Misâk-ı Millî’nin kabulünden önce Osmanlı barışına i̇lişkin olarak dönemin basınında öne çıkan bazı yaklaşımlar

Abstract

Misak-ı Millî (The National Pact) is the declaration adopted by the last Ottoman Parliament on January 28, 1920, outlining the conditions for the Turks in the peace that will be made between the Allied Powers and the Ottoman Empire. The first three articles of this declaration are related to the Arab landscape, the provinces known as Elviye-i Selâse (Kars, Ardahan, Batumi) and Western Thrace and are about the borders of the state based on nationality. The other articles of the declaration are about the situation of Istanbul and the Straits, the rights to be given to the minorities and the capitulations. In the new order that was tried to be established after the First World War, the National Pact, which revealed the minimum existence conditions of the Turkish state, was shaped step by step with the decisions taken by the cadres who carried out the National Struggle, especially Mustafa Kemal Pasha, starting from the Amasya Circular, at the Erzurum and Sivas Congresses. However, when the press of the period is examined, it is seen that some ideas, suggestions and evaluations similar to the principles set forth in the Misak-ı Millî started to be discussed immediately after the Armistice of Mudros. Especially in the newspapers published in Istanbul, there are very serious suggestions about the "nationality principle" that emerged after the war and the borders of the state, the status of non-Muslim Ottoman citizens, the future of Istanbul and the capitulation issues. These discussions, which were seen in the Ottoman press after the Armistice of Mudros, show that the Turkish public opinion had a lively debate about its own future despite all the pressures of the Allied Powers and the Istanbul governments. The fact that the political approaches put forward overlap with the basic principles of the National Struggle, which will sprout and develop later, indicates the existence of a social consensus and a common mind. This study aims to evaluate the general approaches discussed in the newspapers of the period regarding the Ottoman peace before the adoption of the National Pact, and the similarities and differences of these approaches with the principles of the Pact. In the research, the situation in question will be discussed based on the examples in the newspapers with different political tendencies during the armistice period. In the study, Alemdar, Vakit and Yenigün newspapers, which are the leading newspapers of the period, are examined. In this research, which is a qualitative study, the data to be obtained were reached by using documentation and source scanning methods, and the obtained data were subjected to content and discourse analysis.