Ahmed bey Agaoglu
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Ahmed bey Agaoglu /Agayev/ (1869-1939) was a prominent educator, journalist, a pan-Turkist ideologist and public figure.
Born in Shusha Agaoglu was one of the most prominent ideologists of the Azerbaijan national liberation movement in the beginning of the 20th century. In 1888, he arrived in Paris and came under the influence of French Orientalists like Ernest Renan and Professor James Darmesteter on Persiano-centricism. He was a well-educated person of his time, who had graduated from the Universities in Saint Petersburg and the Sorbonne University in Paris. He was also a famous journalist, who spoke fluently in five languages and therefore, wrote articles on current affairs for many popular newspapers in the country and abroad.
He returned to the Caucasus in 1894 teaching French, to then leave for Baku to contribute in the formation of a national identity. He wrote monographs in various subjects. It was during that period that he took a different position than the French Orientalists he was influenced from and began embracing Turkish identity.
Ahmed bey Agaoglu considered the cultural and educational progress to be the major provision for the national liberation. He viewed the emancipation of women as part of this struggle. Thus, Agaoglu was the first member of the Azeri national intelligentsia to raise his voice for the equal rights for women. In his book "Woman in the Islamic World" published in 1901, he proved that "without women liberated, there can be no national progress".
Agaoglu was chosen from Baku as one of the represents of the Muslims of Trancaucasia and played an important role in prevention of ethnic clashes between Armenians and Azeris in 1905. He was the founder of the "Difahi" (Defender) organization, intended to oppose the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (dashnaks), which was a threat to Agaoglu nationalist ambitions and against his focus on social revolution.
He migrated to Istanbul in late 1908-1909, during the Turkish nationalistic movement that brought the Young-Turks to power. He played a role with other émigrés like Yusuf Akçura and Hüseyinzade Ali as Pan-Turkist Journalist-ideologists, and became a key figure in the Turkish movement led by Akçura’s journal Turk Yurdu (Turkish Homeland) and a primary figure in Turkish Hearth (Turk Ocagi) movement and the president of its congress. After having his influence increased in the Nationalistic Ittihadist regime, in late 1915, he became a deputy and was a strong adherent of Pan-Turkism and the Ottoman expansion policies to unite all Turkic nations.
During the years of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Agaoglu was elected to the Parliament (Milli Mejlis), later became the deputy of the speaker.
After the Soviet take over, Ahmed bey Agaoglu had to leave the country. He moved to Ankara, Turkey and continued his journalistic and political activities there, working as the director of the press bureau, the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper "Hakimiyyeti-Milliyye" ('People's Power'), and as a close advisor of Atatürk,- the founder of the modern Turkish Republic.
Agaoglu died in 1939 in Turkey.
