Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu

Who was Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu?

Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu was a renowned Turkish journalist and founder of the newspaper Cumhuriyet.

Yunus Nadi was born in 1879 in the Seydiler village of the south Aegean town Fethiye. After primary school in Fethiye, he was schooled on Rhodes. Later on, Yunus Nadi moved to Istanbul, where he graduated from the Galatasaray High School. He then graduated from the Istanbul University with a degree in Law.

Yunus Nadi started to work as a journalist at the newspaper "Malumat" in 1900. He was only 22 years old when he was sentenced to a three-years prison and exile due to an article he wrote in 1901. Until the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy in 1908, he lived in Fethiye. Returning to Istanbul, Yunus Nadi joined the newspaper "İkdam ve Tasvir-i Efkar". In 1910 he became editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Rumeli" in Thessaloniki published by the Committee for Union and Progress party.

At the age of 32, he was elected Deputy of Aydın into the Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul in 1912 and was reelected for another five-years term in 1914.

The literary Yunus Nadi Prize competition, which is "the oldest surviving literary competition" in Turkey, has been named to his name and memorial.