The conservativity bridge and forks in the road from Yahya Kemal Beyatlı to Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

This study aims to compare Yahya Kemal Beyatlı and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar on the axis of conservatism as an ideology. Yahya Kemal Beyatlı is positioned close to the nationalist-conservative line in terms of his approach to art, his opinion pieces, and the subjects he chooses in his poems. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, on the other hand, approached art as an esthete and artist and focused on social issues with his character that prioritizes beauty. The differences in their approaches to social issues stemmed from the differences in their perspectives on similar aspects. While Yahya Kemal Beyatlı prioritized the 'old' with his artistic power and produced works of a more national nature, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, with his similar artistic power, turned to more global values and desired to achieve a healthy 'new'. This study, which consists of four main sections, aims to explain the development of conservatism in the world and in Turkey in the first section; to determine the ideological and political positions of Yahya Kemal Beyatlı in the second section and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar in the third section; and to compare the two intellectuals in ideological and political terms in the fourth and final section.