İKİNCİ MEŞRUTİYETİN AYDIN BİR SUBAYI: RAİF NECDET KESTELLİ
AN INTELLECTUAL OFFICER IN SECOND CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD: RAIF NECDET KESTELLİ

Summary/Abstract: Raif Necdet was born in İzmir in 1881. He graduated Kabul Tarihirom military college in March of 1900 and served as a teacher in military schools except for the year 1912, in which he fought in the First Balkan War. He retired in 1921. Starting from 1901, Raif Necdet published many articles in journals such as Resimli Kitap, Servet-i Fünun, Demet, Kadın Yolu, İctihad and Hayat. In his first writings, he covered topics like sufferings of the human kind, justice and reality. After the Revolution in 1908, constitutional government was reestablished and an atmosphere of freedom of speech flourished. Wars that were lost, coups and political conflicts took place. All those were the signals of a state collapsing. Several different schools of thought, namely Islamism, Westernism, Turkism, Science Sociale, Socialism etc., sought for an answer to the question “How can the state be saved?” Raif Necdet Kestelli wrote about almost any topic related to the society. He proposed that the society should be enlightened via the theater, literature and art. Also, education for women and strengthening of Turkish economy were among the ideas he supported. Another thing he defended was that the religion should be interpreted in a way that doesn’t contradict the conditions of contemporary age. He participated in the Defence of Edirne as a captain during the First Balkan War in 1912. After the loss of the war, he was taken to Sofia as a prisoner of war in April 2,1913. While he was in Sofia, Kestelli studied Bulgarian institutions and society. He realized the nationalist consciousness of Bulgarian people raised through decent education. It’s known that the Balkans Wars have a decisive role in the birth of Turkish nationalism. Based on the influence of experiences in Sofia on Raif Necdet, it can be said the Bulgarian nationalism cemented Turkish nationalism.

• Details
• Contents