Ruşeni (Barkın) Bey’in Din Yok Milliyet Var Eseri Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme
An Assessment of Ruşeni (Barkın) Bey’s Work Din Yok Milliyet Var

Summary/Abstract: This article examines Ruşenî (Barkın) Bey’s Din Yok Milliyet Var, a work submitted exclusively to official authorities in 1926, within its historical context and intellectual background. Ruşenî Bey’s military education in the late Ottoman period, his service within the ranks of the Committee of Union and Progress, and his missions in the Iran-Caucasus region constitute the foundational experiences that shaped the intellectual orientations reflected in his text. Based on textual analysis, the study demonstrates that the work’s critique of religion draws upon the positivist and rationalist approaches of Western thinkers such as Auguste Comte, Ernest Renan, Darwin, and Voltaire. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that Ruşenî Bey’s understanding of nationalism was not limited to Ziya Gökalp’s culture-based sociological framework; rather, it merged with the political Pan-Turkism and irredentist aspirations characteristic of Enver Pasha’s ideological line, thereby forming a broader and more cohesive intellectual synthesis. In this regard, the text clearly intertwines a Gökalpian conception that situates the individual as a mere organ of the nation with an expansionist ideal centered on the political unification of the Turkic world. The findings indicate that Din Yok Milliyet Var constitutes a significant source for understanding both the intellectual trajectory of its author and the broader ideological climate of the period.

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