The Poet of the Flag and More: Re-Reading the Poetry Of
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“THE POET OF THE FLAG” AND MORE: RE-READING THE POETRY OF ARİF NİHAT ASYA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY SILA GÜNEŞ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES SEPTEMBER 2020 Approval of the thesis: “THE POET OF THE FLAG” AND MORE: RE-READING THE POETRY OF ARİF NİHAT ASYA submitted by SILA GÜNEŞ in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Middle East Studies, the Graduate School of Social Sciences of Middle East Technical University by, Prof. Dr. Yaşar KONDAKÇI Dean Graduate School of Social Sciences Assist. Prof. Dr. Derya GÖÇER Head of Department Middle East Studies Assist. Prof. Dr. Derya GÖÇER Supervisor Middle East Studies Assoc. Prof. Dr. Metin YÜKSEL Co-Supervisor Hacettepe University Political Science and Public Administration Examining Committee Members: Prof. Dr. Aylin ÖZMAN (Head of the Examining Committee) TED University Political Science and International Relations Assist. Prof. Dr. Derya GÖÇER (Supervisor) Middle East Technical University Middle East Studies Assist. Prof. Dr. Besim Can ZIRH Middle East Technical University Sociology PLAGIARISM I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Sıla GÜNEŞ Signature : iii ABSTRACT “THE POET OF THE FLAG” AND MORE: RE-READING THE POETRY OF ARİF NİHAT ASYA GÜNEŞ, Sıla M.S., Department of Middle East Studies Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Derya Göçer Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Metin Yüksel September 2020, 167 pages This thesis attempts to reread the poetry of Arif Nihat Asya in its particular political and historical context. The research question in this critical study is as follows: to what extent can the poetry of Arif Nihat Asya help students of social sciences in an understanding of Turkish-Islamic nationalist ideological discourse and mobilization from the transition to multi-party politics to the present-day political life in Turkey? This thesis makes an original contribution to the existing scholarship on three levels. First and foremost, it demonstrates that rather than being critical, analytical and original, the existing and predominantly Turkish-language academic works are based on a biased, selective and Turkish romanticization of Asya’s poetry. Second, taking the conceptual and theoretical debates on “poetic discourse” and “poetry of nationalism” from different parts of the world as its frame of reference, this study iv inserts Asya’s poetic work into the late and post-Ottoman context. Third, this original contribution in the particular context of nationalist poetic discourse reveals that there are three themes that appear most in his poetry: the conquest of Manzikert and Constantinople, struggle with communism during the Cold War and the Cyprus conflict. Going beyond the discursive analysis this study shows that poetry is a convenient literary genre that has an exceptional feature at the service of popular political mobilization. Keywords: Arif Nihat Asya, Poetry of Nationalism, Poetic Discourse, Conquest, Anti- Communism v ÖZ “BAYRAK ŞAİRİ” VE DAHA FAZLASI: ARİF NİHAT ASYA’NIN ŞİİRLERİNİ YENİDEN OKUMAK GÜNEŞ, Sıla Yüksek Lisans, Orta Doğu Araştırmaları Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Derya Göçer Ortak Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Metin Yüksel Eylül 2020, 167 sayfa Bu tez Arif Nihat Asya’nın şiirlerini özgül siyasal ve tarihsel bağlamında yeniden okumaya girişmektedir. Bu eleştirel çalışmanın temelinde yatan araştırma sorusu şudur: Asya’nın şiirleri, Türkiye’de çok partili hayata geçilmesinden günümüze Türk- İslam milliyetçi ideolojik söylem ve mobilizasyonu anlamada sosyal bilim araştırmacıları için ne kadar yardımcı olabilir? Bu çalışma, mevcut sosyal bilim çalışmalarına üç düzeyde özgün bir katkı sunmaktadır. Öncelikle, mevcut ve çoğunlukla Türkçe yayımlanmış akademik incelemelerin eleştirel, analitik ve özgün olmaktan çok Asya’nın şahsiyetini ve şiirlerini önyargılı, seçmeci ve Türk milliyetçi romantizasyonla malul bir yaklaşımla ele aldıkları gözleminin altını çizmektedir. İkinci olarak, “şiirsel söylem” ve dünyanın çeşitli bölgelerinden “milliyetçi şiir” konularındaki kavramsal ve teorik tartışmaları temel analitik çerçevesi olarak alan bu çalışma, Asya’nın şiirlerini geç dönem Osmanlı ile Osmanlı sonrası dönemdeki gayri- vi Türk Müslüman toplulukların sözlü ve yazılı şiirleri ile aynı bağlama oturtmaktadır. Böylece Asya’nın şiirleri hakkında yapılmış yaygın ve Türk milliyetçi sınırlarla malul akademik yayınların ötesinde bu şiirleri daha geniş tarihsel ve siyasal bağlama yerleştirerek eleştirel bir mercek altına almaktadır. Üçüncü olarak, bu özgün inceleme milliyetçi şiirsel söylem tartışması çerçevesinde Asya’nın şiirlerinde öne çıkan üç temanın altını çizmektedir: Malazgirt ve İstanbul’un fethi, Soğuk Savaş döneminde komünizmle mücadele ve Kıbrıs Meselesi. Bu inceleme şiirin popüler siyasi mobilizasyonun hizmetinde kullanışlı bir edebi tür olduğu gözleminin altını çizmektedir. Anahtar Sözcükler: Arif Nihat Asya, Milliyetçi Şiir, Şiirsel Söylem, Fetih, Anti- Komünizm vii DEDICATION To my dearest soulmate viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to thank my thesis co-advisor and mentor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Metin Yüksel, one of the most humble, kind and humanist people I have ever met for all of his creative ideas in my thesis process and for all the valuable books and articles he sent me to read to enrich my point of view since these articles and books helped me endlessly in making this thesis into a comprehensive research while this thesis was just an idea. I also thank him for always listening to me with sincere curiosity, answering my questions, eliminating my fears during the thesis writing process and setting a great example in my mind of how an academician should be. I would also like to express my gratitude to my advisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Derya Göçer for her support during this process. I would also thank my jury committee: Prof. Dr. Aylin Özman from TED University, Assist. Prof. Dr. Besim Can Zırh from Middle East Technical University. I am also deeply grateful to Assist. Prof. Dr. Murat Umut İnan from Yıldırım Beyazıt University for his advice and help for my thesis. I extend special thanks to my family who always believes in me, encouraging me and listening my complaints during this hard process: my mother, my father, my brother. To my sweet soulmate Hasan Basri… I would never have completed this thesis without your unconditional love and technical support. Thank you so much for being with me while fulfilling my first and biggest dream, for walking this path with me, for always reminding me of my capacity, for believing in me even when I did not believe in myself. I would also like to thank a lot to my friends… Buse Kaya, Sibel Sanem Çalhan, Gizem Kara, Zeynep Elif Keleş, İlknur Uysal, Gizem Kasırga, Büşra Sünetçi, Bilge ix Enginkaya, Feyza Kaplan, Reyhan Durmuş for their support during this process and to my little sister Beyza Sünetçi for her kind hugs and to Ezgi Yakar for writing a thesis at the same time with me since she was understanding my psychology and sharing the same pain and sorrow with me. x TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... vi DEDICATION ..........................................................................................................viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ xi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... xiv CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 Poetry from Ottoman-Turkish to Modern Turkish .......................................... 4 1.2 A Critical Assessment of the Turkish Scholarship on Arif Asya’s Poetry .... 13 1.2.1 Provinces .................................................................................................... 16 1.2.2 Personality or Character-Based Analysis ................................................... 19 1.2.3 Formal and Thematic Analysis .................................................................. 24 2 WRITING AND READING POETRY: POETIC DISCOURSE, POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND NATIONALISIM .. 27 2.1 What is Poetry? .............................................................................................. 28 2.2 Poetic Discourse ............................................................................................. 32 2.3 Poetry, Politics and Ideology ......................................................................... 36 2.4 Nationalist Ideology in Poetry ......................................................................