Turkish History Thesis

The Turkish History Thesis (Türk Tarih Tezi) is a Turkish ultranationalist,[3][4] pseudohistoric[5][6] thesis which posited the belief that the Turks moved from their ancestral homeland in Central Asia and migrated to China, India, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Northern Africa in several waves, populating the areas which they had moved to and bringing civilization to their native inhabitants.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk took a personal interest in the subject after he was shown a French language book that claimed Turks "belonged to the yellow race" and were a "secondaire" people.

[14] He claimed that the Central Asian Turks have departed the Stone Age 7000 years before the Europeans and then dispersed westwards as the first people to have brought civilization to the humans.

[18][19] During Atatürk's government, scholars like Hasan Reşit Tankut and Rıfat Osman Bey were encouraged that the findings of their studies in history and social sciences be in line with the Turkish Historical Thesis and the Sun Language Theory.

[21] Prominent scholars like Zeki Velidi Togan and Nihal Atsız who challenged the Turkish Historical Thesis lost their jobs at the University.

Yusuf Ziya Özer , a law professor and one of the conceivers of the Turkish History Thesis. [ 1 ]
Ahmet Cevat Emre , a writer who was influenced by social Darwinism , which he wrote about in the monthly family magazine Muhit during the early republican period. [ 2 ]