The "Genc Dusunceler" (Young Ideas) Newspaper: lost issues and author profiles

Abstract

Although the Genc Dusunceler newspaper is shown among the Kocaelibased newspapers in the Early Republican Period press studies, it was a periodical publication with a limited number of issues that was in fact published in Istanbul and closed in the course of an "action of the defamation of religion" that was filed due to a series of articles published in its pages. In a political atmosphere where it was quite easy to incur the sanctions of the Law on the Maintenance of Order, the newspaper, which started its publishing life in a period when the newspapers of the era were brandishing between exaggeration and understatement while mentioning the policies of the regime and the government, it attracted attention with its "exuberantly praising" language in its pages alongside its "questionable" publication adventure outside "journalism". The fact that many of the authors, whose articles and poems were included in the issues of the newspaper, which consisted of a few copies in total, subsequently became important figures in Turkish Literature and Turkish Political history has been a matter unmentioned until now. For example, they included Kemalettin Kamu's poem "Cankaya" and some literary texts by various renowned authors in Turkish Literature and political history, which were published for the first time, and only the first two issues dated March 23, 1928 and November 1, 1928 are available in the periodical publication archives in Turkey. Although it is estimated that the article series that caused the closure of Genc Dusunceler was continued in the following weeks, it is until now considered that issues after November 1, 1928 were either not published at all or they have somehow not reached the present day. This paper has been prepared to analyze the names included in the author staff of the Genc Dusunceler newspaper and their articles in the context of their literary, artistic and political careers by announcing the discovery of its 3rd and 4th issues dated November 14, 1928 and November 22, 1928, which were unearthed after lengthy research, within the context of the contribution it will make to the history of Turkish journalism.