YENİ BELGELERİN IŞIĞINDA OSMANLI DEVLETİ VE GASPIRALI İSMAİL BEY
THE OTTOMAN STATE AND ISMAIL GASPIRINSKI IN THE LIGHT OF NEW DOCUMENTS

Summary/Abstract: The Ottoman State perceived the nationalist movement as a threat to itself and tried to keep its subjects together under the politics of Ottomanism. The politics of Millet-I Osmaniye (the Ottoman nation) had actually arisen in the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II. Altough the notions of homeland and nation, and the Turkish history and culture started to draw attention in the second half of the XIXth century, the idea of Turkish nationalism, in fact, emerged during the IIth Constitutional Period. İsmail Gaspirinski, devoted his whole life to Turkism. By means of Tercüman newspaper, he became the voice of Turks in Russia and was followed with interest in the Ottoman State as well. However, due to the policy of Ottomanism pursued by the Ottoman State, its relations with İsmail Gaspirinski were always distant. Distribution of his newspaper within the borders of the Ottoman State was even forbidden for a time. Though this ban was lifted thanks to the efforts of İsmail Gaspirinski and he was awarded with the Order of the Medjidie, his relations with the Ottoman State remained to be far from being at desired level and supportive for him. This study presents to the reader the documents which were previously unpublished and revealed for the first time through an archival research, introducing İsmail Gaspirinski’s demand for the lift of the ban on Tercüman, the warning he received because of the news on Armenians issued in the newspaper, and the reports on his being closely shadowed in İstanbul following his return from Alexandria in 1907 including the things he did and the persons he met with.

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