Ankara During the War of Independence in the Diaries of Kütahya Deputy Yusuf Cemil Bey (Important Days, Celebrations and Folkloric Elements)

Yusuf Cemil Bey was a member of parliament who represented Kütahya in the First Parliament. He was born in 1868 in Kınık, İzmir, and died in Ankara on March 9, 1924. Yusuf Cemil Bey, who was elected as a deputy from Kütahya in 1920 and joined the Parliament, kept a diary between 1914 and 1924. He wrote his diaries between 1920-1924 in Ankara. Yusuf Cemil Bey began his Ankara diaries by writing the weather every day. The main subjects of the diary are the state of the Ankara market and economy, various human landscapes, comments on the political events of the period, administrators and deputies, the functioning of the Parliament, descriptions of official ceremonies, visits of foreign representatives, folk beliefs, and his personal life. As in his poems, Simav and Kütahya diaries, observations on social life are at the forefront in his Ankara diaries. However, when necessary, he criticized the political, military, and economic events of the period in his diary without hesitation. Yusuf Cemil Bey's diary is a remarkable document for historical researchers as it conveys information through the eyes of a living witness of the period. In this article, Yusuf Cemil Bey's Ankara diary is the subject of how important days were realized and the celebrations, ceremonies, and folkloric elements in this context. The main purpose here is to introduce Yusuf Cemil Bey, MP for Kütahya, and his diary of Ankara, and to analyze the social life of Ankara between 1920 and 1924, the period in which the diary was kept and shed light on its political life.

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