Besim Atalay’ın Türk Büyükleri veya Türk Adları İsimli Eserinin Soyadı Kanunu Uygulamasındaki Rolü
The Role of Besim Atalay’s Work Turkish Elders or Turkish Surnames in the Surname Law Practices

Summary/Abstract: In this article the role of Besim Atalay’s work “Turkish Elders or Turkish Surnames” in the Surname Law practices of Turkish Republic will be discussed. Atalay, the author of the work was among the Ottoman intellectuals of the last period, and he was in Turkism movement. In the 1910-1920 period, he worked as a teacher and director of education, entered the first Grand National Assembly of Turkey in April 1920, and served as a deputy until 1946. Within this process, it is seen that Atalay showed a full devotion to Atatürk and his reforms and actively involved in the simplification movement of Turkish language especially with his studies on language. He also had an important role in surname law practices, which can be evaluated within the project of Westernizing new Republic’s Turkish society. This practice which aims to conform to the Western world, had a strong relation with nationalist ideology since it encouraged Turkish surnames to be taken. At this point, Atalay’s book, which was published firstly by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1923, was published again by the state in 1935 and 1936, and also upon the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs the names in this book were came out as a list in all newspapers across the country. It is also noteworthy that there were some other publications, which imitated his book to a large extent. Apart from these, it is interesting that Atalay made some important ideological changes in his book. Many words such as sultanate and sultan were completely removed from his text and by doing so his book was adapted to a new political environment.

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