Previously Unseen Photographs in This Book

The book "The Unknown Turks," written by Bahçeşehir University faculty member and Ottoman Empire historian Heath W. Lowry, has been published. The book includes previously unpublished photographs of Anatolia in 1921, an interview with Mustafa Kemal from the same period, and private photographs:

Prepared for publication based on the notes and photographs of Clarence K. Streit, a young American journalist who visited Ankara in the winter of 1920-1921, the book was published by Bahçeşehir University Press under Heath W. Lowry's name.

NOTES SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AFTER 90 YEARS

Clarence K. Streit was a journalist who later became famous as the author of the book Union Now and the founder of the international movement that envisioned forming a confederation of the world's democracies to prevent war. At the beginning of 1921, he spent two months in Nationalist-controlled Anatolia. During this time, he stayed in Ankara for twenty-six days and met and interviewed many people in the Nationalist leadership, including Mustafa Kemal Pasha (he was the first foreign journalist to speak with Mustafa Kemal Pasha since he had been elected President of the Grand National Assembly). During his journey, he took nearly 200 photographs (also unpublished), 120 of which are included in Lowry's work.

After his journey, Streit returned to Paris, where he drafted a book describing his experiences in Türkiye in detail, which he titled The Unknown Turks . However, the book was not printed by publishers in the United Kingdom and the United States. The reason was that, because of his achievements, Streit described Mustafa Kemal Pasha as "the Turkish George Washington" and claimed that the first Turkish Republic in history would be established. Today, exactly ninety years after it was written, his book has finally seen the light of day.

"CHILD SOLDIERS AND CHILDREN WALTZING IN PRIMARY SCHOOL"

Among its many unique contributions, Streit's book, as reviewed, prepared and annotated by Lowry, sheds light through photographs on the following little-known subjects:

* The attitude of Anatolian villagers toward the National Struggle and its leader;
* War conditions in Anatolian villages in the winter of 1921;
* The previously unknown role played by child soldiers in the war;
* Mustafa Kemal's views on the importance of religion, the future of the Ottoman Dynasty, the role played by communism in Anatolia and relations with the Bolsheviks;
* Daily life in wartime in Samsun, Çorum, Ankara, Eskişehir and Antalya;
* The importance given to education by the Ankara government, illustrated by what Streit saw during his visit to schools in Eskişehir (in one, boys and girls can be seen waltzing together in a primary school)

CHILD SOLDIER CEMAL

Streit says the following about child soldiers:
"He showed me a letter written by an officer of the Turkish regular units, praising him to everyone he would meet: 'Though young in age, he has fought like a man and has earned the appreciation of his fellow countrymen. He has been wounded twice, once in the head and once in the left hip.'"

CHILDREN PLAYING MARBLES IN THE STREETS OF ANKARA

C. K. Streit:
"I think children all over the world are more or less the same. On warm days I saw little Turkish girls and boys skipping rope together in the streets of Ankara. They had no glass marbles, not even clay marbles. Instead they used sheep knucklebones."
(Streit wrote only "Angora" on the back of this photograph. It appears to have been taken in the Ulus district of the city, because the mosque in the background is the Hacı Bayram Mosque.)

MUSTAFA KEMAL ADDRESSES THE GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

1 March 1921 (Photograph: Esad Nedim, Mustafa Kemal Pasha's Photographer)

C. S. Streit described his impressions of that day as follows: "On the day I heard him speak, he made his way alone to the rostrum through the crowded rows. When the applause died down (there is generally little applause in the Assembly), he read the long speech he had prepared. His resonant voice and impressive personality made his delivery effective. The Assembly listened to him with great attention. He spoke in a slow, measured tone both in public and in private, which lent a strange power to what he said."

HALİDE EDİB IN FRONT OF A VILLAGE HOUSE

This photograph was given to C. K. Streit as a gift by Halide Edib:
"She lives a rather simple life in a small house of sun-dried mud brick in a village (Kalaba) a few miles from Ankara. A few times I had the pleasure of having tea and meals with her there. In her parlor I met several Nationalist leaders. (...)
Although she does work that might be called men's work even in the West, there is nothing masculine about Halide Hanım. (...) Intellectually, she would rank high even among Western women. Today she is one of the leading Turkish novelists. In addition to her talents, she is a sure shot and an expert rider."

CHILDREN WALTZING AT A PRIMARY SCHOOL IN ESKİŞEHİR

C. S. Streit's impressions of a primary school he visited in Eskişehir are as follows:
"Heard in a Turkish Primary School:
- Where is my partner?
- Here I am, my lady
Among the schools I visited, the most interesting were the primary schools. I saw Turkish girls and boys sitting side by side. At one of the schools, five girls and five boys performed a rather difficult dance and sang all together. Both the steps and the music were European, and the dance ended with the boys and girls pairing up and waltzing. And I might add that the waltz was quite good."

MUSICIANS AND FOLK DANCERS AT A VILLAGE WEDDING

C. K. Streit:
"Before reaching Dinar, we stopped in a small village town where preparations were being made for a wedding. When we arrived, a group of villagers with a flag, drums and zurnas (the instruments were handmade) was accompanying an ox cart carrying brushwood to the village to prepare the wedding fire. The load was unloaded at the door of a house decorated with a flag. The wedding would take place in this house. The women were not veiled."