Written by: Ali Nejat Ölçen
One could question why Community Centers were required, whether the the ‘Türkocağı’ institutions could not undertake their function . Was it not possible to make the necessary changes in the regulation of this youth organisation which had been founded earlier and make them take over the functions of Community Centers? In fact, the answer to this question will also be the explanation for the need for Community Centers on a different level.
It was observed that the “Türkocağı”s began to follow a very different path in that period. The president of Türkocağı, Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver,who was enthusiastic about the founding of the Liberal Party and whose article titled ‘You Will Protect This Voice’ was published in Akşam Newspaper wrote thus:
“ Turkish intellectuals, you are above the noises of small ambitions and personal interests that try to deafen you. You will protect this voice of inspection arising from the country. It is this voice that exposes the pain, that points out the dangers. It is the first and the last condition for national sovereignty.” (1)
These words exposed Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver’s contrary stance towards the reforms Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was trying to realize, as well as constituting the first step for the ‘Türkocağı’ organisations to put their weight in politics. Whereas, article 3 of Türkocağı organisations stated that “The Organisation will not deal with politics and no member will be an instrument for political organisations.” And the Liberal Party had been set up a month before.
In some of his speeches and writings,the Türkocakları President Tanrıöver praised Mussolini fascism in Italy. For example,in the İstanbul Teachers Association Congress on June 12, 1925 he said: “ Look at Italy. There is a monarchic government and a ruler. However, the person representing the the national will is not that ruler but Mussolini, a man of the people.” (2)
Some years later, in his speech for the opening of Türkocakları Ankara Central Building, he developed this opinion and praised fascism with the following words: “ The nationalist movement known as fascism, was succesful on Italian soil as a result of a difficult and dangerous struggle after a period of great crisis. We have ascertained that we share with this observance certain points of the social and political belief to which we belong. That is a nationalist movement . We are nationalists. We have a firm belief that class conflict will create a complete destruction for the country. This belief prevails there too. Fascism thinks of installing political and social harmony within a country. The indication of this nationalism is, not to divide the nation into dominant and captive classes but to provide the right to work for each member of a profession within a general division of labour and enable them to succeed. We see both our past and our future in yesterday’s excitement of fascism. Just like the fascism youth, nationalistic Turkish youth will grab a weapon and fight against any danger that will threaten Turkish revolution. “(3)
Why use a weapon? In his article published in the Turk Yurdu journal, he wrote: “ There is a nationalistic movement which saved Italy from the local bolshevism movement. You know Mussolini, the Duce who is the symbol of Fascist Italy. It is unthinkable to write or utter a word against him. Such an insolent action will attract the devastating blow of the fascist youth.”(4)
The activities of the Türkocakları organisation during the first years of the Republic won Mustafa Kemal’s admiration. However, the founding of the Liberal Party and the Kubilay incident (December 23,1930) turned this admiration into disappointment. It became a widespread belief that the concept of secular and populist republic would not be able to develop in the hands of the Türkocakları .It became clear that Mustafa Kemal’s design to gather all nationalist and populist powers under one roof was necessary and realistic. Therefore he felt the need to release the following speech on March 24,1931 through the mediation of Ruşen Eşref (Ünaydın) who was a member of the “science and art branch” of Türkocakları organisation. “all the nationalist and republican powers should be brought together. I have found it befitting for Türkocakları organisation, which has worked faithfully and loyally to propagate and generalize the creeds of populism and nationalism on the scientific plane and which has rendered praiseworthy services, to work as one body with my Party (CHP) which accrues the same principles on the political and applied planes.”(5) Obviously, Mustafa Kemal Paşa gave this statement to Ruşen Eşref as soon as he received the news of the Kubilay incident because it appeared in detail in the newspapers of the following day and the decision of joining the Türkocakları organisation with the Republican People’s Party caused great sorrow among some members of the organisation headed by Hamdullah Suphi.(6) Years later,as an MP of the Democratic Party, Hamdullah Suphi touched upon the topic and complained about that incident as follows: “Students Union, Teachers Union,Turkocakları Organisation, Association of Journalists etcetera, such a lot of suicides.. These events are a very sad stage of our recent history. The reason, the announced reason, the thesis of collecting the nationalist and republican powers under one roof, is the desire to aggregate all these powers ın one hand. There are examples: A single party in Germany and the Hitler Yugend organisation under its command.The will of the chief is absolute. The Balila organisation under the command of the Chief Mussolini’s Party. Here are the examples, here are the sources of contamination.”(7)
He made this speech in the session when DP decided to close down the Community Centers and while he criticised sardonically, 20 years later, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s decision, he supported Community Centers’ being exposed to the situation which he described as ‘suicide’; whereas it was he who praised Mussolini 20 years ago.
On August 4,1951, İsmet İnönü, the president of CHP answered Hamdullah Suphi’s criticism as follows: “Atatürk called together the leaders of Turkocakları and hours long discussions took place concerning their activities. In the end, Atatürk and the leaders of Türkocakları together decided to end the activities of the organisation. However this situation has been described as forceful acquision of assets in the discussions of the comission. In the justification of the legislative proposal in our hands, the transfer of Türkocakları has been mentioned as an example of usurpation. We reject the slander directed to Ataturk by way of mentioning forceful usurpation of goods.”
Footnotes:
1) Kenan Akyüz. Türkocakları, Belleten, 1930, s.201. Asıl Kaynak Akşam, 11Eylül 1930.
2) Dağyolu. 1929: Tanrıöver’s speech on 12 Haziran 1925 at the İstanbul Teachers Union Congress
3) Tanrıöver. Speech on the opening of Türkocakları Central Building, 1930
4)Türk Yurdu. 1930, sayı 36
5) Kenan Akyüz. İbid
6) Fethi Tevetoğlu. Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver, 1968,s.203
7) TBMM. Tutanak Dergisi, Birleşim 109,s.612(6.8.1951)
