Turkism and ideological issues in Ahmed Aghaoglu’s press activity

Abstract

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the rise of Turkism as an ideological movement represented a response to the political fragmentation and cultural challenges faced by Turkic peoples. This period witnessed intense debates about national identity, modernization, and unity among geographically dispersed Turkic communities. But despite the acknowledged importance of the press in shaping nationalist discourse, scholarly attention to the specific role of individual intellectuals in constructing and disseminating this ideology through journalism remains limited. This article addresses this gap by examining Ahmad Aghaoglu's journalistic activity and his ideological contributions to Turkism, analyzing his scientific-journalistic and literary-critical articles published in newspapers such as Kaspi, Hayat, İrshad, and Taraqqi between 1897 and 1909. It was found that Aghaoglu conceptualized Turkism not only as ethnic consciousness but as a comprehensive ideology integrating cultural unity, linguistic solidarity, historical awareness, and selective modernization. His formulation synthesized Ali bey Huseynzade's ideological triad—"Turkification, Islamization, and Modernization"—while emphasizing the compatibility of Turkish national identity with Islamic solidarity and European democratic values. Furthermore, through newspapers such as İrshad, Aghaoglu established discursive frameworks that influenced the process of national awakening and facilitated the dissemination of ideas of unity, ultimately contributing to the ideological foundations of Azerbaijan's first democratic republic. Therefore, we believe his legacy remains relevant to contemporary debates on the preservation and promotion of national and cultural values, regional integration, and the negotiation between tradition and modernity in post-Soviet and Turkish contexts.