Thomas Paine and Ziya Gökalp

THOMAS PAINE AND ZIYA GÖKALP

Dear readers!

History is ungrateful. It quickly makes us forget true heroes. As years pass, it covers with earth the heroes who once fathered the most important revolutions in history, plunging everything into darkness. The purpose of this article is to remind my readers of the two great figures whose names you see in the title and, in a sense, to honor their struggle. I particularly want to emphasize that I do this purely out of universal and conscientious motives.

THOMAS PAINE

Let's start with Thomas Paine, if you will. If I were to ask which are the three most important revolutions in human history, my readers would most likely agree with me on these three: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution. If we push it a bit, it is quite possible to place the Turkish Revolution in fourth place.

Revolutions cannot happen without intellectual fathers and doctrines. If I were to ask who the intellectual fathers of the American and French Revolutions were, you would most likely fall into deep thought, mentioning names like Robespierre and Danton for the French Revolution, and George Washington, Benjamin Franklin for the American Revolution. However, the truth is very different. The intellectual father of both revolutions is the same person: Thomas Paine. Now I ask, how many readers among us had actually heard this name before and knew the historical role he played?

Excuse me, I have no intention of being humble! You might have read this name, at most, in Anatole France's novels. This name is not in the history books taught in schools. Nor is this name ever mentioned in newspaper columns or on TV screens. Please do not be offended by my attacking you in this way, because the average American and French citizen are also unaware of the historical role this name played. As I said, history is cruel. Even today, the burial place of Thomas Paine, the intellectual father of two revolutions through his published articles and manifestos, is unknown! Now let's briefly look at Thomas Paine's life: Some sources introduce Thomas Paine as an American. The truth is this:

Thomas Paine was born in England in 1737. So he was English. He left school at the age of 13 to help his father, a corset maker. After a brief military service, he returned to his father's trade. He married in 1759 but soon went bankrupt. When his wife died with their child during childbirth, Thomas Paine was left jobless and alone. He took up clerical jobs but was fired. He was rehired, this time leaving voluntarily, and became a teacher. In 1771, he remarried. He was 34 years old. This time he found work in the tobacco industry. He wrote the first article of his life. He printed 4000 copies of this 12-page manifesto and distributed them in London. In the article, he demanded improvements in the living conditions and increased wages for workers in the tobacco industry. In those years, neither Marx nor Engels existed. Not even utopian socialism was heard of.

He was dismissed from his job on some pretext and went bankrupt. He sold his house to pay his debts and separated from his wife. He settled in London. By chance, a mathematician friend introduced Thomas Paine to Benjamin Franklin, an American who had come to visit London. Of course, in those years, there was no state called the USA. America was a British colony. Benjamin Franklin gave him a letter of recommendation. Thomas Paine immigrated to America at the age of 41. In those years, the most important city in America was Philadelphia.

During the sea voyage, he contracted typhus. He was on the verge of death when the ship reached America. He recovered. In those years, there were 13 independent colonies in America. One of them was Pennsylvania. He became a citizen of this colony. In 1775, he became the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. He loved his job. Before Thomas Paine came to America, 16 magazines had started operations in the colonies, but all had gone bankrupt. But Thomas Paine's magazine was doing quite well. At a friend's suggestion, he changed the magazine's name to American Magazine, aiming to convey news from other colonial regions to the readers. For the first time, through this magazine, the 13 independent British colonies had the opportunity to get to know each other. This, in a sense, meant the birth of a common spirit. The number of readers increased. Thomas Paine gradually began to bring political issues to the agenda in his articles. And finally, one day he wrote that famous sentence: "We may now admit that every heart and hand is set out for American independence." The idea of America separating from England and becoming a separate state was being articulated for the first time. This was a revolution! He went even further: He headlined the magazine with "A new nation is born!" The colonies slowly began to communicate with each other. On March 8, 1775, he took his biggest step and cried out in his article titled "African Slavery in America": "Slavery must be abolished!"

And finally, he published the handbook of the American Revolution on January 10, 1776: Common Sense. In this manifesto, he further strengthened the idea of independence. He did not write his name under the manifesto, contenting himself with simply writing "An Englishman." The Common Sense manifesto circulated like a storm from hand to hand in the colonies. Within three months, 100,000 copies were printed.

In those years, two million people lived in the 13 colonial regions. This manifesto continued to be printed during the American Revolution, with a total of 500,000 copies printed. This was an incredible figure! The American Revolution had now begun. Common Sense was read in homes, on streets, in taverns, in fields, passing from hand to hand. The 13 Colonies had now become one colony and one spirit.

Thomas Paine immediately put forward the idea that an army should be established. In those years, the intellectuals living in the colonies held the British Parliament responsible for the problems, rather than the King of England. But Thomas Paine directly blamed and held the King responsible. This stance further strengthened the idea of independence. Thomas Paine's greatest talent was that his writings were understood by ordinary people and touched their hearts.

The American Congress convened, and the Declaration of Independence was published. Of course, Thomas Paine did not have few enemies. Intellectuals loyal to the British Crown were looking for an opportunity to eliminate Thomas Paine. Jealousy was also very high. For example, John Adams, considered one of the founding fathers of America, belittled the Common Sense manifesto, trying to diminish its importance. Thomas Paine advocated for universal suffrage, but this idea did not please many intellectuals. Women and slaves voting! This idea seemed impossible.

Thomas Paine did not stop there; he attacked religion. He saw religion as a system that limited human reason. He had a dualistic understanding of religion. His enemies multiplied even further.

Towards the end of 1776, Thomas Paine published the manifesto titled American Crisis. He called on Americans to unite against the British army. George Washington, the first President of America, was a soldier in the British Army in the colonies in those years. He was so impressed by Thomas Paine's manifesto that he made it a habit to read the manifesto aloud to his friends.

The war had begun between the colonial army and the British army. Help was needed. Thomas Paine suggested getting help from France, an enemy of England. This suggestion was initially met with very strong opposition. Thomas Paine was removed from the Committee (1779). But soon after, in 1781, a delegation was sent to France, and help was requested. Thomas Paine fought on the front lines alongside a general named Nathanael Greene in the War of Independence, while also writing about the mistakes made and some individuals taking bribes from France. He was accused of treason to the American Revolution by his enemies. He was even physically attacked twice while walking on the street. Thomas Paine again left the Committee. Later, he was proven right and regained his respect.

Thomas Paine was not idle. In 1780, he wrote his manifesto titled Public Good. In this article, he brought up an interesting topic. My readers should know that the 13 colonies were located in what we call the East of America today. In his new manifesto, Thomas Paine claimed that all the lands to the west of these colonies, extending to California, would belong to the newly established state, not the British government. His enemies intervened again, but this view was accepted at a meeting in 1787.

Money was needed for the revolution. Thomas Paine went to France with Colonel John Laurens. He returned with 2.5 million silver coins. He founded the Bank of America, which is still the largest bank in America today. He bought a simple house in New Jersey. This was the only wealth he owned in his life.

After the American Revolution succeeded, Thomas Paine returned to London in 1787, aiming to start a revolutionary movement there as well. However, he saw the French Revolution as more likely and went to Paris immediately after the French Revolution of 1789. The revolution had been haphazard and sudden. It had no intellectual basis. When the Englishman Edmund Burke wrote an article belittling the French Revolution, Thomas Paine responded with his famous manifesto, Rights of Man (1791). The French Revolution now had a handbook. He gained French honorary citizenship. Although he could not speak French, he was elected to the National Convention and served on the Constitutional Committee. Thomas Paine was against the execution of King Louis XVI. He believed that French society was not ready for it. Instead, he suggested that the King be exiled to America. Above all, Thomas Paine did not find the idea of "execution" humane and opposed this savagery. However, Marat accused Thomas Paine of cowardice. Robespierre imprisoned Thomas Paine (1793).

Thomas Paine was not idle in prison. He wrote the second part of the Rights of Man manifesto. His friends launched a petition campaign in the newly established United States of America for Thomas Paine's release. The French Convention this time rejected the proposal, claiming that Thomas Paine was not a US citizen. According to the French, he was an Englishman. Thomas Paine protested, but ears were deaf. He had many enemies. He was sentenced to death, but at the last moment, it was abandoned. In fact, this was not an abandonment but an executioner's mistake. That morning, a cross mark had been placed with chalk on the doors of those to be sent to the guillotine, but the executioner accidentally forgot to make this mark on Thomas Paine's door. His execution was postponed until the next day, but when Robespierre was arrested that evening, Thomas Paine was, in a sense, forgotten. He was released in 1794. He again became a member of the French Convention. He opposed the accepted Constitution because the article on universal suffrage was not included.

In his book, The Age of Reason, published in 1794, Thomas Paine criticized the Old and New Testaments: "I believe in one God... I believe in the happiness beyond this earthly life; I believe in the equality and love among people, and I also believe that religious duties include being just and striving to make our fellow human beings happy..."

Immediately after, he states that the books known as "holy" are not divine creations but human ones, and he targets all religions.

Thomas Paine was an interesting man. He also designed bridges and obtained patents for them. He was also the inventor of the smokeless candle. He had started working on steam engines.

In 1800, Thomas Paine met Napoleon. Napoleon proudly said: "Mr. Paine, I want you to know that I have your Rights of Man manifesto under my pillow. Every night before bed, I read it again and again from beginning to end." Napoleon's love for Thomas Paine was so great that he used to tell his friends: "Without Thomas Paine's manifesto, the chaos of the French Revolution would have continued. In my opinion, a golden statue of Thomas Paine should be erected in every city in the world."

Napoleon's biggest goal was to invade England, but he did not know how to cross the English Channel. Thomas Paine suggested building 1000 boats, each with cannons. Napoleon preferred to prioritize Russia. In later years, when Napoleon declared himself a dictator, Thomas Paine mercilessly declared him "the greatest charlatan the world has ever seen." Thomas Paine remained in France until 1802. At the invitation of US President Jefferson, he returned to the USA.

Thomas Paine was angry with George Washington, the first President of the USA. Because while he was waiting for execution in prison in France, Washington had not lifted a finger. Thomas Paine perceived this behavior as a betrayal. He did not remain silent. He criticized Washington. He sent him a letter. He accused him of being an incompetent and inept statesman and commander. He emphasized that if French aid had not been provided, it would have been impossible for George Washington to succeed in the American Revolution.

Thomas Paine was now old. He was ill. He died on June 8, 1809, in a simple house in New York. Thomas Paine, the intellectual father of the American and French Revolutions, perhaps the one who played the most important role in the success of both revolutions, was alone when he died. He was buried in a simple cemetery in the presence of three or five people.

His grave was moved to New Rochelle. Because Thomas Paine was an atheist, the Quakers (the name of an important religious sect in America) protested his grave being on their land. They were forced to haphazardly bury his coffin under a walnut tree in a distant place. An English friend took the coffin and brought it to England. He put his bones in a bag and kept them in a corner of his house. When his friend died 15 years later, no one knew what happened to Thomas Paine's bones. Today, there is no grave site for Thomas Paine.

ZIYA GÖKALP

Before writing about Ziya Gökalp's private life, I want to address the Ottoman Empire. Until the Tanzimat Reforms of 1839, the Ottoman Empire was a multi-religious, multi-lingual, cosmopolitan empire. Under the influence of the French Revolution of 1789, especially the Christian peoples in the Balkans began to move to establish their nation-states. Christian subjects were slowly leaving the Ottoman Empire. When Sultan Abdülhamit II came to power, he no longer trusted the Christian subjects. Only Armenians living in Anatolia remained. He brought them under control by establishing the Hamidiye Regiments.

The Empire had transformed, changing from a cosmopolitan structure to an Islamic Empire. Arabs, Albanians, and Kurds were the Muslim populations he could trust. After the 1908 Revolution, unrest also began among the Muslim population. When the Committee of Union and Progress seized power in 1913, it distanced itself from the Muslim subjects, bringing the idea of Turkism/Pan-Turkism to the forefront, because with the outbreak of World War I, the Muslim populations had also begun to move to establish their nation-states.

When the Ottoman Empire lost the war, occupations began in Anatolia, and chaos ensued. It was under these conditions that a thinker, through his writings and articles, announced the Turkish Revolution, just like Thomas Paine, his writings circulated from hand to hand, and his poems were memorized by everyone. The name of this person, considered the father of Turkish Nationalism, was Ziya Gökalp.

Ziya Gökalp was born on March 23, 1876, in Çermik/Diyarbakır. He was of Kurdish (Zaza) origin. Many Turkish nationalist writers and thinkers have written many articles, and even falsified documents, to prove Ziya Gökalp's Turkish origin. Interestingly, Thomas Paine experienced the same pain; whether he was English, American, or French changed according to the author's convenience. In fact, this is of no importance. We know only one truth: that Ziya Gökalp was the intellectual father of the Turkish Revolution.

After the Republic was established, especially after the Kurdish Rebellions, writers, because Ziya Gökalp was of Kurdish origin, prioritized Mustafa Kemal as the intellectual father of the Turkish Revolution. However, Mustafa Kemal has no single written article, manifesto, or poem. The book Nutuk is the text of the speech delivered by Gazi Mustafa Kemal, the general president of the Republican People's Party, between October 15-20, 1927, summarizing his and his comrades-in-arms' activities from 1919 to 1927.

Ziya Gökalp began his education in Diyarbakır, his birthplace. In 1886, he entered the Mekteb-i Rüştiye-i Askeriye (Military Junior High School), where he first encountered the idea of freedom. He lost his father in his last year of military junior high. He began to take lessons in Islamic sciences. He wanted to continue his education in Istanbul but, unable to do so, he enrolled in the second year of the İdadi Mülkiye (Civilian High School) in Diyarbakır in 1891. In his final year, he was investigated for shouting "Long live my nation!" instead of the customary "Long live my Sultan!" after school. He left school in 1894 when the school period was extended from five to seven years.

After leaving high school, he took Arabic and Persian lessons from his uncle. He became interested in Sufism. He began to learn French. He met Dr. Abdullah Cevdet Bey (of Kurdish origin, founder and intellectual father of the Committee of Union and Progress), who was assigned to Diyarbakır due to a cholera epidemic, and was influenced by his ideas. Due to financial difficulties preventing him from going to Istanbul to continue his education, and pressure from his family to marry, he attempted suicide at the age of 18. The bullet he fired into his head was removed in a difficult operation without morphine. The operation was performed by Dr. Abdullah Cevdet Bey and a young Russian surgeon in Diyarbakır. After the suicide attempt, he dedicated himself to reading again.

In 1896, Gökalp went to Istanbul and enrolled in the Veterinary School because it was free. During his studies there, he participated in the country's freedom movement. He made efforts to meet people; he met with İbrahim Temo (Albanian) and İshak Sükûti (Kurdish). He joined the Committee of Union and Progress. He was arrested in 1898 for "reading banned publications and being a member of opposition associations." He remained in prison for a year.

After his release, he was exiled to Diyarbakır in 1900. He could not complete his higher education. He married his cousin. He had one son (Sedat) and three daughters (Seniha, Hürriyet, Türkan).

Until 1908, he held minor civil service positions in Diyarbakır. He lived a comfortable life with his wife's assets. He did not neglect his work for freedom. During that period, when the Hamidiye Regiments, established for the security of the region and led by the Kurdish-origin İbrahim Pasha, became involved in theft and robbery, he organized the people. For three days, he occupied the Diyarbakır Telegraph Office and began sending telegrams from there to the palace, demanding punishment for İbrahim Pasha and his men.

As a result of pressure from Western states on the palace, an investigation committee was sent to the region. However, when İbrahim Pasha and his men, who had disappeared for a while, later resumed the same illegal activities, the people, led by Ziya Gökalp and his friends, occupied the telegraph office again for 11 days. At the end of this resistance, İbrahim Pasha and his men were removed from the region.

Between 1904 and 1908, he published his poems and articles in the Diyarbakır Newspaper. He described the atrocities committed by İbrahim Pasha against the people in his work "Şaki İbrahim Destanı" (Epic of İbrahim the Bandit).

After the Second Constitutional Era, he established the Diyarbakır branch of the Committee of Union and Progress and became its representative. He published the newspaper "Peyman." Ziya Gökalp attended the Committee of Union and Progress Congress held in Thessaloniki in 1909 as a delegate from Diyarbakır and was elected as a member of the organization's central executive board in Thessaloniki. He continued to stay in Thessaloniki, trying to create a cultural movement around him.

Ziya Gökalp, who took charge of the youth affairs branch of the Committee of Union and Progress in Thessaloniki, gave sociology and philosophy lessons to the young people around him. He wrote articles in a philosophy magazine published in Thessaloniki. Ziya Gökalp, who envisioned uniting the Turks of the world and establishing a strong Turkish state, published his epic "Altun Destanı" (Golden Epic), expressing this ideal, in Genç Kalemler Dergisi (Young Pens Magazine) in 1911.

"The homeland for Turks is neither Turkey nor Turkestan

The homeland for Turks is a great and eternal country, Turan!"

When the Association's center moved to Istanbul in 1912, Ziya Gökalp also came to Istanbul and settled in the Cerrahpaşa district. In March, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a deputy for Ergani/Maden (Diyar-ı Bekir). When the assembly was closed four months later, he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Literature.

In 1913 and 1914, he refused the offer of the Ministry of Education (Maârif Nazırlığı) and continued his work at the university. In 1915, he was appointed as a professor of sociology (İctimâiyyât müderrisi) in the Philosophy Department of Istanbul University. He became the first professor of sociology at Istanbul University. In a sense, sociology entered our universities thanks to him.

Ziya Gökalp, who shaped his ideas around Turkism, became one of the founders of the Turkish Hearth (Türk Ocağı) as soon as he arrived in Istanbul. He wrote articles in the association's publication "Türk Yurdu" (Turkish Homeland), as well as in Halka Doğru (Towards the People), İslâm Mecmuası (Islamic Magazine), Millî Tetebbûlar Mecmuası (National Studies Magazine), İktisadiyat Mecmuası (Economics Magazine), İçtimaiyat Mecmuası (Sociology Magazine), and Yeni Mecmua (New Magazine). He remained on the editorial board of Türk Yurdu magazine from before the Balkan War until the beginning of World War I, contributing a poem and an article to each issue of the magazine. He addressed important issues in his series of articles titled "Turkification-Islamization-Modernization." In later years, he published Yeni Mecmua.

Ziya Gökalp continued to produce works. In 1914, "Kızıl Elma" (Red Apple); and in 1918, his work "Türkleşmek, İslâmlaşmak, Muasırlaşmak" (Turkification, Islamization, Modernization) and his poetry book "Yeni Hayat" (New Life) were published.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, he was dismissed from all his duties. In 1919, he was arrested by the British within the university. He was detained in Bekirağa Bölüğü for four months. As a result of the trial, Ziya Gökalp, along with other Unionists, was exiled to Malta, where he taught sociology and philosophy to his friends.

After his 2-year exile, when Ziya Gökalp returned to Istanbul, he wanted to continue teaching at the university, but his request was not accepted. After living in Ankara for about a month, he went to Diyarbakır with his family, published Küçük Mecmua (Little Magazine) with the support of Ahmet Ağaoğlu, and supported the War of Independence with his writings.

In 1923, he was appointed as the Head of the Ministry of Education's Copyright and Translation Board and went to Ankara. In the same year, he published his famous work titled "Türkçülüğün Esasları" (Principles of Turkism). In August, he was elected as a deputy for Diyarbakır by Atatürk to the Second Term of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Ziya Gökalp, who settled in Ankara, never interrupted his cultural and intellectual work. He worked on the translation and publication of world classics into Turkish. In 1924, after a short illness, he died on October 25, 1924, in Istanbul, where he had gone to rest. He was buried near the Tomb of Mahmud II in Divanyolu.

Ziya Gökalp systematized the idea of "Turkism." He played an important role in the establishment and development of national literature. Ziya Gökalp first supported Pan-Turkism, then Oghuzism, and later Turkish Turkism. He was Atatürk's intellectual father.

I would like to say this much: Ziya Gökalp is the intellectual father of the Turkish Revolution. Without him, the War of Independence had very little chance of success. It is common feelings and thoughts that unite people. In those years, there was only one person who did this: Ziya Gökalp.

According to Yahya Kemal, Ziya Gökalp was the man who discovered Turkishness within the Ottoman Empire. Ziya Gökalp had seen that the country would be saved not by Ottomanism or Islamism, but by unity of ideals. According to him, what would unite people of various ethnic origins, religions, and sects was an ideal. Everyone who said "I am a Turk" and carried this feeling was a Turk.

Yes, dear readers! I believe that we have thus met the true intellectual fathers of the American, French, and Turkish Revolutions. With my respects.