Mevlanzade Rifat Bey's life story as a journalist and a politician

Mevlanzade Rıfat Bey, who was exiled in 1896, because of his opposite views against Abdulhamid II. Reign. He turned back to Istanbul with high hopes after the proclamation of the constitution but he didn't find what he expected. Then, he joined the opposition front and lived as a chronic opponent to the very end of his life. Rıfat started his active political life with Fedakaran-ı Millet Cemiyeti, which was the first organized opposite movement against the Committee of Union and Progress. Moreover, his journalism career, what he owes his popularity, started with Hukuk-ı Umumiye, which is FMC's newspaper. Mevlanzade, who separated from FMC and its newspaper after a while, achieved a milestone in his life and journalism career by publishing Serbesti with Hasan Fehmi Bey. Thanks to his paper and being able to appear as a prominent actor in March of 31st process, Mevlanzade gained high popularity and was able to reach a mass audience at that time. While he was trying to provoke people with his paper in these times, he also organized meetings to get together opponent groups. Mevlanzade had an unsteady life because of his exiles and he was always a part of losing side as a politician. However, he never gave up and keep continuing to publish newspapers while he was in exile in Athens, Cairo, and Paris. Mevlanzade Rıfat Bey appeared as a "Young Kurd" who was also an opponent against national independence movement at the armistice period, had an active role in Kurdish organizations and contacted with English, French and Greek governments. After he exiled as a "150'lik", he acted together with persons and organizations who were trying to undermine the young Turkish Republic, and he gave information to Turkey as an informant at the same time. Keywords: Mevlanzade Rifat Bey, Hukuk-i Umumiye, Serbesti, Hasan Fehmi Bey, Fedakaran-i Millet Cemiyeti, Comittee of Union and Progress, Nuriye Ulviye, Second Constitutional Era, İnkılab-i Beser, Hukuk-i Beser, Ahali