Falih Rıfkı Atay

Falih Rıfkı Atay (1894 – 20 March 1971) was a Turkish journalist, writer and politician between 1923 and 1950.^[1]

Falih Rıfkı Atay
Atay in 1939
Born	1894 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died	March 20, 1971(1971-03-20) (aged 77) Istanbul, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Occupation(s)	Journalist, writer and politician
Political party	Republican People's Party (CHP)
Children	1

Biography

Falih Rıfkı was the son of Halil Hilmi Efendi, an imam. He was educated in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire.^[1] Falih began his career as a journalist in the Tanin, a CUP newspaper.^[1] He later became the private secretary of Talat Pasha, and during World War I accompanied Cemal Pasha in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.^[1] After the war, he, with three other friends, founded the newspaper Akşam supporting the Turkish War of Independence which was being led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha.^[1] From 1919 to 1920 Falih Rıfkı was one of the contributors of Büyük Mecmua magazine which also supported the war of independence.^[2] On September 9, 1922, he travelled to the liberated İzmir to visit Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with Yakup Kadri and arrived on the 13th of September just before the fire.^[3] Later, he became an editor-in-chief in the Hakimiyet-i Milliye. He entered politics in 1923, and served as deputy of Bolu and later Ankara in the parliament until the 1950 Turkish general election.^[1]

In the early 1950s Atay contributed to the history magazine Tarih Dünyası.^[4] He was the author of more than 30 works.^[1]

Falih Rıfkı Atay died on 20 March 1971 in Istanbul. He was interred there at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.

Legacy

Atay's final resting place at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery

A nature park inside the Belgrad Forest in Sarıyer district of Istanbul Province was named in his honor in 2011.^[5]

Selected works

• Ateş ve Güneş, (Fire and Sun), 1918, Memories of World War I in Syria and Palestine
• Zeytindağı (Mount of Olives), 1932, Memories of World War I in Syria and Palestine
• Yeni Rusya (New Russia), 1931, Travelbook
• Çankaya (See Çankaya Mansion), 1952 and 1962, Memories of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
• Babanız Atatürk, 1955, Memories of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Joint works

• İzmir'den Bursa’ya, (From İzmir to Bursa), 1922, Greek Atrocities during the Greek Occupation of Western Anatolia, co-authors: Halide Edip, Yakup Kadri, Ruşen Eşref and Asım Us.^[6]