Prof. Dr. Halil Berktay was at NUN Schools

The October guest speaker of the monthly Friday NUN Gatherings was the history professor Halil Berktay. As the meeting date was close to October 29th, the focus of Berktay’s speech was the process of the proclamation of the Republic.

It was rather remarkable that Berktay prepared his speech explaining why the expression “War of Independence” was not correct. This detail reminded our students of the significance of approaching general perceptions critically and found its meaning with the following answer: “The Ottoman state had never lost their independence in its fullest sense. They were very close to it but had not lost it. Therefore, it is more meaningful to underline the fact that there was a “national struggle” and saying that they were “saved” is a wrong expression.”

In Berktay’s interesting speech, this was not the only example, where an expression generally perceived and widely used was criticized. The reputable Professor pointed to another point in the National Struggle process that was not emphasized much. To stress this, he preferred to examine a visual from history books, with which almost everybody is familiar:

He had chosen the photograph above from the Hayat Encyclopedia that was the first Latin letter encyclopedia published after the alphabet revolution of the Turkish Republic and he emphasized the following points: “In this slide we seen an order. They do not have bows and arrows, it is certain that they are fighting with modern weapons and not with primitive methods. They are not like local bandits or fighters, it is obvious from all their state, even their shaving, that they belong to an orderly army. We understand from their body language that they are calm and modest; they are very close to each other, they look similar and equal.” After Berktay examined the photograph in a detailed way, he underlined the fact that the army reached this order after the modernization reforms in the 19th century Ottoman state.

Berktay gave examples from other countries in history having accomplished similar struggles for independence and finished his speech by drawing attention to the fact that the struggle in Anatolia was “realized very early” and “was finalized quickly.” After this valuable talk that generated new awareness, he answered the questions of our students with interest and in-depth.