Kemal Karpat's life, historianship, works

The aim of this thesis is to give information about the historian Prof. Dr. Kemal Karpat and to express his scientific value. Kemal Karpat, has done studies on social history of the Ottoman Empire and politicial history of the Republic of Turkey. He related the history of the Modern Era in Turkey and played significant roles in the world. In this study, the life story, historiography and works of Kemal Karpat were examined. He is the first scientist who did oral history studies in Turkey. He started oral history studies before American and European scientists. According to Kemal Karpat there is a link between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey and Turkey is the successor of Ottoman Empire's culture and civilization. He stated that the Ottoman Empire contributed to the history of humanity. Karpat benefited from domestic and foreign sources as an academician who studied Turkey and abroad. Thanks to the foreign languages he knew, he was able to examine the references he cited in their original languages. He evaluated the events not only in chronological terms, but in a cause-effect relationship and comparatively with the past and present. Keywords: Kemal Karpat, Turkey history, social history, the Ottoman Empire, the history of the Modern Era.