Jurist, journalist
and writer (b. 1872, Gümüşhane – d. 1934, Paris). He was the son of Hüseyin
Fikri Paşa, the Governor of Kosovo. He attended School of Politics (1890) and
graduated from the Faculty of Law, Paris (1893). At first, since he participated
in the activities of Union and Progress Party, he was imprisoned for fourteen
months in the period of Abdülhamit (1895). After the Second Constitutional
Monarchy, he came back from Paris and was selected as the parliamentary deputy
for Dersim. He had a disagreement with the administrators of the Union and
Progress Party when he opposed the tortures that were carried out on the
Bekirağa Squadron and later took part in the Liberty and Entente Party.
After his Tanzîmat (1911) newspaper, which was closed down by martial law, he published ten
newspapers: Zühre, Matbuat, Tanzimat,
Merih, Islahat, Maşrik, Tesirat, Takdirat, Teşkilat, Teminat. Although he
was elected the deputy for Dersim in the last parliament of the Ottoman Empire,
he resigned when he saw that the Unionists were in the majority. He defended
the Constitutional Monarchy and the division of power in the constitution in
1922. When he published his article, Halife
Hazretlerine Açık Mektup (An Open Letter to the Caliph), in the newspaper Tanin, he was punished with a penalty of
five years hard labor by the Independence Court with the claim that he had been
defending the rule of the sultan. He was later pardoned. He was also tried by
the Elazığ Independence Court, but he was acquitted. He died in Paris, where he
had gone for medical treatment.
WORKS:
Selanik'te Bir Konferans / Bizde Siyasî Partiler, Bugünkü
Hali ve Geleceği (A Conference in Thessalonica / Our
Political Parties, Their Current Positions and Future, 1910), Hükümdarlık Karşısında Milliyet ve Mesuliyet
ve Tefrika-i Kuvai Mesaili (Nationality and Responsibility Contrary to
Government and the Discord in the Matter of Power, as a reply to a conference
of Refet Paşa about national government, 1922).
PLAY: Şimdiki İzdivaçlar ve Erkekler Arasında (Current Marriages and
Among Men).
