"Ambiguous Plays of Light (Ziya)": The Critics against Ziya Gokalp and Durkheim's Sociology throughout the National Struggle in Turkey and the Journal of Dergah

Abstract

The intellectual life of the period of National Struggle has been disregarded in the national historiography of Turkey. In parallel, there is an important gap in the biographical studies narrating Ziya Gokalp's intellectual life during the period. It is the critics against Gokalp and the sociology of Durkheim represented by him which was very popular during the Second Constitutional Period. The writers criticizing Ziya Gokalp and his understanding of Durkheim's sociology during the National Struggle were a group of Darulfunun professors and their students publishing the journal of Dergah (1921-1923). The critical approach of Dergah writers should be analyzed in a different context than the previous critics against Gokalp in the Second Constitutional Period because of its historical context, objectives and especially intellectual sources. The conceptual frame of this critical approach is based on Bergson's philosophy gaining great popularity in the Ottoman-Turkish intellectual life after the First World War. However, on the background of those critics, the struggle for determining the borders of cultural nationalism and the political and personal conflicts have an important role.