My
grandfather, Yusuf Akçura Bey,
or Akçuraoglu Yusuf Bey, died 18 years before my birth.
He was a learned man. His life had been spent in the Kazan
district of Russia, in the Steppes of Central Asia, in Ottoman
Istanbul, in exile in North Africa, in Paris, Zurich and finally
in the Young Republic’s capital, in Ankara. From his
writings and from family lore, mainly passed on by my great
uncle Prof. Mazhar Sevket Ipsiroglu, “Yusuf Dede”
had spent his life in search of truth. In this context “truth”
was the ensemble of events which could withstand any interrogation
and could be distilled by scientific and positive evidences.
Atatürk and
Yusuf Akçura with the delegates at the First Historic Conference
Very
clearly Yusuf Dede could observe the attempts of Russian and
Western Culture to dominate over the Turkish World. Thus,
he was an outspoken and relentless critique of those of his
compatriots, who would support these attempts – be it
in ignorance or be it for petty personal interests.
My grandfather never hesitated about “The Turk”s
spiritual values and their contribution to world culture.
For him, the fall of the Ottoman Empire was a transient period
in history and the Turkish peoples - by the leadership of
“the learned” - would certainly regain their historical
place. He kept pointing at facts like with the fall of Kazan
to Ivan the Terrible “Barbary had occupied civilization”
and that some Russian Czars were of Turkish descent.
Did Yusuf Akçura defend the Turkish Imperialism? Certainly
no. “Yusuf Dede” was called by contemporates not
“the defender of the nation” but “ the defender
of nations”. At every occasion he would outspokenly
criticize offensive nationalism. As put in
a essay in 1919 his ideal was nationalism based on law
and order, observing mutual rights, defensive and peace oriented.
What can I say more than expressing my deep gratitude to all
those who are able to think that like?
Yusuf Dede was the first chairman of the Turkish Historic
Society. The Turkish Historical Congress, organized by the
Society, took place 2 July 1932 – 11 July 1932 in the
Ankara House of People. My grandfather’s contribution
was. “About the Methodologies
of Writing History and Educating History”. In a
remarkable clear and transparent Turkish, obviously nurtured
by his profound knowledge of many Turkic languages and in
the best of the “Türk Yurdu” tradition he
did not keep back to heavily criticize his fellow historians.
In summary he expresses his views about the teaching of history
in general and in the Young Turkish Republic, and how to remain
with the truths of history and with the universal values of
mankind.
Below you will find my grandfathers speech as starting on
July 11, 1932 at about 9 AM.
The speech is on pages 577 – 607 of the conference proceedings.
The copy in my possession has been dedicated on March 10,
1933 to my grandmother, to my mother and my late uncle Tugrul.
My mother was 9 at that time and my uncle Tugrul must have
been four. My grandfather must have seen the need for an explanation.
So, the dedication reads “That
some may read it, and some may enjoy the pictures”.
In an attempt that some may look at them I
have appended some pictures to this web-page.
With the exception of obvious missettings I have not attempted
to correct the spelling of 1932. Footnotes are mine and are
about a few words I had to look up.
Yusuf
Civelekoglu
Gazi
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk leaving the conference
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