Caliphate discourse in Ottoman press during the Second Constitutional period (1908-1918)

The Second Constitutional Monarchy period (1908-1918) was a period that covered the last years of the Ottoman Empire and had a profound impact on political, cultural and social spheres. Political and military events, debates in the fields of education, language and history continue to be the focus of academic studies. Newspapers and magazines published during this period have been important sources of social science research, especially in recent history. The air of freedom created by the Constitutional Monarchy, which was proclaimed after the long rule of Sultan Abdülhamid II, increased interest in journalism and publishing activities. Newspapers and magazines became a medium through which intellectuals and scholars expressed their thoughts on issues such as politics, religion, history and education. One of the important issues discussed during this period was the Caliphate. With the new political order brought about by the regime change and the devastating effects of the wars, the legal status, religious and political contexts of the caliphate were extensively discussed in the publications of the period. In this thesis, the approaches of Sebilürreşad, Türk Yurdu and İctihat, which were the most important publications of the Second Constitutional Monarchy and considered as the leading representatives of Islamism, Turkism and Westernism in the literature, to the issue of the caliphate were examined and the political, military, religious and social reflections of the concept of caliphate in these periodicals were investigated through thematic analysis.