Munis Tekinalp

Who was Munis Tekinalp?

Moiz Cohen was a Turkish writer and philosopher of Pan-Turkism movement. Born to a Jewish family, he changed later his name to Munis Tekinalp.

He was sent for schooling in the Alliance Israélite Universelle school in Salonica, continuing for a rabbinical ordination. He would later continue to legal studies in Salonica, completing them in Istanbul after Salonica fell to Greece.

In 1905, he bagan to write for the newspapers Asır, where he worked for five years and was promoted to its editor-in-chief. While he has teaching law and economics at Istanbul University he was engaged in tabac export. He published an economy magazine for the Association of Economy and served as a consultant for some companies until 1918.

Following World War I, he was much disappointed. He put his heart to Kemalism and changed his name to Munis Tekinalp. He taught in the community schools, and entered active politics in the Republican People's Party. He served in the city council. Tekinalp ran for the general elections in 1954 and 1957, however he could not enter the parliament. He served as the secretary general of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. He wrote for the newspapers Cumhuriyet, Vatan, Akşam, Hürriyet and Son Posta.