Nihal Atsız


Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız was a prominent Turkish nationalist writer, novelist, poet and philosopher. Nihâl Atsız identified as a racist, Pan-Turkist and Turanist, and was claimed to be a sympathizer of the Nazi government, but he denied it. He was the author of over 30 books and numerous articles. He was in strong opposition to the government of İsmet İnönü, which he criticized for co-operating with the communists. He was accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Personal life

Nihâl Atsız was born on January 12, 1905 at Kasımpaşa, Istanbul. His father was navy commander Mehmet Nail Bey, from the Çiftçioğlu family of Torul, Gümüşhane; and his mother was Fatma Zehra, daughter of navy commander Osman Fevzi Bey, from the Kadıoğlu family of Trabzon. Nihâl Atsız had two sons from his second wife Bedriye Atsız: Yağmur Atsız, a left-wing journalist and writer, and Prof. Dr. Buğra Atsız, academician and nationalist writer; he also had a daughter: Kaniye Atsız. Atsız had a younger brother, Nejdet Sançar, also a prominent personality of the Pan-Turkist ideology.

Education and professional life

He first studied at the Military School of Medicine but was expelled due to his ultra-nationalist views and activities. He then began to study at the Teachers College in Istanbul and the Istanbul University School of Literature and graduated from both in 1930. Following he became assistant to Professor Fuat Köprülü at the Istanbul University. He challenged the Turkish History Thesis and following this incident he was dismissed from the University. After he worked in different high schools as a teacher and was a researcher at the Süleymaniye Library from 1949 until 1969. After his retirement in 1969 he kept publishing Ötüken.

Publishing

Atsız was a publisher of several magazines. Atsız published several academic essays about Ottoman literature and history. He began to publish magazines in 1931, which he kept doing until 1975. Atsız Mecmua was the first Pan-Turk magazine, which was published from 15 May 1931 to 25 September 1932. He also published Orhun from 1933 to 1934 and again from 1943 to 1944. Orkun was first published in 1950. His last magazine Ötuken was published from 1964 to 1975.

Politics

Nihâl Atsız was an important ideologue who lived during the early years of the Republic of Turkey. His circle attacked Atatürk's leadership, condemned Turkey's foreign policy, and particularly the appeasement policy vis-a-vis the Soviet Union. Most importantly, his supporters ridiculed Kemalist attempts at building a civic nation model in the Early Republican Era. However, he also praised Atatürk after Democratic Party's dismiss in 1960.
He was foremost known for his nationalist views, his active campaign against Turkish communists, and his embracing of Tengriistic ancient Turkic traditions. Atsız viewed racism and pan-Turkism as the two main components of Turkish nationalism and disputed the ideologues of the likes of Ziya Gökalp or Hamdullah Suphi Tanriöver who didn't share his views regarding racism, however, according to him, racism "is not about measuring head, analysing blood or counting seven ancestors as a couple of phony zanies claimed". He was among the authors that influenced a type of Turkish nationalism known as Ülkücü movement, a nationalist movement later associated to Alparslan Türkeş. He wrote that the Kipchaks in Lithuanians and Kirghiz are from the same blood and therefore Turks, but "alien people" living in Turkey like Jews or Negroes are not Turks even if they speak Turkish.
Kemalism, which had been condemned so harshly in his novel "Dalkavuklar Gecesi" is the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey. The nature and the type of Kemalist nationalism during the Early Republican Period had since 1923 have interpreted Turkish identity under the guiding light of constitutional principles which equated ‘Turkishness’ with being a Turkish citizen. Identifying all Turkish citizens as Turks proper, the three constitutions of the Republican Era were completely and positively blind to ethnic, and religious differences between Turkish citizens and disassociated ‘Turkishness’ from its popular meaning: that is, the name of an ethnic group. Supporters of this view argue that Republican statesmen rejected the German model of ethnic nationalism and emulated the French model of civic nationalism by reducing ‘Turkishness’ to a legal category only. In other words, citizens of Turkey who happened to be of Kurdish, Greek, Armenian, Jewish or Assyrian descent had only to accept a plebiscite, according to this view, to take advantage of the opportunity of Turkification, as far as their citizenship status was concerned, and gaining full equality with ethnic Turks, provided that they remained faithful to their side of the bargain.
Atsız and his comrades published several Pan-Turkist magazines such as Ötüken, Yeni Hayat and Orkun. He wrote strong articles which criticized the government of İsmet İnönü and his alleged tolerance of communism in the country.
In 1934, he had written that "the Jew" was among "the internal enemies of Turkey" but in 1947, he praised the Jewish people for setting an example of strong nationalism : indeed, the Jews managed "to get back the land they had lost 2,000 years ago and to revive Hebrew which has remained only in the books and turn into a spoken language."
He thought Turks and non-Turks should not intermarry and love has not the same value as nationalist feelings. He further believed nationalism was superior than religion and Islam was a manifestation of the struggle of the Arabs to form a nation.

Legal prosecution

In 1944 Atsız was prosecuted together with more than 30 others, amongst them also Alparslan Türkeş, for racism and pan-Turanism. He first got sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison, after the sentence was lowered to 1 year and 6 months and at the end he received an amnesty. 1973 he received a prison sentence because of his writings against Kurds. He wrote Kurds should leave Turkey and learn from the Armenians what happens to the people who challenge the Turkish nation. After 2 1/2 months in prison, he was pardoned by the President Fahri Korutürk.

His legacy

Nineteen young academicians and authors, assembled under a nationalist association "Siyah Beyaz Kültür ve Sanat Platformu", published a book on him, "Vaktiyle Bir Atsız Varmış", consisted of articles and comparative studies on his works, life and views.

Political groups

In Turkey in 2012 a nationalist group calling itself "Genç Atsızlar" emerged, participating in anti-Armenian demonstrations in Istanbul, carrying banners stating "You are all Armenians, You are all bastards", in response to the slogan "We are all Hrant Dink, We are all Armenians". In February 2015, in response to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Anti-Armenian banners of Genç Atsızlar appeared in cities around Turkey, including banners in İstanbul condemning the Khojaly Genocide, and a banner in Muğla proclaiming "We celebrate the 100th anniversary of our country being cleared of Armenians".

Literary Work

His essays about history are gathered and published as a book under the name of Türk Tarihinde Meseleler. He also served as a literature teacher for a number of years.
A famous politicised novel of his was Dalkavuklar Gecesi, a historical allegory and critique of Kemalism. Published in 1941, it tells the story of political corruption during the Hittite era but actually referring to the injustices and arbitrariness of Atatürk's rule during the early 1930s.
Atsız is also an important novelist and poet. His historical epic novel Bozkurtların Ölümü is one of the most popular historical novels in Turkish literature. The book concerns the last days of the first Gök Türk Empire and the impossible rebellion of Prince Kür-Şad and his forty warriors against the Chinese invaders, referring to the attempt to kidnap the Chinese emperor by Ashina Jiesheshuai in 639. His original Turkic name is unknown, Kürşad is a made-up name by Atsız. Its sequel Bozkurtlar Diriliyor tells the story of Urungu and the beginning of the second Gök Türk Empire. His third novel, Deli Kurt, is about the mystic romance between a Sipahi warrior and a mysterious shamanist nomad woman in the early Ottoman Empire.
Atsız wrote a satirical political comedy about the İnönü government, Z Vitamini, which was about a fictional special vitamin which gives immortality to the dictator and his government. It was published in 1959.
His last novel, Ruh Adam, is quite a complex psychological novel. The book has a spiritual and mystical atmosphere, full with surrealistic, allegorical figures such as Yek and Lieutenant Şeref. It has a complex story, which is generally about the forbidden platonic love affair between an alcoholic ex-army officer and a diabolical, mysterious young high school student. The plot develops on the reincarnation of two lovers, which was a warrior banned from the army because of his love to the girl was greater than his love to his country in ancient nomad times.
His poems are in the style of Pre-Islamic literature and his common themes are idealism, honour, forbidden love, war and history. His complete poetic works have been published under the name of Yolların Sonu.

Works

Novels