Mehmed Şevket Eygi
Mehmed Şevket Eygi | |
---|---|
Born | Ereğli, Turkey | February 7, 1933
Died | July 12, 2019 | (aged 86)
Education | Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University |
Occupation | Journalist, writer, columnist |
Mehmed Şevket Eygi (February 7, 1933, Ereğli – July 12, 2019, Istanbul) was a Turkish journalist, writer, columnist,[1] and intellectual.[2] He had Islamist-nationalist views,[3] including some that were described as antisemitic or conspiracy theories by various sources. Eygi was imprisoned for many years, most recently for demagoguery in 2002[4] and 2006.[5]
Biography[]
Eygi was born on February 7, 1933, in Ereğli district of Zonguldak as the only child of his family.[6] He completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Galatasaray High School.[7] Eygi learned French at Galatsaray High School and took lessons Orhan Şaik Gökyay, Nihat Sami Banarlı and Ahmet Kutsi Tecer.[8] He received a scholarship for Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University in 1952.[9] He studied with Cemal Süreya and Sezai Karakoç. While attending university, he worked as a translator at the French Cultural Center in Ankara.[10]
After graduating from university in 1956, he worked as a translator at the Directorate of Religious Affairs for two years. He worked as the private secretary of Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen for a while too.[11] Eygi began publishing the daily Bugün newspaper in 1966.[12]
Before passing away, Eygi donated over 45,000 books to the Presidential Library.[13]
Şevket Eygi passed away at 22:30 in the Istanbul hospital where he was treated for heart disease on July 12, 2019.[14][15][16] He was buried in Merkezefendi Cemetery following funeral prayers at Fatih Mosque on July 13, 2019. Amongst those who attended his funeral were President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül, Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, Chairman of the Felicity Party Temel Karamollaoğlu, some members of parliament and journalists.[17][18]
Eygi was never married and has no children.
Criticism[]
Mehmed Şevket Eygi is described by H. Esra Arcan as "a renowned Islamist who [wrote] on religious and political subjects".[19] He favoured a political system based on the Sharia, and demanded the rejection of laws that are incompatible with the Quran.[20] Ozan Ekin Gökşin argues that, "rightists such as Mehmet Şevket Eygi (…) were the standard bearers" of the conspiracy theory that, "the cadres who founded the Turkish Republic consisted of the elite of Thessaloniki immigrants who converted from Judaism to Islam, but who secretly performed their own religious rituals."[21] outlines that, Eygi spread the conspiracy theory that the group of the Dönme Jews were responsible for the Armenian Genocide, and that Eygi believed that "it wasn't the Muslim Turks who commited [atrocities against the Armenians]".[22] Furthermore, Bali describes Mehmed Şevket Eygi as one of those "political players" and "propagandists" that were responsible for "establishing antisemitism" in post-1946 Turkey.[23] The German Interior Ministry also considered Eygi to be an anti-Semite, who had been spreading the "Dönme Delusions" conspiracy theory since the 1960s.[24] The German Amadeu Antonio Foundation called Eygi's 1999 book Yahudi Türkler yahut Sabetaycilar an "anti-Semitic conspiracy theory book".[25]
Eygi "[depicted Kurds] as non-Muslims that adhere to pagan beliefs".[19] He propagated the conspiracy theory that "[t]here are more than one million Crypto Jews in Turkey", with "some of them" being "Crypto Kurds, Kurdish Jews". In addition to that, Eygi believed that "there are more than one million Crypto Christians in [Turkey]".[26] In his 2005 article "State, Law, Civil Society and Islam in Contemporary Turkey", Ihsan Yilmaz describes that, Eygi also spread Papacy conspiracy theories. He argues that "Whatever topic Eygi [wrote] about in his column, he (…) somewhat fiercely [alleged] that some groups are the secret agents of the Papacy in Turkey."[27] On 16 February 1969, Eygi published an article in the Bugün newspaper entitled "Get Ready for Jihad" in which he claims that a "total war between Muslims and red infidels has become inevitable". Mustafa Yalçıner writes that Eygi is a "Bloody Sunday Instigator". According to Yalçıner, Eygi called upon the Muslim population to fight back against the "red infidels" with their own weapons, which, according to Eygi, were stones, sticks, iron bars, and home-made incendiary grenades.[28] Eygi denied having anything to do with the event.[29]
Eygi was fiercely critical of Fethullah Gülen and the Gülen movement, and wrote much about what he believed their intentions were and which danger he believed they posed to the wellbeing of Turkey.[30][31]
Works[]
Some of his works are as follows:[32]
- The Backbiting Illness
- Islamic Topics
- A Few Articles
- Praying Correctly
- Jewish Turks or Sabbateans
- I am Defending the Ahl al-Sunnah
References[]
- ^ "Mehmet Şevket Eygi". www.biyografya.com. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ "Mehmet Şevket Eygi öldü". www.cumhuriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- ^ Serpil Yılmaz: İstanbul’u parça parça vakıflara geçirdiler, 11 July 2021, retrieved 20 November 2021, (in Turkish)
- ^ Hürriyet (ed.): Mehmet Şevket Eygi'ye 'din düşmanlığı' cezası, 9 Ocotber 2002
- ^ "Babıali'nin renkli siması: Mehmed Şevket Eygi". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ "Mehmet Şevket Eygi kimdir, nereli? Mehmet Şevket Eygi'nin cenazesi ne zaman kalkacak?". Ahaber (in Turkish). Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ "Mehmet Şevket Eygi kimdir? İşte Mehmet Şevket Eygi'nin son yazısı". takvim.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ "Mehmet Şevket Eygi kimdir? Mehmet Şevket Eygi nereli? – Son dakika haberleri". sozcu.com.tr. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "Mehmed Şevket Eygi kimdir?". Milli Gazete.
- ^ "Timeturk – Son Dakika Dünya Haberleri Çeviri Haberler ve Video Haber". timeturk.com. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "Babıali'nin renkli siması: Mehmed Şevket Eygi". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ "BUGÜN – TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi". TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi.
- ^ "Cumhurbaşkanlığı Millet Kütüphanesi'nde Mehmed Şevket Eygi detayı". www.milligazete.com.tr. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
- ^ "Mehmed Şevket Eygi vefat etti". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ "Gazeteci yazar Mehmet Şevket Eygi vefat etti! Mehmet Şevket Eygi kimdir? İşte hayatı". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ Haber7. "Mehmet Şevket Eygi vefat etti!". Haber7 (in Turkish). Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ^ "Yazarımız Mehmed Şevket Eygi, ebediyete uğurlandı". Milli Gazete.
- ^ "Mehmed Şevket Eygi'nin cenazesi toprağa verildi". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ a b Arcan, H. Esra. (2013). Interrupted Social Peace: Hate Speech in Turkish Media. In The IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication and Film. Vol. 1. No. 1. p. 52
- ^ Senatsverwaltung für Inneres und Sport (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2010, April 2011, p. 37, (in German)
- ^ "Üst Akıl, Gezi Direnişi ve Komplo Teorileri". www.Avlaremoz.com (in Turkish). March 5, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
- ^ Rıfat Bali: A Recent Anti-Semitic Theme: The Sabbatean Role in the Armenian Genocide, 7 December 2009, retrieved 20 November 2021. Quote: "The question of the Armenian genocide and Dönme responsibility for it was also recently taken up by the columnist of the Islamist daily Millî Gazete, Mehmed Şevket Eygi."
- ^ Rıfat Bali: Die Geschichte des Antisemitismus in der Türkei oder: Es gibt keinen Antisemitismus, Lecture held in Berlin and Hamburg, February 2004, translated by Sabine Adatepe. Quote: "Für die Etablierung des Antisemitismus in der Türkei nach 1946 waren folgende Akteure und Propagandisten von Bedeutung: in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren (…) der Journalist Mehmed Şevket Eygi."
- ^ Bundesministerium des Inneren (ed.): Antisemitismus in Deutschland: Erscheinungsformen, Bedingungen, Präventionsansätze, August 2011, p. 113. Quote: "Traditionell war der Dönme-Wahn in adikalnationalistischen und vor allem in islamistischen Kreisen verbreitet. Unter den antisemitischen Publizisten des islamistischen Spektrums ist insbesondere Mehmet Şevket Eygi hervorzuheben, der sich dem Thema seit den 1960er-Jahren widmet."
- ^ Amadeu Antonio Stiftung (ed.): „Die Juden sind schuld”: Antisemitismus in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft am Beispiel muslimisch sozialisierter Milieus., 2009, ISBN 978-3-940878-03-8, p. 14.
- ^ Mehmet Şevket Eygi: Türkiye’de bir milyondan fazla kripto Yahudi var, bunların bir kısmı kripto Kürt!, 13 April 2016, retrieved 20 November 2021, (in Turkish)
- ^ Yilmaz, Ihsan. (2005). State, Law, Civil Society and Islam in Contemporary Turkey. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.1777222. p. 405
- ^ Mustafa Yalçıner: Kanlı pazar kışkırtıcısı M. Şevket Eygi..., in Evrensel, 16 July 2019, retrieved 20 November 2021, (in Turkish)
- ^ "'Kanlı Pazar'da sorumluluğum yok'". Haber7. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
- ^ "Mehmet Şevket Eygi: Gülen cemaati fantoş bir İslamî rejim kurmak istiyor!". T24 (in Turkish). Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- ^ "'Fethullah Gülen ve Mehmet Şevket Eygi Özel Harp Dairesi elemanıydı'". Tele1 (in Turkish). December 10, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- ^ A.Ş, Kidega Elektronik Tic ve Yayıncılık. "Mehmed Şevket Eygi Kimdir? - En Sevilen ve En Çok Satan Kitapları". kidega.com (in Turkish). Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- Turkish columnists
- 1933 births
- 2019 deaths
- People from Karadeniz Ereğli
- 20th-century Turkish writers
- 21st-century Turkish writers
- Galatasaray High School alumni
- Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences alumni
- Turkish conspiracy theorists