A Forgotten Moment in Turkish Intellectual History: 24 Hours and Mediha Berkes

Abstract:

When the intellectual history of the Republic of Turkey is examined through its political and press interactions, it sheds light on the fact that the 1940s was a gloomy environment but with a dense vividness and diversity with regard to mass media and communication affairs. The main factor for that could be escalating political pressure and censorship imposed on the mass media, even resulting in close-downs, a situation which was quite in contrast with the striking increase in newspapers/periodicals being published during those years.

The 24 Saat, which is the main subject of our study, was a newspaper published for only 13 days by Mediha Berkes, who was forced to resign her post as a teacher in the sociology department of the Faculty of Language, History and Geography in Ankara. In this frame, the main aim of this research is to investigate intellectual considerations at the time of 24 Saat newspaper which entered into the Turkish intellectual and press history in 1947, as well as its owner Mediha Berkes in the context of the political and social developments of that decade.