The influence of the national literature movement on the poetry of Azerbaijani poet Ahmet Javad

The rise of nationalism in the aftermath of the French Revolution gave rise to a chain of national awakenings among the European nations. This movement resulted in a variety of changes in the European political arena. It brought about the emergence of nation states. Especially multi-national empires were adversely affected by this process. The Ottoman Empire was no exception in this regard. Ottoman Empire has endeavoured to develop various political Formula in order to prevent their minority groups and peoples from resorting to nationalist movements and separatist uprisings. They dwelled upon such political solutions as Ottomanism, Islamism, and Turkism. Nevertheless, the drawing apart of non-muslim peoples from the empire marked the failure of the idea of Ottomanism whereas the Arab and Albanian uprisings have similarly been the case of failure for Islamism. Eventually, around the primary component of the empire, that is Turks, Ottoman elite began to embrace the Turkist ideology. This ideology became the prominent one in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. Turkism has been supported by many intellectuals and it had profound influences on the cultural atmosphere of the era. The reflection of Turkism on literature has been the National Literature Movement. National Literature can be traced back to the Journal of Young Authors (Genç Kalemler) whose pioneers were Ali Canip, Ömer Seyfettin, and Ziya Gökalp. The "New Language" (Yeni Lisan) article has been considered the manifesto of the National Literature. Having profound effects on the literary atmosphere of the era, National Literature also created its correspondent group of supporters among the Turks who were living outside the Ottoman Empire. Azerbaijan was a kind of region where the influence of National Literature was deeply felt. National Literature also became one of the forming elements of Azerbaijani literature in the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the Azerbaijani intellectuals were under the influence of this movement. Ahmed Cevad was one of the forerunners of those intellectuals. Ahmed Cevad has become one of the most prominent poets in Azerbaijani literature, and he was the author of the lyrics of Azerbaijan's national anthem. One sees the clear marks of National Literature on his style and writing; especially the pioneers of National Literature, who are Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, Ziya Gökalp, and Rıza Tevfik, had considerable effect on his poetic style. In the first chapter of this work, we have given introductory knowledge about the rise of nationalism after the French Revolution, its spread in the Ottoman realm and the emergence of Ottomanism, Islamism and Turkism as political solutions in the era. In the second chapter, we dwelled upon a comprehensive analysis of Ahmed Cevad. We examined Cevad's biography, literary persona, and his poets with regard to certain subjects. We also touched upon certain conditions that were formative of his literary life, the themes in his poems and the time periods of his poems as well. In the final chapter, we firstly analyzed the influences of National Literature on Azerbaijani literature. Afterwards, we focused on the influence of National Literature on Ahmed Cevad. Thereafter, we examined the influence of certain pioneers such as Mehmet Emin, Ziya Gökalp, Rıza Tevfik, and Mehmet Akif on the poetry of Ahmed Cevad. Finally, we also touched upon the significance of Ahmed Cevad in Azerbaijani literature and his influence on this literature.