Ahmet Hamdi Başar

Man of thought and politics (b. 1897, İstanbul – d. 1971, İstanbul). Her mother was from Karamanoğlu family. After having studied mathematics in İstanbul University for two years, he began to study geography and then he graduated from the faculty of arts as being a student of Prof. Obst in 1919. While teaching in primary schools, he also began to write in his university life. The school that he opened before the World War I. was enclosed because of the war. After graduating from İstanbul University, he taught geography in high schools and in the Higher School of Commerce. During the World War I, he published the weekly periodical Ticaret-i Umumiye. He worked in the in the cultural and professional associations such as Turkish Guild and The Association of Teachers. During the years of armistice he worked as a responsible and compotent member of the national secret organization Defence of Nation, which was linked to Anatolian Government, so he served his country. He began to publish the monthly periodical Türkiye İktisat Mecmuası.

In these years which witnessed the falling down of an empire and the birth of a new Turkish national state, Başar believed that the bourgeoise class and an intellectual middle class were needed to establish an independent state. In 1992, the Turkish National Commerce Union, which was established by Başar, let young Turkish enterprisers and merchants to be known in Europe. He participated in the Turkish Congress of Economics which was placed in İzmir as the representative of this union from İstanbul in 1923. The union had an important role in the nationalization of the İstanbul Commerce and Industry Association, which was used by foreigners.

In 1925 he established İstanbul Harbor Company and served to the nationalization of harbor, he worked as the head of the company until 1934. At the same time he worked in the process of the nationalization of Anadolu Baghdad Railways and the Lifeboat Institution as a member of execution.

The intellectual life of A. H. Başar began in 1930, when he was advisor of Gazi Mustafa Kemal in the big travel that was arranged through the establishment and cancellation of Liberal Party. Turkey was influenced by the bad conditions resulted by the great economical depression in 1929, and Başar suggested some original ideas to Mustafa Kemal. According to him, the great depression opened the way to salvation for countries such as Turkey. These countries were very different from the west and were opposite to the west, but they did not know their situation. Turkey would not develop in neither capitalist nor socialist regimes of the west. If it would imitate the west, it would depress faster and more violent than the west. Turkey had to find a way of its own. Başar tried to show this way to Gazi in his report, but he left his advisor position without giving his report to Gazi, the reason was some people around Gazi, who influenced him.

Therefore, he tried to let known his ideas through publishing books, articles, and through speeches in conferences. His book İktisadi Devletçilik (Economical State) was a wider version of his report prepared for Gazi. Başar’s ideas that were represented in his books and in the conferences arranged by People's Houses and the Association of Economists, disturbed the government. He was put away from the İstanbul Harbour Company, which was founded and directed by him. After this date, we saw him as a free business and market man. He established a sponge farming company, and then worked as a contractor, and then enterprising man. And he continued to represent his ideas through publishing books and articles.

He worked for founding Democrat Party, which was allowed to establish near the Public’s Party. But he could not agree with other founders and departed at the very begining. He founded Tüccar Derneği (The Association of Merchants) to lead a social movement in 1946, because he argued that the bourgeoise class should replace the governor class which he named as “kapıkulu” and so he became the general secratary of the association. İstanbul Association of Merchants impacted Turkish political and intelectual life between the years 1947-50.

Finally, he was elected from İstanbul as the representative of Democrat Party and joined the National Assembly. He collected his ideas in a treaty named “Developing as a Nation” and proposed it as a bill to the National Assembly. But his behavior caused him to disagree with his party and he obliged to resign in 1953. In 1951 elections, he was an independent candidate in the list of the Nation Party, and in 1957 elections in the list of Public’s Party, but he could not be elected because these parties could not win. The rebels of 27 May 1960 employed him as an advisor, but the National Union Commitee did not accept his ideas about the regime, therefore he could not continue to work as an advisor. He founded the periodical Barış Dünyası in 1946, which was enclossed for a while, but then continued to be published by Başar.

Başar began to his publication and writing life with the periodical Ticaret-i Umumiye Mecmuası in 1916. The World War I. had brought the Ottoman Empire to an end. In the Anatolia, there began a struggle to found a Turkish nation state. Başar thought that this struggle was a movement of Turks to depart from Ottoman Empire and to be independent. After the victory, he worked fort he emergence of a new Turkish bourgeoise class which would be a foundation fort he independence, and he tried to nationalize the economics. In İstanbul he worked in foundations such as National Turkish Commerce Union, National Workers Union, National Tradesmen Union. He participated in the Turkey Congress of Economics which was placed in İzmir as the representative of İstanbul in the March of 1923 and the same year he provied the nationalization of the İstanbul Commerce and Industry Union.

MAIN WORKS:

İktisadî Devletçilik (Economist Statism, 5 vol., 1934-42), Davalarımız (Our Problems the sixth book of the serial of Economist Statism, 1943), Atatürk'le Üç Ay (Three Months together with Atatürk, 1945), Demokrasi Buhranları (The Depressions of Democracy, 1956), Türkiye ve Yeni Dünya (Turkey and the New World, 1943), Değişen Dünya (The Changing World, 1941), Demokrasi Yolunda Nereye Gidiyoruz (Where Are We Going in the Way of Democracy, 1959).

REFERENCE: Hilmi Ziya Ülken / Çağdaş Düşünce Tarihi (1966), Büyük Larousse (c.3, 1986), Türker Acaroğlu / Açıklamalı Atatürk Kaynakçası (1981), İhsan Işık / Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006) - Ünlü Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Güngör Uras / Limancı Hamdi Bey (Milliyet gazetesi, 18 Ocak 2008).