Ziya Gökalp’s Suicide Attempt: The Same Event, Different Narratives
Mehmet Ziya Gökalp, one of the leading intellectuals of modern Turkey, attempted suicide at the age of eighteen. In subsequent years, this incident gave rise to numerous and often conflicting accounts within both the history of political thought and the body of Gökalp scholarship. This article offers a comparative analysis of these divergent narratives and systematically elucidates the differences among them. Moreover, it demonstrates in a striking manner how such narratives have been employed in constructing an idealized biography of Gökalp, who is regarded as a foundational figure in the intellectual history of modern Turkey.
Faruk DENİZ
