Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 4 – HALIDE EDIP AND YAKUP KADRI 
148 
In the ensuing period of the First World War Yakup Kadri did not publish much, at 
least by his subsequent standards. A quick look at the lists of Yakup Kadri’s 
publications
96
show that publications dating between 1914 -1917 are much fewer in 
comparison with those in other years before or after. Although Yakup Kadri, as we 
have seen, later claimed to have resisted financial or other inducements to follow the 
line of the Committee of Union and Progress, he did publish some propaganda 
pieces during the war. In the second edition of his book on Turkish Literature and the 
First World War Köroğlu notes that Yakup Kadri had six short stories published in 
İkdam 
between June and August 1916 which were pure war propaganda in its most 
unbecoming form and quite astonishing for a writer with Yakup Kadri’s talent
97
.
It was during the war that Yakup Kadri left Turkey for Switzerland because he had 
become a consumptive and it is unclear whether the pieces in question were written 
to curry favour.
When Yakup Kadri returned to Istanbul in 1919, he published a prose poem, 
Erenlerin Bağından 
(From the Saints’ Orchard), and started writing in great 
profusion for 
İkdam
. From this period onwards Yakup Kadri not only wrote about 
social and literary subjects but he became an ardent and open supporter of the war in 
Anatolia and Mustafa Kemal.
In 1920 Yakup Kadri published the novel 
Kiralık Konak
(Mansion for Rent) whose 
setting spans the period from the Tanzimat to the First World War and in 1921 the 
96
Akı, 259-275, Uç, 162-3, Yücel, 111-2 
97
Köroğlu 2010, 16-20 

---

CHAPTER 4 – HALIDE EDIP AND YAKUP KADRI 
149 
novel 
Nur Baba
which is a description of a Bektashi tekke in the Meşrutiyet 
(constitutional) period. 
On 1 May 1921 he arrived in Ankara as a guest of Halide Edip. She wrote that both 
she herself and her husband were very fond of him both as a writer and as a friend. It 
was also at that time when he had started writing the novel 
Ateşten Gömlek 
whose 
title Halide Edip purloined
98
and which will be discussed in detail in the following 
chapter. After the battle of Sakarya (23 August-13 September 1921) Yakup Kadri 
became a member of a commission under Halide Edip investigating Greek atrocities 
in the company also of Yusuf Akçura. From Halide Edip it does not seem as if he did 
this for long because three pages later first Yusuf Akçura resented the fixed hours 
she imposed and then Yakup Kadri gave up because of ill-health
99
.
In 1922 he joined in publishing the non fiction work of wartime suffering 
İzmir’den 
Bursa’ya 
(From Izmir to Bursa) with Halide Edip, Falih Rıfkı and Mehmet Asin and 
in 1923 a work of social criticism, 
Kadınlık ve Kadınlarımız
(Womanhood and Our 
Women) 
In 1923 he married Leman Belge and entered the Grand National Assembly as 
representative for Mardin until 1931. In 1926 he left for Switzerland once more 
because of ill health. During his stay there between October 1926 and January 1927 
he wrote essays on the Western civilisation from the point of view of an intellectual 
98
Adıvar 1928, 256 
99
Adıvar 1928, 311-2 

---