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''Yön'' () was a weekly Turkish political magazine published between 1961 and 1967. It was a
Kemalist Kemalism (, also archaically ''Kamâlizm'') or Atatürkism () is a political ideology based on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History. Ne ...
and
leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...
magazine. In fact, ''Yön'' was more than a publication in that its contributors represented a political movement in the 1960s, Yön movement, which was a successor of the leftist-Kemalist movement in the 1930s known as Kadro movement. The latter also gathered around a publication, '' Kadro''.


History and profile

''Yön'' started publication in
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 ( ...
on 20 December 1961. The founders included
Doğan Avcıoğlu Doğan Avcıoğlu (1926 – 4 November 1983) was a Turkish writer, journalist and politician. Biography Doğan Avcıoğlu was born in Mustafakemalpaşa district of Bursa Province in 1926. After completing high school, he traveled to France for s ...
,
Mümtaz Soysal Osman Mümtaz Soysal (15 September 1929 – 11 November 2019) was a Turkish professor of constitutional law, political scientist, politician, human rights activist, ex-prisoner of conscience, senior advisor, columnist, and author. Soysal serve ...
and
Cemal Reşit Eyüpoğlu Cemal Reşit Eyüpoğlu (1906 – 21 January 1988) was a Turkish finance officer, lawyer, politician and journalist. He was a member of the Republican People's Party (CHP). He served at the Parliament from 1950 to 1954 and the Constituent Assembl ...
. The owner of the magazine was Cemal Reşit Eyüpoğlu, and Avcıoğlu edited ''Yön''. The first issue of the magazine contained a declaration of 500 Turkish intellectuals about a formal doctrine of socialism. Therefore, the establishment of the magazine was the first serious attempt to publicize socialist views in Turkish society. ''Yön'' was an organ of Doğan Avcıoğlu's movement, namely direction-revolution movement, which is one of the most influential leftist movements between 1961 and 1971 in Turkey. In line with this function the magazine had a
social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
and Kemalist stance. For the magazine editors Turkey was a semi-
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
and semi- colonial country which was dependent on the
western countries The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. ...
, particularly the United States. Therefore, the magazine supported antifeudalism and Third Worldist approach. It attempted to establish a national front to achieve national democracy in Turkey. ''Yön'' paid attention to the collaboration between the
working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
and progressive state bureaucracy in this endeavour. It also emphasized the significant role of the
Turkish army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...
in a forthcoming revolution. In 1962 ''Yön'' criticized the cabinets formed by
İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the second List of Presidents of Turkey, president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its Prime Minister of Turkey, pr ...
after those led by
Cemal Gürsel Cemal Gürsel (9 June 1894 – 14 September 1966) was a Turkish military officer and politician who was the fourth president of Turkey, serving from 1960 to 1966 after taking power in a coup d'état. Early life Gürsel was born in the town ...
, the leader of the 1960 coup. The magazine claimed that the İnönü cabinets implemented some policies which were opposite of the desired steps taken by the Gürsel government. It was closed following its 77th issue date 5 June 1963 due to the allegations of its support for the failed military coup by an army officer, Talat Aydemir, on 21 May 1963. The weekly was restarted after fifteen months on 25 September 1964. The magazine permanently ceased publication in 1967, and its last issue was published on 30 June that year. In fact, it was closed down by Doğan Avcıoğlu who declared that ''Yön'' reached its target. During its lifetime the magazine produced a total of 222 issues. The closure of the magazine, in fact, reflected a significant change in the ideology of the direction-revolution movement. After ''Yön'' ended its publishing, the leftist magazines ''
Ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
'' and '' Türk Solu'' which had different approaches in contrast to ''Yön'' were started.


Contributors and content

Major contributors of ''Yön'' included İlhan Selçuk, İlhami Soysal, Niyazi Berkes, Sadun Aren, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Cahit Tanyol, İdris Küçükömer and Fethi Naci. Leading writers
Attilâ İlhan Attilâ İlhan (15 June 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Turkish poet, novelist, essayist, journalist and reviewer. Early life and education Attilâ İlhan was born in Menemen in İzmir Province, Turkey on 15 June 1925. He received most of his pr ...
and
Çetin Altan Çetin Altan (22 June 1927 – 22 October 2015) was a Turkish writer, journalist, and a member of parliament. He was considered one of the finest writers in the modern Turkish language of the late 20th century. Early years Çetin Altan was ...
also contributed to the magazine. Another significant contributor was Kemal KurdaÅŸ who was the rector of
Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...
. His articles contained bitter criticisms of capitalism and offered a model for Turkish-type socialism. Besim Üstünel, an economist, published articles in the magazine criticizing Turkey's association with the
European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
. Turan Güneş, a member of the
Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...
, was among its contributors until ''Yön'' clearly supported a dictatorial regime. Turhan Selçuk published political cartoons in ''Yön'' which published articles on the topics that were taboo in Turkey in the 1960s. One of these topics was the Kurdish issue in Turkey for which the magazine employed the term the Eastern problem. In addition to political writings, ''Yön'' also cultural and literary sections. The cultural section was edited by Fethi Naci and Konur Ertop. The magazine featured a poem of
Nazım Hikmet A nazim is the coordinator of a city or town in Pakistan. Nazim or variant spellings may also refer to: * Nazim (given name), including a list of people with the given name ** Nirmala Devi, born Nazim, Indian actress and singer * Nazim (surname), ...
(published in 1964) whose works had not been published in the country for a long time.
Mihri Belli Mihri Belli (December 1915 – 16 August 2011) was a prominent leader of the socialist movement in Turkey. He fought for the communist side in the Greek Civil War. Belli was repeatedly prosecuted and sentenced to prison for his political views, ...
, another influential figure, joined ''Yön'' in 1964. His contributions affected the political stance of the magazine in that ''Yön'' began to become closer to the right-wing views and to support the
Republican Peasants' Nation Party The Republican Villagers Nation Party (, CKMP), alternatively translated Republican Peasants' Nation Party, was a political party in Turkey. Fusions The party was founded after the fusion of two smaller nationalist parties. One of these partie ...
which had been headed by Alparslan Türkeş, one of the army officers who participated in the military coup on 27 May 1960.


Circulation and popularity

Immediately after its foundation ''Yön'' sold 30,000 copies. The circulation of the magazine decreased to between 4,000 and 5,000 copies in 1965. ''Yön'' was the most popular publication during its run among the university students and faculty members from different universities. Deniz Gezmiş, a leftist youth leader, reported that he became a socialist after reading ''Yön''.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yon 1961 establishments in Turkey 1967 disestablishments in Turkey Defunct socialist magazines Defunct Turkish-language magazines Defunct political magazines published in Turkey Kemalism Magazines established in 1961 Magazines disestablished in 1967 Magazines published in Ankara Weekly magazines published in Turkey