REFLECTIONS OF YUSUF AKÇURA'S “ÜÇ TARZ-I SİYASET (THREE GENRES OF POLITICS” ON THE TURKISH POLITICAL LIFE: THE NATIONALIST ACTION PARTY CASE
YUSUF AKÇURA’NIN “ÜÇ TARZ-I SİYASET” ADLI ESERİNİN TÜRK SİYASAL HAYATINA YANSIMALARI:MİLLİYETÇİ HAREKET PARTİSİ ÖRNEĞİ

Author : Gökhan EŞEL
Number of pages : 421-435

Abstract

Yusuf Akçura, published his famous work entitled as: “Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset” (Three Genres of Politics) in the Newspaper called “Türk” in Cairo at the year 1904. He wrote this article in Kazan but he was attracted by the Soviet Governance so he did not published it there. Three main points that pointed out in Akçura’s article are as follows: 1- Building an Ottoman Nation that means: "Ottomanism". 2- To establish a state structure based on Islamism, named as: "Islamism". 3- To bring the Turkish political nationalism to the scene, named as: "Turkism". Yusuf Akçura, made the first mutual comparison of Ottomanism, Islamism and Turkism. He analyzed the ideas of Ottomanism, Islamism and Turkism and stressed that the most appropriate style of politics was "Turkism". Ottomanism ended in the wake of the 1912 Balkan War that lived with the ancient Christian people. Islamicism lost its meaning in Arabic rebellions despite the declaration of 'jihad' by the Ottoman Sultan in the name of the Caliph of World War I. "Turkism" almost remained the only alternative. The idea of the İttihad and Terakki, and also the idea that Atatürk has adopted, Atatürk's definition of 'nation' was consistent with Yusuf Akçura's definition. Atatürk adressed as: "The nation is a political and social committee formed by the people who are connected to each other by the language, culture and ethnic unity.” Also Yusuf Akçura’s description for the Nation does not seek religious unity, it is seen that the main element is the race and language as parallel to the Atatürk's view. Although the reflections of Yusuf Akçura in Turkish political life are regressed in the post-Ataturk period, Akçura’s ideas re-emerged in the statute of the "Peace and Rise Association" that was established by Alparslan Türkeş in 1963. The Republican Peasant National Party in 1965 and then the Nationalist Action Party in 1969 reflects the effects of Yusuf Akçura's ideas in their party programs. Today, in the Turkish political life, as the Nationalist Action Party is the greatest representative of those ideas, was examined by sampling model. In terms of political sociology and evaluated from a historical perspective, reflections of the 'Turkism' idea Action in Turkish political life will be tried to be expressed in this paper.

Keywords

Three Genres Of Politics, Turkism, Yusuf Akçura, Alparslan Türkeş, Nationalist Action Party

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