Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Modern Turkish History, cilt.18, sa.35, ss.395-423, 2022 (Scopus, TRDizin)
© 2022, Hacettepe University. All rights reserved.The Turkish Alphabet Law was adopted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on November 1, 1928 and entered into force by being published in the Official Gazette on November 3, 1928. Therefore, Latin based letters were adapted to the Turkish language. It is seen that Atatürk followed this process closely and decided to study on the alphabet problem in a systematic way. For this purpose, Language Committee and Alphabet Commission were established. The state interoperated with the press to make the alphabet reform effective and widespread. Definitely, the newspapers that were the most important mass media means of this period were used intensively. In this study, the news about the "Alphabet Reform" in the newspapers namely Hâkimiyeti Milliye, Ikdam, Cumhuriyet and Milliyet, which had an important place in the Turkish national press, were examined. The columns of influential writers of the period such as Yakup Kadri, Falih Rıfkı, Yunus Nabi and Mahmut Bey were also determined. This study consists of an introduction and three main parts. In the introduction, the alphabet discussions from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey are included. In other sections, the views of the columnists about the alphabet reform in the related newspapers, the news and statements concerning the alphabet reform, and the discourses of the politicians regarding the alphabet reform are included respectively. In this study, document analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods, is used. In addition, field literature, archive documents, minutes, memoirs and periodicals are used. As a result, the realization stages of the alphabet reform, its reflections on the society, the attitude of the bureaucracy are evaluated from the perspective of the Turkish press.