FARUK EDIZ’S ARTICLES IN THE MAGAZINE OF TURKISH MEDITERRANEAN ON THE TWO UNKNOWN BOOKS OF ASIK SEMSI

In his education and cultural policies, Ataturk attached pretty much attention to reaching people, enlightening them, and revealing the means of welfare. In this sense, he pioneered the establishment of People’s Houses (Community Centers) across the country in 1932. These institutions published magazines, hosting scientific and cultural articles, through the press branch. Antalya People’s Center also published a magazine called Turkish Mediterranean in 1937. While exploring the issues of the magazine, we noticed an article titled “Asik Semsi and His Two Books” by Faruk Ediz, a literature teacher. After investigating Ediz’s article on Semsi’s two books assumed to give information about the author’s life, to be preserved by his son in Korkuteli, and to be never examined before, we immediately engaged in a literature review to be able to determine whether there was someone called Asik Semsi in Burdur who lived in the 19th century.We further evaluated the issues of the magazine and came to realize that Ediz provided remarkable information about Asik Semsi and his two books despite not being in order and exhibited some of his poems as footnotes in the articles. Therefore, the present study attempts to uncover the life and the mentioned two books of Asik Semsi from Burdur in the framework of Ediz’s study in the Magazine of Turkish Mediterranean by content analysis method. At the end of the study, a lot of information will be obtained about Âşık Şemsi from Burdur, and Âşık Şemsi will be recognized with his books within the 19th century minstrel tradition.
Keywords: Antalya People House, Turkish Mediteranean Magazine, Asik Semsi, Faruk Ediz.