Ahmet Cevdet Oran (mostly known as Ahmet Cevdet; 1862–27 May 1935) was a Turkish journalist who founded an influential newspaper, İkdam which was in circulation between 1894 and 1928.[1] He was one of the early Turkish journalists who employed pure Turkish instead of Ottoman Turkish in his writings.[2]

Ahmet Cevdet Oran
Born1862
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died27 May 1935 (aged 72–73)
Ankara, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
OccupationJournalist
Years active1883–1935

Biography edit

Ahmet Cevdet was born in Istanbul in 1862.[2] His father was Hacı Ahmed Efendi, a well-known tobacco merchant.[3] He graduated from Kaptanpaşa Junior High School and then from Mülkiye, school of political sciences, and the law school.[3] He took lessons in Arabic, Persian and French and learned German and Greek.[3] He started his career as a translator at the newspaper Tercümân-ı Hakîkat when he was twenty-one.[3] Later he began to publish his first articles in this newspaper.[3] Meanwhile, he also published articles in Takvîm-i Vekāyi and served in its editorial board. Later, he worked as a civil servant at Ottoman Bank.[3] He returned to journalism and worked as the chief editor of different newspapers, including Sabah, Tarik and Saadet.[2][3] In 1894, he launched a newspaper entitled İkdam which he also edited.[4]

Ahmet Cevdet was in opposition to the Committee of Union and Progress, which took over the Ottoman administration after the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy.[2] Therefore, he went into exile in Switzerland.[2][4] He supported the Turkish War of Independence and returned to the country following the establishment of Republic of Turkey.[2] In addition to journalism, he was the publisher of many books such as Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatnâme and Şemseddin Sâmî's Kamus-ı Türki.[3]

Ahmet Cevdet was married and had three daughters one of whom was the mother of Turkish social scientist Şerif Mardin.[5] He died in Ankara on 27 May 1935.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Eminalp Malkoç (2008). "The 1927 Republican People's Party Congress and Mustafa Kemal's Great Speech From the Perspective of İkdam Newspaper". International Review of Turkology. 1 (2): 41. ISSN 1308-0105.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cevat Fehmi Baskut (February 1964). "Prominent Figures in Turkish Journalism". International Communication Gazette. 10 (1): 87. doi:10.1177/001654926401000113. S2CID 144350383.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Ahmet Cevdet, İkdamcı" (in Turkish). Islam Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b Ali Demirel (July 2018). The Relations of İstanbul and Ankara within the Press of Turkish National Struggle (1918-1922) (PhD thesis). Middle East Technical University. p. 12. hdl:11511/27502.
  5. ^ "Bir Münevver Portresi: Şerif Mardin". TR Dergisi (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2021.