Nihal Atsız

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Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız (January 12, 1905 in Istanbul—December 11, 1975 in Istanbul) was a Turkish writer and an ideologist of the pan-Turkist or Turanism camp. He is an author of over 30 books and numerous articles. He was in strong opposition to the government of İsmet İnönü, which he criticized for cooperation with Soviet Union.

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[edit] Politics

Nihâl Atsız is firstly known for his fascism; his extreme views, his active campaign against Turkish communists and his embracing of shamanistic, ancient Turkic traditions. He is among the authors that influenced the turkish fascist movement which is called Ülkücü movement, (translated as "idealism"), a nationalist movement of Alparslan Türkeş.[1] Atsız worked on Turkism as an ideologue and activist but never joined any party or political group because he considered politics to be a way to corruption[citation needed]. He and his comrades published several Turkist magazines such as Otuken, Yeni Hayat and Orkun. He wrote strong articles which criticized the oppressive government of İsmet İnönü and his tolerance on communism in the country. He and his colleagues were arrested and accused of holding "racist and Pan-Turkist" views, but eventually acquitted.

[edit] Literary work

Atsız majored in History of Literature and published several academic essays about Ottoman literature and history. His essays about history are gathered and published as a book under the name of Türk Tarihinde Meseleler (Several Issues in Turkish History). He served as a literature teacher for a number of years.

Atsız is also an important novelist and poet. His historical epic novel Bozkurtların Ölümü (Death of the Gray Wolves) is one of the most popular historical novels in Turkish literature. The book is concerns the last days of first Gök Türk Empire and the impossible rebellion of Prince Kür-Şad and his forty warriors against the Chinese invaders.

Its sequel Bozkurtlar Diriliyor (Revival of the Gray Wolves) tells the story of Urungu, the unknown son of Kür-Şad and the beginning of the second Gök Türk Empire.

His third novel Deli Kurt (Mad Wolf) is about the mystic romance between a Sipahi warrior and a mysterious shamanist nomad woman in the early Ottoman Empire.

His last novel Ruh Adam (Soul Man) is considered to be one of the best psychological novels. The book has a spiritual and mystical atmosphere, full with surrealistic, allegorical figures such as Yek (who symbolizes Satan) and Lieutenant Şeref (who symbolizes Honour). 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 story developed 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.

Atsız wrote two satirical political comedies about the dictatorship government of İsmet İnönü in the 1930s. Z Vitamini (Vitamin Z) is about a fictional special vitamin which gives immortality to the dictator and his government. Dalkavuklar Gecesi (Night of The Sycophants) is a historical allegory which tells the story of political corruption in a government in the Hittite Civilization.

Atsız is also a famous poet. 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 ("End of Roads")

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cenk Saraçoğlu, "Nihal Atsız's World-View and Its Influences on the Shared Symbols, Rituals, Myths and Practices of the Ülkücü Movement" [1]

[edit] External links