Table Of ContentA PAST AGAINST HISTORY
Christine M. Philliou
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2021 by Christine M. Philliou
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Philliou, Christine May, author.
Title: Turkey: a past against history / Christine M. Philliou.
Description: Oakland, California: University of California Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2020030582 (print) | lccn 2020030583 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520276383 (hardback) | isbn 9780520276390 (paperback) |
ISBN 978o52O382398(ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Karay, Refik Halit, 1888-1965—Criticism and interpretation, j
Political culture—Turkey—History—20th century. | Turkey—Politics and
government—20th century.
Classification: LCC DR576 .P47 2021 (print) | LCC DR576 (ebook) |
DDC 956.1/02—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.l0c.g0v/2020030582
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.l0c.g0v/2020030583
Manufacturedin the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21
10 987654321
For my children, Daphne Narenj and Erf an Elias,
and for all thejournalists and writers, in Turkey and all over
the world, who risk their lives to make all voices heard.
CONTENTS
Note on Transliteration ix
Timeline xi
Introduction: How Happy Is He Who
Calls Himself a Turk? i
i • Against Power? (1888-1909) 19
2 • The Contradictions of Ottoman Constitutionalism
and the Remaking o£ Muhalefet (1908-1913):
The Porcupine Speaks 4 4
3 • The Joke (1913-1918) 69
4 • The True Face ofIstanbul (1918-1922) 90
5 • Muhalefet from Abroad (1922-1927) 125
6 • There Is a World Underground (1928-1945) 157
7 • Muhalefet in the Free World (1945-1965) 186
Epilogue: Muhalefet, Reconsidered 205
Afterword 213
Acknowledgments 217
Notes 221
Bibliography 253
Index 269
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
Throughout this book I have used standard modern Turkish spelling for
Turkish and Ottoman names and terms. This is complicated by the fact
that the time frame of the study straddles the 192.8 Alphabet Reform, which
changed the alphabet from a modified Arabic script, used for Ottoman
Turkish since the fourteenth century, to an adapted Latin one. Each letter of
the modern Turkish alphabet represents a single sound. Most consonants are
pronounced more or less the same as in English. Following are the exceptions:
c is pronounced as j in John (Cumhuriyet).
f is pronounced ch as in chair (fay).
f is pronounced sh as in shiver (five)
j is pronounced as in French or as s in measure (jandarma).
/is most often silent, lengthening the previous vowel (oglu).
Modern Turkish has eight vowels:
a is pronounced as the a in father (Ankara),
e is pronounced as e in jet (muhalefet).
1 is pronounced similarly to the u in “uh” or the 00 in “good” (hirka).
i is pronounced roughly like “ee” in “feed” (BileciE). (The letter carries a dot
even when capitalized, to differentiate it from the “undotted” i above.)
0 is pronounced as 0 in open (Qorum).
0 is pronounced is pronounced like the French eu (Erenkoy).
u is pronounced is as 00 in room (Istanbul).
u is pronounced like the French u (AtaturE).
IX
The study also spans the periods before and after the 1934 Surname Law,
which required all Turkish citizens to adopt a patronymic. I use the standard
convention of the field, which is to place the post-1934 patronymic in paren
theses when referring to a given person before 1934. So, until 1934 Yakup
Kadri (Karaosmanoglu) had yet to adopt his surname. The same was true for
Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), Refii Cevat (Ulunay), Riza Tevfik (Boliikba^i),
and many others mentioned in the following pages. Refik Halid (Karay) is
the main exception; since he is the main figure in the book and appears so
often, I refer to him simply as Refik.
Within modern Turkish, there is a fluctuation between transliterating the
final consonants d/t and b/p, with the former (d and b) representing a more
archaic style and the latter a more contemporary one. This is why Refik Halid
is sometimes spelled Refik Halit in works in modern Turkish; Halide Edib
is alternatively spelled Halide Edip, etc. I have chosen, somewhat arbitrarily,
to use the more archaic d/b style, so with the exception of citing published
works that refer to him as Refik Halit, I have used Refik Halid (and Mehmed
Halid rather than Mehmet Halit for his father, etc.).
And finally, although the proper modern Turkish spelling of Istanbul
would be Istanbul, I refer to that Ottoman capital city, and subsequently the
largest city in the Republic of Turkey, as Istanbul.
X • NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
Key dates in the Ottoman Empire/Republic of Turkey Key dates in Refik Halid Karay's life:
1839-1876: Tanzimat Reform period ~
1876: Ottoman constitution (Kanun-i Esasi) — '
August 1876: Abdulhamid II takes throne
1878: suspends Constitution and Parliament
January 1878:Treaty of Edirne ends the Russo-Ottoman War — 1888: born in Istanbul
February 1878: Abulhamid II prorogues Ottoman Parliament, suspends Constitution
1884: Midhat Pa§a, "Father of the Constitution” strangled on orders of Abdulhamid II
1889: founding of Committee of Union and Progress J
1902: Congress of Ottoman Liberals (Paris) —
December 1907: Second Congress of Ottoman Opposition (Muhalifin Kongresi}, Paris —
July 1908: Constitutional Revolution -x. — 1908: first post as a clerk
Spring/Summer 1909: Press Law
March 31 Incident, 1909 — — Spring 1909: dismissed from post
March 31—April 15 1909: Counter-revolution; suppression of counter-revolution — — August 1909: Son Havadis newspaper
^Winter 1909/1910: trip to Paris
November 1911-September 1912: Italo-Ottoman War (Tripoli)
September 1912-March 1913: Balkan War
January 1913: Sublime Porte (Bab i Ali) coup d'etat —Fall 1911: Kirpinin Dedikleri
(ThePorcupine's Utterances) published
in one volume
March 1913: new restrictions on 1909 Press Law
June 1913: assassination of Grand Vezir Mahmud §evket Pa$a
— June 1913: exiled to Sinop
June 1913:800 muhalifs deported to Sinop by Cemal Pa§a
