Büyük Doğu
CategoriesPolitical magazine
FrequencyWeekly
FounderNecip Fazıl Kısakürek
Founded1945
First issue2 November 1945
Final issue1978
CountryTurkey
Based inIstanbul
LanguageTurkish

Büyük Doğu (Turkish: The Great East) was one of the early Islamist political publications in Turkey. It was started as a daily newspaper and later relaunched as a weekly magazine. The publication was a platform for its founder, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, to disseminate his arguments and views. It was in circulation between 1943 and 1978 with some intervals and produced a total of 512 issues.

History and profile

Newspaper edition

Büyük Doğu was first published as a daily newspaper on 17 September 1943 with the aim of being a newspaper for Muslim Turkish people who were committed to the God and a new worldview.[1] Therefore, it aimed at teaching people about their faith.[2]

Its founder was a significant right-wing and conservative figure, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek.[1] The contributors of Büyük Doğu included many leading journalists and writers: Ziya Şakir, Mahmut Yesari, Reşat Ekrem Koçu, Nurullah Berk, Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Mehmet Faruk Gürtunca, Suphi Nuri İleri, Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın, Nizamettin Nazif, Nejat Muhsinoğlu, Peyami Safa, Şükrü Baban, Burhan Belge, Kazım Nami, Salih Zeki, Tevfik Fikret, Özdemir Asaf, İskender Fikret, Kenan Harun, Salah Birsel, Mehmet Turhan and Sait Faik.[1] Islamist journalist Cevat Rıfat Atilhan also wrote for the magazine in addition to Sebilürreşad, another conservative magazine.[3] Although such a wide variety of writers published articles in Büyük Doğu, most of the articles were written by Necip Fazıl Kısakürek who employed numerous pseudonyms.[1]

The paper was one of the fierce critics of secularism in Turkey.[2] On 2 November 1943 Büyük Doğu newspaper was banned due to the articles which were written by Necip Fazıl Kısakürek under different pseudonyms.[4]

Magazine edition

In 1945 Büyük Doğu was restarted as a weekly magazine.[4] It continued its opposition against the ruling party, Republican People's Party, and was critical of the employment of women.[5] One year after its start Necip Fazıl published his commentary about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which contained a clear anti-Semitic tone.[6] A Turkish translation of The International Jew was published in Büyük Doğu in 1949.[6] When the Democrat Party won the elections and formed the government in 1950, the magazine did not support the party due to its moderate approach.[5] However, Büyük Doğu became one of the pro-DP publications over time.[5] In the 1950s the main target of Necip Fazıl's articles in Büyük Doğu was Ahmet Emin Yalman, a journalist.[6] He accused Yalman of being a Dönmeh and traitor.[6]

In March 1951 leftist university students organized demonstrations protesting both Büyük Doğu and Sebilürreşad due to their religious approach and were arrested by the Turkish forces.[7]

In addition to political content the magazine featured several examples of the symbolist poems which were formalized in a former literary magazine Dergâh.[8] Büyük Doğu was banned and ceased publication on 5 June 1978 after publishing 512 issues.[1][9] During its lifetime it was shut down at least thirteen times.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Ferda İdil Lostar (2019). "Muhafazakâr Basının Modernizm, Bilim ve Teknolojiye Yaklaşımı: Büyük Doğu Örneği (1949-1959)". Ilef Dergisi (in Turkish). 6 (2): 311. doi:10.24955/ilef.654023.
  2. 1 2 Gavin D. Brockett (August 2009). "Provincial Newspapers as a Historical Source: Büyük Cihad and the Great Struggle for the Muslim Turkish Nation (1951-53)". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 41 (3): 443. doi:10.1017/S0020743809091545. JSTOR 40389256. S2CID 232255228.
  3. 1 2 Menderes Çinar; Ipek Gencel Sezgin (2013). "Islamist Political Engagement in the Early". Turkish Studies. 14 (2): 332. doi:10.1080/14683849.2013.802921. hdl:11693/20939. S2CID 144607453.
  4. 1 2 Rabia Aşçi (2021). Büyük Doğu Dergisinde Kadın ve Aile (MA thesis) (in Turkish). Fatih Sultan Mehmet University. p. 62. hdl:11352/3869.
  5. 1 2 3 Gözde Emen Gökaltay (2021). "Popularizing and Promoting Nene Hatun as an Iconic Turkish Mother in Early Cold War Turkey". Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. 17 (1): 48, 59. doi:10.1215/15525864-8790224. S2CID 233853602.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Marc David Baer (Fall 2013). "An Enemy Old and New: The Dönme, Anti-Semitism, and Conspiracy Theories in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 103 (4): 538. JSTOR 43298763.
  7. ↑ Bernard Lewis (January 1952). "Islamic Revival in Turkey". International Affairs. 28 (1): 46. doi:10.2307/2604969. JSTOR 2604969.
  8. ↑ Adem Can (2011). "Dergâh'tan Büyük Doğu'ya ilk dönem Cumhuriyet Devri poetika muhitlerinde şiiri tarif denemeleri". Turkish Studies. 6 (1): 876. doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.1768.
  9. ↑ Önder Çakırtaş (2017). "The Dramatization of Cultural Hybridity and the "In-Between" Turkey in Fazıl's Künye". CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture. 19 (1). doi:10.7771/1481-4374.2849.
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