Yunus Nadi and Peasantist Thought

The peasantist thought that influenced many European states also formed the basic content of the populist approach of the Kemalist regime.. Therefore, the regime recognized peasants as an element that should be conquered both politically and ideologically. Yunus Nadi, founder of daily Cumhuriyet newspaper and a member of the parliament for the Republican People’s Party, was one of the journalists who were closest to Mustafa Kemal. Yunus Nadi molded public opinion through his articles before each reform that Mustafa Kemal put into effect thereby acting in a way as the spokesperson of the regime. The aim of this study is to reveal the connection of Nadi’s peasantist thought with the organismic society approach of the conservatist thought in the background within the framework of the Kemalist discourse of “national unity and classless and conflictless society.” The method is the scanning and analysis of Yunus Nadi’s articles on peasantism published between 1929 and 1936. The study handles Nadi’s view on peasantism in three main aspects in parallel to the opinion of the regime in this regard. Firstly, Nadi preferred agriculture/peasantist industry versus urbanisation, secondly he supported the policy of return to village as the hub of pureness and genuine Turkishness in a way revering village life and peasants, and finally, he valued the importance of education for “training peasants”.