Yusuf Akçura | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of Turkish Historical Society | |
| In office 8 April 1932 – 11 March 1935 | |
| Preceded by | Tevfik Bıyıklıoğlu |
| Succeeded by | Hasan Cemil Çambel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1876-12-02)2 December 1876 |
| Died | 11 March 1935(1935-03-11) (aged 58) |
Yusuf Akçura (Tatar:Йосыф Хәсән улы Акчура,romanized: Yosıf Xəsən ulı Aqçura;Russian:Юсуф Хасанович Акчурин,romanized: Jusuf Hasanovich Akchurin; 2 December 1876 – 11 March 1935) was a prominentTurkishpolitician, writer and ideologist of ethnicTatar origin. He developed into a prominent ideologue and advocate ofPan-Turkism during the early republican period, whose writings became widely read and who became one of the leading university professors in Istanbul.
He was born inSimbirsk,Russian Empire to a Tatar family[1] and lived there until he and his mother emigrated to theOttoman Empire when he was seven. He received primary and secondary education inConstantinople[1] and entered theHarbiye Mektebi (Military College) in 1895. He took up a post in the Erkân-i Harbiye (General Staff Course), a prestigious training programme for the Ottoman military.[2] But in 1896 he was accused of belonging to theYoung Turk movement and was exiled toTrablusgarb inFezzan, Ottoman Libya.[3]
He escaped exile in 1899 and made his way toParis where he began to emerge as a staunch advocate ofTurkish nationalism andPan-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, settling in Zöyebașı besideSimbirsk[5] and began to write extensively on the topic.[3] He garnered most attention for his 1904 workÜç Tarz-ı Siyaset (Three Types of Policy), 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,Switzerland andFrance which 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 Revolution and the proclamation of theSecond Constitutional Era.[3] In 1911 he founded the Türk Yurdu Association together withAhmet Ağaoğlu,Ali Hüseynzade and 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 visitedZurich and 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 Fırkası in October 1919.[15] Differing from the regime somewhat, he defined the Turkish identity in purelyethnic terms 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 fromIslamic values (an area in which he clashed withZiya Gökalp, as Akçura wanted asecular Turkey, fearing thatPan-Islamism would 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 inIstanbul in 1935. He was laid to rest at theEdirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery in Istanbul.[18]
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