THE STORY OF A POEM THAT SENT ITS POET TO EXILE

In 1926, following the assassination attempt on Atatürk, Mehmed Kemaleddin Kharputi (1867-1936), mufti of E laz？？, was subjected to a trial, dismissed from his official post (mufti) and exiled to Samsun. He was convicted by the Eastern Independence Tribunal (？ark ？stiklal Mahkemesi) for letters he sent to his children and for some documents found in his home. In these letters and documents there were statements against some recent events, reforms, and regulations such as the abolition of the caliphate, the hat law, and the closure of madrasas. A ghazal poem Kemaleddin Kharputi composed in support of the caliphate and wrote to his son Abdülhamid in a letter constituted the strongest evidence of the aforementioned verdict. In this article I present the course of events that brought Kemaleddin Kharputi to the Tribunal primarily based on his statements during his defense, and discuss the reasons for writing this poem. Finally, I also briefly explain the poem