Hakki Baha Pars: Life and works (1879-1942)

Born in Bursa in 1879, Hakkı Baha Pars, our thesis subject, is a prominent figure who had witnessed the recent history of Bursa city and the Republic of Turkey. Though he is one of the forgotten advocates of the National Forces, he was among the close friends of Mustafa Kemal, especially during the latter's early days of life as a student, an army officer and a unionist. As a champion of revolution and cooperativism, Hakkı Baha Bey is one of the forgotten revolutionary minds of the people in the Republican era. It should be kept in mind that reintroducing the young minds who revived after the Tanzimat, means to know of Mustafa Kemal and hence the Turkish Revolution. During the years he was teaching at the Thessaloniki Military High School, Hakkı Baha established the Thessaloniki branch of the Society of Motherland and Liberty, with the participation of Mustafa Kemal and Ömer Naci, and he was also among the founders of the Ottoman Freedom Society which was later to become the Union and Progress Party. During his tenure in Thessaloniki, he published the "Füyûzât" journal. When the Greek occupation started, he became a chief of the National Forces in Bursa to organize the people. He was one the founders of Bursa the Immigrants Help Society. He is a soldier, an administrator and an educator who participated in the Writing and Translation Committee which was among the educational institutions of the early Republican era. Full of enthusiasm for writing and adopting research and learning as a principle, he grew up in an environment that was transferred from the Ottoman Empire (with a profile of Western intellectual) to the Republic, and he spent his life as a patriot of homeland. Some of the published and unpublished works of Hakkı Baha are the Phases of Life, the Rule of Criticism, the School Cooperative. Leaving a legacy of many academic works to the Turkish nation, he passed away in 1942. Our thesis is, to the fullest extent possible, based on the archive documents, primary sources, copyright works and reviews, memories, and the information shared by the living relatives/acquaintances of Hakkı Baha.