Cumhuriyet döneminin sosyo-kültürel yapılanması, dil, kültür ve yazın alanında başlatılan pek çok yeniliği beraberinde getirmiştir. Özellikle Arap abecesinden Latin abecesine geçiş, kitle eğitim kurumlarının artması, eğitim örgütlenmesindeki değişimler, bilgi ve kültür aktarımını temel alan çeviri etkinliği gibi atılımlar yeni bir Türk kimliğini inşa etmeğe yönelik planlamanın başat hamlelerini oluşturmuştur. Bu çalışma bu bağlamda 1928-1967 yılları arasındaki zaman kesitiyle sınırlı kalmak kaydıyla dönemin sosyo-politik ve sosyo-kültürel yapısına koşut olarak Türkiye’nin çeviri ve yayın politikalarına odaklanacaktır. Çalışmanın birinci bölümünde, çeviri çalışmalarını başlatıp şekillendiren ulusal kurumlar ve etkinlikler incelenecektir. Dikkate alınacak zaman kesitleri tarihsel bağlamda nirengi noktası olarak nitelendirilebilecek olaylar/etkinlikler göz önünde bulundurularak belirlenmiştir. Buna göre ilk aşamada, Türk harflerinin kullanıma girdiği 1928’de gerçekleştirilen Abece Devrimi ile 1939’da gerçekleştirilen Birinci Türk Neşriyat Kongresi’ne dek geçen süreçte, Atatürk devrimleriyle şekillenmeye başlayan ulusal kimliğin oluşturulmasında rol alan öğeler irdelenecektir. Belirlenen ikinci dönem 1939-1967 arasıdır. Bu dönem kapsamında, Türkiye’de yayıncılığı ve bunun bir uzantısı olarak çeviri etkinliğini bir programa oturtmak amacıyla Birinci Türk Neşriyat Kongresinde alınan kararlar doğrultusunda 1940 yılında Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı bünyesinde başlatılan ve 1967 yılında son bulan çeviri seferberliği mercek altına alınacaktır. Çalışmanın ikinci bölümünde saptanacak devlet politikalarının uygulama alanı olarak yayıncılık müessesesi araştırılacak ve bu kapsamda Türk basın-yayın hayatının merkezi olmuş İstanbul’un Bâbıâli olarak tanınan ve 19. yüzyıl sonlarından itibaren Ankara caddesinde yer almış ve çeviri alanında da etkinlik göstermiş yayınevleri incelenecektir. Bu amaçla dönemin yayıncılık müessesesi, daha eski olanlara öncelik tanıyan bir yayınevi seçkisi aracılığıyla, çeviri ürün çerçevesinde ele alınacaktır.

Introduction and Purpose of Study Socio-cultural structure of the Republican era has launched many reforms in the fields of language, culture and literature. In particular, transition from the Arab alphabet to the Latin alphabet, the increase in mass educational institutions as well as changes in the organization of education, and translation activities relying upon transfer of knowledge and culture have accounted for the essential moves in the plan aiming to create a new Turkish identity. Creating a modern, national literature was the preliminary objective of the State project, which brought about a deliberate process of translation activity with a large scale State initiative. At this point, the contribution of publishers of Bâbıâli to shape the new national identity and literature in compliance with national policies cannot be underestimated. The obtainable data to trace the publishing activities and policies of the publishers operated in the early years of the Turkish Republic being extremely limited was the main motive behind this study. Hence, we were attracted to investigate the emergence of a large scale translation activity of publishing houses in the time period in question with the aim of filling a gap in the area of the history of translation in the Turkish Republic. Accordingly, this study, being limited to the period 1928-1967, focuses on the translation and publishing policies of Turkey along with its socio-political and socio-cultural structure. In the first part of this study, the national institutions and activities that initiated and shaped translation activity have been explored. The time periods highlighted have been chosen considering the events that can be regarded as historic benchmarks. Within this framework, in the initial period from the Alphabet Reform launched in 1928 until the First Turkish Publications Congress held in 1939, the initiatives playing a role in creating the national identity which were set in motion along with Atatürk’s reforms have been discussed. The next period determined is from 1939 to 1967. Within this period, in accordance with the decisions taken in the First Turkish Publications Congress with the aim to start a full-scale translation project as an extension of the state policy, the translation activities beginning under the auspices of the Ministry of National Education in 1940 and ending in 1967 have been put under the spotlight. The second part of the study has investigated the publishing houses of the period in question through which the implications of the state policy regarding the emergence of national identity and literature can be seen clearly. For this purpose, the translation activities of publishers have been examined by means of a selection of nine publishers with the older publishers being given priority. Cultural Planning and Publishing Houses from 1928-1967 On implementing the project of cultural planning of the Republic in 1930s, government officials established new institutions to educate the public in order to make them adopt these plans. One of these institutions is the People’s Houses (Halkevleri) which were established in 1932 in 14 cities. These People’s Houses, the number of which had reached to 478 when they were closed down in 1951, had activities in nine branches: language and literature, fine arts, drama, sports, social assistance, adult education, library and publications, village welfare, history and museums. Another important activity of this period was to take advantage of foreign educators who were experts in their fields for modernizing and restructuring of national education. It was thanks to the immense efforts and activities of Hasan Âli Yücel, who was appointed as the Minister of National Education at the Cabinet of Celal Bayar in 1938, that translation activity was brought up again as a state policy and a systematic and intense publication activity was launched. One of the most significant initiatives of this period was the foun