The Azeri-Turk journal and evaluation of Mehmet Emin Resulzade's writings

This study examines the intellectual legacy of Mehmet Emin Resulzade, who played a significant role in the formation of Azerbaijani national identity, and his intellectual activities conducted through the Azeri-Turk Journal. Resulzade was not only one of the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic but also a thinker who influenced the shaping of intellectual movements in the Turkic world at the beginning of the 20th century. His ideas guided the modernization process of Azerbaijani society with a worldview centered on the concepts of independence, freedom, and nationalism. The thesis examines Resulzade's life, political struggle, and intellectual activities within a historical context; his line of thought, spanning from his years of resistance in Azerbaijan to his period of exile, is analyzed. The focus of the study is the Azeri-Turk Journal, in which Resulzade's writings were published. This journal is considered an important publication that brought together intellectuals from different regions of the Turkish world and transformed nationalist thought into an intellectual platform. In the research, all published issues of the Azeri-Turk Journal were scanned; Resulzade's writings were identified, translated, and subjected to content analysis. The findings reveal that Resulzade did not abandon the ideal of an independent Azerbaijan even in exile, defending both the unity of the Turkic world and the struggle for freedom with his pen. The aim of this study is to comprehensively reveal Resulzade's intellectual continuity, the evolution of his ideas, and his contribution to the search for a common identity in the Turkic world, using the example of the Azeri-Turk Journal. In this respect, the thesis aims not only to document the press activities of a particular period, but also to contribute to understanding the historical role played by intellectuals in Azerbaijan's modernization process.