Aka Gündüz (1886 – 7 November 1958) was a Turkish poet, composer and politician. He is most notable for having composed the Ankara Marşı (Ankara March).

Early life and education

Aka Gündüz was born as the son of the Major of the Ottoman Military Kadri Bey from Rize as Hüseyin Enis Avni, but during his life he was known with a variety of

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

s such as Hüseyin Enis Avni, Ali Kemal, Enis Avni, Enis Saffet or Seniha Hikmet amongst others. Several years of his childhood he lived in the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

due to his fathers military duties. He attended primary school in Serres (in present day

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

) and Selanik (present day Thessaloniki). His education was directed at military career, therefore he studied at the Military junior high school of Selanik and after the Ottoman-Greek war of 1897, he moved to Istanbul and followed up on his studies at the Galatasaray high school, from where he also graduated. He got to know Ömer Seyfettin, (who would become one of the influential authors of Turkey), during classes at the special military school in Istanbul. He also attended the Ottoman Military academy but did not finish his studies there. He was only for a short time at the military, from which he was soon relieved from duties. He then tried to study law and fine arts in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, but also from those studies he wouldn't graduate and following he lived for some years in Selanik. He was exiled to his native

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

because of his involvement in political affairs during the reign of Abdul Hamid II.

Professional career

He joined the revolutionary forces around the during the counter-coup of 1909 and furtheron he established himself in Istanbul where he became an active writer for a variety of newspapers.

Political career

After the Occupation of Constantinople, Gündüz was briefly exiled to the island of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. With the establishment of the Turkish Republic, he embraced the Kemalist school of thought, and from 1932 to 1946 he was a Member of Parliament representing

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Literary career

In the 1900s, he began to write poems and later wrote for a variety of newspapers and magazines such as the '' Türk Yurdu'', ''Sabah'', '' Milliyet'' and '' Cumhuriyet'' amongst others. He was one of the contributors of the political magazine, '' İslam Mecmuası'', from 1914 to 1918.

References

Composers of Ottoman classical music Composers of Turkish makam music 1886 births 1958 deaths Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians {{Turkey-composer-stub