Hasan Ali Yücel As An Example of Westernization and Human Rights Thought in the early Republican period and the first years of multi-party period

Turkey signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in line with the Westernization efforts of the country and human rights has been perceived in various ways by different political circles. In the early Republican period and the first years of multi-party period, Hasan Ali Yücel has been one of the few who took human rights seriously and thought on the modern concept of human rights. Yücel was the Minister of Education between 1938 and 1946 and known for his efforts to create new citizens of the young republic. He has revealed his thoughts on idea of rights in general and modern human rights in particular in several of his books and columns. Previous reseach on Yücel emphasized how he contributed to Turkish humanism, however, only one work examined his perspective on human rights and/or his place in human rights thought in Turkey. Therefore, this study aims to contribute this field of research by unlocking basic dimensions of his perspective on human rights, based on an analysis of his two works Hürriyet Gene Hürriyet (Freedom Yet Freedom) (Vol.1) (1960) and İyi Vatandaş İyi İnsan (The Good Citizen The Good Man [Human]) (1956/2011). These texts will be analyzed by using the concepts of “citizenship”, “state”, “nation”, “freedom” and “equality”, taking the social, political and intellectual of context of the late Ottoman, early republican and first years of multi party periods in consideration. It concludes that Yücel has a humanistic perspective on human rights. As Bora, et. al. (2002) stated he embraced many ideas portrayed in the human rights documents adopted at the time and he deemed human rights necessary for the country to become Westernized and be a member of civilized societies. However, political statist and nationalist elements in this thought as well as his embrace of political tutelage and his understanding of ideal citizenship limited his perspective on human rights and sometimes left no space for them. Although Hasan Ali Yücel’s thoughts on human rights intersects and reflects some of the ideas of the Westernist- wing of Republican People’s Party in the single party period, some elements in this thought are still prevalent in different political ideologies. Therefore, investigating how Hasan Ali Yücel approached human rights provides a key to understanding contemporary debates on human rights in Turkey.

Keywords

Human Rights in Turkey, Hasan Ali Yücel, Humanism, Nationalism