Life devoted to writing for freedom: Yunus Nadi

ANKARA

Yunus Nadi Abalioglu, founder and editor of many newspapers and magazines, spent 46 years writing for the freedom of his country.

Nadi took part in the establishment of Anadolu Agency with Halide Edip Adivar, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whom he met in Salonika in 1910, and spread the National Struggle to the whole country.

The fifth child of Hadji Halil Efendi and Ayse Hanim, Yunus Nadi Abalioglu came to the world on July 1, 1879, in Mekri township of Aydin, whose present name is Fethiye.

Nadi, interested in reading from an early age, received a religious education, recitation and tajweed lessons from a "special teacher."

Nadi, who learned recitation and the Qur'an in a short period, was sent to Rhodes at the age of 11, to Mekteb-i Kudat, or law school, at that time, alias Medrese-I Suleymaniye (Madrasah of Suleymaniye) under the guidance of his father.

The school, founded under the leadership of Ahmet Mithat Efendi and Ebuzziya Tevfik, and shaped by the Young Ottomans in terms of education, students received social sciences, General culture, and language education classes. Military college and political science graduates were the teachers of the school, and courses like history, literature, nurturing, positive sciences, general culture, Arabic, Persian, and French were being taught.

Nadi met contradictions between traditional and new ideas for the first time in Rhodes, and the concepts of homeland and freedom.

He graduated from the Suleymaniye Madrasa in 1897 with a degree in law and continued his education at Galatasaray Sultani and Istanbul Law School.

'The best debate area would have been the printing field'

He began his journalism career by writing in the magazine Malumat as a student.

"It was as if my career had come to an end. It just didn't fit my self-charged temperament. I had to study and argue. In all life, the best debate area could only be the printing field, which would appeal to the public,” he said. Nadi, describing his entry into journalism, began to work as a translator for more than two years of three-and-a-half years he worked in Malumat where he wrote 21 articles.

When he was a sophomore at the university, he was arrested in 1901 for founding an association against Abdulhamid II and sentenced to three years in prison at Mytilene Castle. He went to Fethiye and stayed there until the proclamation of the Constitution.

During exile, he married Nazime Hanım in Fethiye. He had four children: Nadir, Dogan, Nilufer, and Leyla.

Nadi, who was a member of the Union and Progress Society in 1908, came to Istanbul upon the proclamation of the Constitutional Monarchy. He was able to complete law school, which he left unfinished due to his conviction, only when he returned to Istanbul after the proclamation of the Constitution. During this period, he also worked at the Ikdam and Tasvir-I Efkar newspapers.

Yunus Nadi met with Mustafa Kemal in Salonika

In 1910, Nadi went to Salonika and became the editor-in-chief of Rumeli newspaper, the publication body of the society in Salonika, due to his close relationship with the Union and Progress Society.

He met Mustafa Kemal in Salonika, where he would be together in the War of Independence in the coming years. He took part in the establishment of Anadolu Agency, and described the first friendship days in his memoirs in the following years:

"There is an Olympos Casino in Salonika. There, almost every evening, we would form an ever-expanding circle around Gazi and listen to him. His Senior Captain, the current veteran of Homeland Affairs, came alive in the language of Mustafa Kemal, so much so that it was not at altitude and would wheel the mountains. Then Mustafa Kemal was no different from today's Gazi. Today's Gazi is nothing more than Mustafa Kemal at the time."

Communication between Mustafa Kemal and Nadi continued. Nadi exchanged letters with Mustafa Kemal, who served as an attache in Sofia and published Mustafa Kemal's thoughts under the headline "Steel ideas written in steel pencil" in the Daily Tasvir-i Efkar, where he was the editor-in-chief.

Nadi first person to publish a photo of Mustafa Kemal

During April - August 1912, Nadi returned to Istanbul when the Balkan War began and entered the Ottoman Parliament as a deputy from Aydin province. He continued to write editorials and manage Tasvir-i Efkar.

During the war, the task of mobilizing the public to save Edirne was given to him by the Union and Progress and he carried out a successful campaign.

The name Kemal, whom Nadi had known from Salonika, began to spread from mouth to mouth among the people during the Gallipoli campaign. But the printing press had not published articles on his heroism nor had a single photograph of him been included.

Tasvir-i Efkar was the first Turkish newspaper to publish a photograph of Mustafa Kemal in Sofia while he was thrusting an apparent.

He wrote in the New Day, which he founded in 1918, supports National Struggle

Nadi, who left Tasvir-i Efkar newspaper after the First World War and was close to the Ottomans in the first moments of constitutional monarchy, but became closer to Islamism and Turkism after his return from Salonika.

With the dissolution of the Parliament of Deputies on Nov. 21, 1918, Nadi's term as a deputy came to an end. He continued his professional life throughout his life without breaking away from the world of press, politics, and thought.

He founded the New Day Newspaper, which will take on a prominent mission in the history of the Turkish press in Istanbul and Anatolia, and which began publishing Sept. 2, 1918.

That same year, he was elected deputy of Izmir in the last Ottoman Parliament and wrote in the New Day he supported the National Struggle Movement in Anatolia.

March 16, 1920, the day after the invasion of Istanbul, his newspaper was closed by the British forces, and he had to move to Anatolia.

An intellectual father of Anadolu Agency

The lack of an organization that would meet the need for propaganda in Ankara, promote the national cause at home and abroad and speed up the flow of news was felt during the period of the National Struggle.

Anadolu Agency would respond to those needs. The idea of the agency was born in the conversation between Nadi and Halide Edip Adivar on April 1, 1920, in the Akhisar Station, the township of Geyve, passing from Istanbul to Ankara.

The name "Anadolu Agency" was attractive to Nadi among Edib's suggestions such as "Turkish Agency," and "Ankara Agency and the idea and the name of the agency to be established a few days later was born before the body.

Initial work started by Nadi and Edip

The caravan arrived in Ankara on the evening of April 1. On April 4 and 5, with the words of Nadi, Mustafa Kemal's headquarters in the Agricultural School, after the dinner, talk of the establishment of the Anadolu Agency began. Nadi recounts that night years later in his writings:

"Then Anadolu Agency is mentioned, which Halide Edip Hanim and I decided to establish at the Akhisar Station. If [Mustafa Kemal] Pasha approves, it can start immediately. Pasha thought the idea was very good. On the other hand, Pasha wanted to see for himself the description of the first days of the news and articles to be written to be telegraphed to his hometown. So that there would be no opposition to the politics and mentality that followed."

The idea of the agency was accepted at dinner where Mustafa Kemal, Nadi, Edib, Adnan (Adivar) and Cami (Baykurt) were present in the headquarters of the Agricultural School on April. 4 or 5.

According to the decision, on the first day, Mustafa Kemal announced the establishment of the agency to the whole country, while Nadi and Edib would collect official and unofficial domestic and foreign news and give it to the telegraph office to do at least two services a day.
The first works were started by Nadi and Edib. Then Ali Riza Bey, an Istanbul Deputy, joined.

The first shift of agency's employees was to translate relevant parts of foreign newspapers, separate telegrams brought by Mustafa Kemal Pasha's clerk Hayati Bey for Anadolu Agency and Hakimiyet-i Milliye newspaper, to help Mustafa Kemal's correspondence and to investigate possibilities for bringing the European newspapers from Istanbul.

Anadolu Agency was established on April 6, 1920. In the short period from April 6 - 23 April, the Turkish Parliament convened. His work focused mainly on issues such as warning the public against internal and external false reports and incitements aimed at misleading the Turkish public and informing citizens about decisions and initiatives taken for national liberation in time.

'The enemy must be destroyed, and will be destroyed'

Nadi, who was the father of the idea and the first Anadolu Agency's works, also published his newspaper, New Day in Anatolia, from August 10, 1920, and continued to support the National Struggle in Anatolia. The newspaper was published in Ankara until May 11 11, 1924.
He entered the Grand National Assembly as a deputy of Izmir in 1920 when he came to Ankara.

After the First Battle of Inonu, he was one of the delegates representing the National Government at the London Conference, which was held at the beginning of 1921 at the call of the Entente States.

In July, after the loss of the Kutahya-Eskisehir battles by forces of the Ankara government, he fought for Mustafa Kemal to be appointed Commander-in-Chief, gave speeches to convince deputies about this issue and published articles in the New Day.

Nadi usually finished his writings by saying: "The enemy must be destroyed, and will be destroyed."

Nadi was applauded by a mass of people gathered in front of the New Day printing house saying: “the enemy is destroyed” after the victory of the Battle of Sakarya in 1922.

Nadi started to act in parallel with the policies of Mustafa Kemal in mid-1921 and became one of Kemalism's front-line pencils against the opposition in the Assembly and the opposition in Istanbul.

He founded daily Cumhuriyet, interviewed Mustafa Kemal for first issue

Nadi read the constitutional amendment that announced the establishment of the Republic on Oct. 29, 1923, from the assembly chair as the Chairman of the Constitutional Commission.

After the proclamation of the Republic, he went to Istanbul to publish the Cumhuriyet newspaper as a publication to defend the Republic and revolutions against the pro-caliphate Istanbul press.

The newspaper was born with the merger of Hakimiyet-i Milliye and New Day newspapers on the proposal of Kemal.

The first issue, published May 7, 1924, featured an interview with Mustafa Kemal on the National Struggle and the War of Independence.
Nadi, who was a member of the Parliament in 1924 as a deputy of Mugla, continued to pursue politics as a deputy of Mugla in the Turkish Grand National Assembly until the end of his sixth term.

He served as the editor-in-chief of the Republic until 1936. He became the sole owner of the newspaper after the departure of Nebizade Hamdi and Zekeriya Sertel.

Veteran Journalist wrote books: "Artemis", "Revolution and Inkilab-i Osmani (Ottoman Revolution)", and "49 hours in the Air with Graf Zeppelin".
He died June 28, 1945, in Geneva, where he was going to be treated for a long-lasting illness.

He is buried at the Edirne Martyrdom in Istanbul.