Yalçin Küçük
Encyclopedia
Yalçın Küçük is a Turkish socialist writer, philosopher, economist, historian, Kurdolog, Sovietolog and media pundit, recognized for his historical studies on the late-Ottoman and Republican periods in the history of Turkey and Soviet economic development from a Marxist perspective and also his interest in crypto-Judaism
in Turkey (Sabbateanism) and criticism of the Justice and Development Party
. made him popular.
Küçük was born in Iskenderun
. His father's ancestry is Turkoman
while his mother's is Caucasian. He went to the Kabataş High School, followed by Ankara University
. He graduated in 1960 with a degree in political science
.
His first job was in the State Planning Board, where he eventually oversaw the Long Term Planning department. In 1966 he found a position at the Middle East Technical University
. He was fired after the 1971 coup.
Before the coup he wrote calling for a "Socialist Revolution" and a socialist administration in Turkey in the leftist publications Yön, Emek, Ant. He is also well known for his bitter criticisms against another strategy called "National Democratic Revolution" .
In 1973, he became a reserve officer at the Polatlı Artillery school (military service is compulsory in Turkey). Afterward he ran the economy department of the establishment newspaper, Cumhuriyet
.
He also ran the economy bulletin of the Anka news agency.
He soon devoted himself to leftist causes, such as editing the newspaper Yürüyüş and relaunching of the Workers Party of Turkey
. The party kicked him and some others out in 1978; so, they launched a magazine called Socialist Power the next year.
In 1979 he joined Ankara University
but was again dismissed after the next coup, in 1980. He returned to academia at Gazi University
, and retired in 1987.
In his retirement he continued to write; for Social Deliverance , Always Forward . In 1993 he interviewed the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
, Abdullah Öcalan
in Syria's Bekaa Valley. Numerous photographs were leaked depicting Öcalan providing Küçük with a tour of the camp, and dining with him.
Actually, Küçük's photographs with Abdullah Öcalan were published in his own books and journals edited by Küçük, himself during 1990s during his contact with PKK. On various TV channels and interviews, he explicitly asserted that these were neither secret photographs nor he was ashamed of them. He as a social scientist and a socialist went to analyze the most powerful insurgency against the Turkish state, he claimed. In fact, in this period the rumors about the contact of Öcalan and Küçük went so far. Kurdish political organizations other than PKK claimed that Küçük "Kemalized" Öcalan by persuading him into denying separatism.
He left for Paris in 1993 in protest of president Süleyman Demirel
and the fact that a brothel owner, Matild Manukyan
, was the highest taxpayer, but returned after the 1997 "post-modern" coup. However, he was sentenced to two years in prison for spreading separatist propaganda (his interviews with Öcalan). He briefly had a show on Sky Türk called Pens and Swords but it got pulled allegedly after complaints from the government and the former chief of general staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt
.
His houses in Karakusunlar, Ankara
and Balat
, Istanbul
were searched in January 2009 in the frame of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation. His lawyer, Dursun Ermiş, arrived at Küçük's home in Ankara to field journalists' questions. The search warrant was issued by the Ninth Heavy Penal Court in İstanbul. The police is searching for documents pertaining to the Ergenekon network.
Crypto-Judaism
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews"...
in Turkey (Sabbateanism) and criticism of the Justice and Development Party
Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...
. made him popular.
Küçük was born in Iskenderun
Iskenderun
İskenderun is a city and urban district in the province of Hatay on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The current mayor is Yusuf Hamit Civelek .-Names:...
. His father's ancestry is Turkoman
Iraqi Turkmen
The Iraqi Turkmen are an ethnic group who mainly reside in northern Iraq. Estimates of their numbers vary dramatically, in accordance with Iraq's assimilation policies no realistic and independent census results have been revealed regarding the Iraqi Turkmen population...
while his mother's is Caucasian. He went to the Kabataş High School, followed by Ankara University
Ankara University
Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....
. He graduated in 1960 with a degree in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
.
His first job was in the State Planning Board, where he eventually oversaw the Long Term Planning department. In 1966 he found a position at the Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey...
. He was fired after the 1971 coup.
Before the coup he wrote calling for a "Socialist Revolution" and a socialist administration in Turkey in the leftist publications Yön, Emek, Ant. He is also well known for his bitter criticisms against another strategy called "National Democratic Revolution" .
In 1973, he became a reserve officer at the Polatlı Artillery school (military service is compulsory in Turkey). Afterward he ran the economy department of the establishment newspaper, Cumhuriyet
Cumhuriyet
Cumhuriyet is a centre-left Turkish daily newspaper, founded on May 7, 1924 by journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu. Based in Istanbul, it has been situated since October 17, 2005 in Mecidiyeköy. Cumhuriyet was the last newspaper to leave the old press district Cağaloğlu...
.
He also ran the economy bulletin of the Anka news agency.
He soon devoted himself to leftist causes, such as editing the newspaper Yürüyüş and relaunching of the Workers Party of Turkey
Workers Party of Turkey
Workers Party of Turkey was a Turkish political party, founded in 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice and eventually merged with the Communist Party of Turkey in 1988.TİP was founded by a group of labor union...
. The party kicked him and some others out in 1978; so, they launched a magazine called Socialist Power the next year.
In 1979 he joined Ankara University
Ankara University
Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....
but was again dismissed after the next coup, in 1980. He returned to academia at Gazi University
Gazi University
Gazi University is a public university primarily located in Ankara, Turkey.It was established in 1926 by Kemal Atatürk as Gazi Teacher Training Institute...
, and retired in 1987.
In his retirement he continued to write; for Social Deliverance , Always Forward . In 1993 he interviewed the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
, Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
in Syria's Bekaa Valley. Numerous photographs were leaked depicting Öcalan providing Küçük with a tour of the camp, and dining with him.
Actually, Küçük's photographs with Abdullah Öcalan were published in his own books and journals edited by Küçük, himself during 1990s during his contact with PKK. On various TV channels and interviews, he explicitly asserted that these were neither secret photographs nor he was ashamed of them. He as a social scientist and a socialist went to analyze the most powerful insurgency against the Turkish state, he claimed. In fact, in this period the rumors about the contact of Öcalan and Küçük went so far. Kurdish political organizations other than PKK claimed that Küçük "Kemalized" Öcalan by persuading him into denying separatism.
He left for Paris in 1993 in protest of president Süleyman Demirel
Süleyman Demirel
Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
and the fact that a brothel owner, Matild Manukyan
Matild Manukyan
Matild Manukyan was a wealthy Turkish businesswoman of Armenian descent. She was a real property investor that later made a fortune in brothel business.-Biography:...
, was the highest taxpayer, but returned after the 1997 "post-modern" coup. However, he was sentenced to two years in prison for spreading separatist propaganda (his interviews with Öcalan). He briefly had a show on Sky Türk called Pens and Swords but it got pulled allegedly after complaints from the government and the former chief of general staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt
Yasar Büyükanit
General Mehmet Yaşar Büyükanıt was the 25th Chief of the Turkish General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, from 28 August 2006 to 28 August 2008.-Biography:...
.
His houses in Karakusunlar, Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
and Balat
Balat
Balat is the traditional Jewish quarter in the Fatih district of Istanbul. It is located on the European side of Istanbul, in the old city on the historic peninsula, on the western bank of the Golden Horn...
, Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
were searched in January 2009 in the frame of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation. His lawyer, Dursun Ermiş, arrived at Küçük's home in Ankara to field journalists' questions. The search warrant was issued by the Ninth Heavy Penal Court in İstanbul. The police is searching for documents pertaining to the Ergenekon network.
Selected bibliography
Küçük is a prolific writer:- Türkiye üzerine Tezler - 5 volumes (Thesis' about Turkey)
- Aydın Üzerine Tezler - 5 volumes (Thesis' about intellectuals)
- 100 Soruda Planlama Kalkınma ve Türkiye (Planning - Development in 100 question and Turkey)
- Endüstrileşmenin Temel Sorunları: Sovyet Deneyimi (Basic problems of industrialisation: the soviet experience)
- Yeni Bir Cumhuriyet için (For a new republic)
- Bilim ve Edebiyat (Science and Literature)
- Qua VadimusQuo vadisQuo vadis? is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?" or "Whither goest thou?" The modern usage of the phrase refers to Christian tradition, related in the apocryphal Acts of Peter , in which Saint Peter meets Jesus as Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome...
- Nereye Gidiyoruz? (Where are we going?) - Sovyetler Birliğinde Sosyalizmin Kuruluşu (Foundation of socialism in Soviet Union)
- Sovyetler Birliğinde Sosyalizmin Çözülüşü (Collapse of socialism in Soviet Union)
- Küfür Romanları (Novels of Insult)
- Estetik Hesaplaşma (Aesthetical Payoff)
- İtirafçıların İtirafları (Confessions of confessors)
- 21 Yaşında Çocuk: Fatih Sultan Mehmet (A 21 years old boy: Mehmet the Conqueror)
- Ermeni Rahiple Mektuplaşmalar (Letters to an Armenian priest)
- Emperyalist Türkiye (Imperialist Turkey)
- Kürtler Üzerine Tezler (Thesis' on Kurds)
- Kürt Bahçesinde Sözleşi (Interviews in kurdish garden)
- Tekeliyet 1 - 2 (Monopoly 1-2)
- Tekelistan (Monopolyland 1-2)
- İsimlerin İbranileştirilmesi / Tekelistan - 1 / Türk Yahudi isimleri Sözlüğü (Hebrewation of names / Monopolyland 1 / Turkish - Hebrew names dictionary)
- Tarih 1-2 (History 1-2)
- İsyan 1-2 (Rebellion 1-2)
- Şebeke 1 (Network 1)
- Putları Yıkıyorum - Önsözler 1 (I'm breaking the idols - Prewords 1)
- Türkiye Büyülü Hapishanem (Turkey, my magical prison)
- Ders 1: Küçülme Savaş (Lesson 1: Don't get minimize, make war)
- Devlet ve Hürriyet (State and Freedom)
- Caligula: Saralı Cumhur (2007)(Epileptic Public)
- Sol Müdahale (2007)(Left Intervention)
- Aforizmalar (2008)(Aphorisms)
- Epilepsi ile Orgazm: Mediko-Politik (2008)(Epilepsy and Orgasm: Medico-Politic)
- Çöküş (2010)(Decadence)
- Haberci (2010)(The Precursor)
- Fitne (2010)(The Cabal)
- Hasta Despot (2010)(Ailing Despot)