War Literature and War Propaganda Efforts of Mehmet Akif: From the Balkan War to the Turkish National Struggle

Mehmet Akif Ersoy, one of the most significant poets of Turkish literature and one of the most socially sensitive intellectuals of Turkish thought, has substantial activities in the direction of war propaganda and war literature in the last decade of the Ottoman State which is the scene of consecutive wars. According to this, the poet, who lost his father’s motherland in the Balkan War and suffered against the atrocities experienced by the Balkan Muslims, portrays the Balkan tragedy with his poems; and on the other hand, by preaching in the mosques of Istanbul, he tries to unite the public opinion against the Balkan catastrophe. In the First World War, which took place before healed the wounds of the Balkan War, Mehmet Akif goes to the captive camps where the captured Muslim soldiers of the Entente States are settled around Berlin and also he visits the Western Front in response to the Prussian call, which he assumed as a national duty. Later, he accepts the great tasks and makes a call for calm to the Muslims of the Arabian Peninsula against potential insurrections. He also invites public opinion to unit against enemy with his poetry as much as possible during the Great War. At the end of the First World War, it is seen that Mehmet Akif has made an effort to overcome the pessimistic spirit that society draws on. Then, at the beginning of the Turkish National Struggle, intellectuals who have high social sensibility will perform important duties; one of them is Mehmet Akif. In the National Struggle, Mehmet Akif emerges as a preacher, a mentor, a poet, a man of struggle and a deputy. Akif, who gives himself to the National Struggle with all his energy, will preach in various places of Anatolia and will publish in favour of the National Struggle with his periodical Sebilürre？ad and he will inject courage with his poems. It is better understood today that his efforts during the National Struggle are extremely precious. In our article, war propaganda and war literature efforts of Mehmet Akif is disscussed during aforementioned wars. In this way, Mehmet Akif ’s poems and sermons are evaluated as basic texts, who strives for the independence of his country with enormous effort