ZİYA GÖKÂLP -- Philosopher and writer  (b. 23 March 1879, Diyarbakır – d. 25 October 1924, İstanbul).  His original name was Mehmet Ziya. He attended primary school and elementary military school in Diyarbakır and graduated from the School of Politics (1883-94). He took private lessons in Persian and Arabic from his uncle and French from his school headmaster. He entered Veterinary School which was a boarding school located in İstanbul where he had come to complete his education. His active membership in a secret society which was against the Abdulhamit administration led to his imprisonment for nine months when he was in his last year of study and he was exiled to his home city.

Continuing his relations with secret societies in Diyarbakır, he founded the Diyarbakır branch of the Committee of Union and Progress Party after the Second Constitutional Monarchy.

He wrote about his ideas in the newspaper Peyman (1909), which he published in Diyarbakır. He participated in the general congress of the Committee that was held in Thessalonica 1910 as a delegate of Diyarbakır and was selected to the membership of the head office.

 He influenced the people around him with his poems and articles, which he published with the pen names Celal Sakıp, Demirtaş Gökâlp in the review Genç Kalemler, printed by Ömer Seyfettin and Ali Canip Yöntem (1911) in Thessalonica.

When the parliament to which he had been elected parliamentary deputy of Ergani in 1912 was closed after four months, he came to İstanbul and gave lessons as a professor of sociology in İstanbul University (1915-1919).

 At the same time he published his works on various subjects in reviews and newspapers such as Türk Yurdu, Halka Doğru, Türk Sözü, İslâm, İktisat, Millî Tetebbular, and Yeni Mecmua, which he printed (first issue, 12.7.1917) and Tanin.

He was among those who were exiled to Malta by the English in 1919. When he returned from exile he printed the review Küçük Mecmua in Diyarbakır (1922). He continued to write in the review Yeni Mecmua, which he republished (1 January – 13 September, 84 issues). In the same year he was elected as the Diyarbakır parliamentary deputy.

He was appointed to the Council of Publishing and Translation as a director. He died in İstanbul where he had come to be treated for his illness. He is buried in the cemetery near the Tomb of Sultan Mahmut.

Ziyâ Gökalp who systemized the concept of Turkism in his book Türkçülüğün Esasları (The Principles of Turkism) became the pioneer of a nationalistic idea which supported Occidentalism in civilization, state control in economics and the purification of the language after he had abandoned his belief in the Empire of Turan (Turanism) which he had supported in opposition to the thoughts of the Islam Union and the Ottomans in the years of the 2nd Constitutional Monarchy. Many of his ideas, which he wrote in the reviews Küçük Mecmua and Yeni Mecmua, eventually became acts of law. He produced various works showing the ways of establishing Turkism in language, fine arts, morality, law, economy and philosophy.

WORKS:

POETRY: Şâki İbrahim Destanı (The Legend of the Bandit İbrahim, 1908), Kızıl Elma (The Red Apple, 1915), Altın Işık (The Golden Light, 1923), Ziya Gökalp Külliyatı I (Complete Works of Ziya Gökalp, poetry and folk tales, by Fevziye Abdullah Tansel, 1952).

OTHER WORKS: Türkleşmek – İslâmlaşmak – Muasırlaşmak (Becoming Turkish – Islamic- Modern, 1918), Doğru Yol (The True Path, 1923), Türk Töresi (The Turkish Custom, 1923), Türkçülüğün Esasları (The Principles of Turkism, 1923), Türk Medeniyeti Tarihi (The History of Turkish Civilization, 1925), under the name of Türk Medeniyeti Ansiklopedisi (The Encyclopedia of Turkish Civilization, 1989), Malta Mektupları (Maltese Letters, 1931. Limni Mektupları -The Letters of Limni, added and with the name of Ziya Gökalp Külliyatı II Limni ve Malta Mektupları – The Complete Works of Ziya Gökalp, Letters of Malta and Limni, by Fevziye Abdullah Tansel, 1965).

The Ministry of Culture published his works again in 1976 under the name of Doğumunun 100. Yılında Bütün Eserleri (Complete Works for the 100th Anniversary of His Birth). Some of his works were simplified and published by Yusuf Çotuksöken (1975-77).

posted 9 March 2006