin Yalman and Hasan Âli Yücel as members of the same generation. An in-depth analysis of the memoirs and autobiographies reveals two common themes among these people’s memories: first, because they were born and grew up on the western side of the Ottoman lands, they were all strangers to Anatolia before World War I or the foundation of the Republic; and, second, all six intellectuals believed in the fact that the path of turning Anatolia into a modernized and secularized homeland passed through education. Their strangeness to Anatolia and the importance of education for its socio-cultural development were highly related because the transformation of Anatolia through education not only aimed to create a homeland but also ended the strangeness between these intellectuals and Anatolia.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/FFFB71125CD74B459EFC0A711611FB42generationintellectual historymemoirsearly republican period
spellingShingle U. Ceren Ünlü
Mehmet Ertan
From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals
Siyasal: Journal of Political Sciences
generation
intellectual history
memoirs
early republican period
title From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals
title_full From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals
title_fullStr From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals
title_full_unstemmed From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals
title_short From an Unknown Territory to a Nation’s Motherland: An Analysis of the Memoirs of the Republic’s First Generation of Intellectuals
title_sort from an unknown territory to a nation s motherland an analysis of the memoirs of the republic s first generation of intellectuals
topic generation
intellectual history
memoirs
early republican period
url https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/FFFB71125CD74B459EFC0A711611FB42
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