Boris's great-grandfather Ali Kemal was born in 1869 in Istanbul then the
capital of the Ottoman Empire ruled by powerful Sultan's the once mighty empire
was now in decline but it remained a force to be reckoned with the Istanbul
of Ali Kemal childhood, was a vibrant cosmopolitan city lots of traditional
Turkish geezers do nursing watch out there
Boris still has relatives living in the city he's on his way to meet his cousin
CNN a grandson of Ali Kemal excuse me Kira's v he rusty misschien sucker
he's hoping seen an we'll be able to tell him about Ali Kumar's early life
maybe easily this is the crash you missed you
see none motivated you see oh you know listen said why did you ask me to come
to cure Ashly mischiefs okay my grandfather your great-grandfather he
came and was born somewhere and he was born somewhere somewhere see he lived
here for a while he spent most of his childhood here we don't know exactly
which building it was somewhere in the city
Ali Kamal's father was a wealthy merchant who gave his son a traditional
Muslim education he went to Quranic school right and the Kirkham consisted
and memorizing the Quran the hokuhoku organ which is quite a feat attained
considers that he was aged six sons and which language was this in hey he's
healthy my great-grandfather Ali Kemal could only read this whole thing we
actually knew it walk by heart amazing oh I won the scripture knowledge
prize on what you know well that's really yeah in the world of divinity
prize Ali Kumar's life didn't continue in a
traditional vein as a young man he traveled to France and became a
successful journalist in 1903 he married Winifred Broome daughter of Margaret
Johnson three years later Winifred and Ali had a
daughter Selma
then in 1908 at the age of 40 Ali Kemal returned to Turkey bringing his family
with him they settled in the village of bebek just outside Istanbul Boris knows
that on his return to Turkey Ali Kemal continued his career as a journalist
he's meeting up with historian been 40 as a journalist himself Boris is keen to
see some of the newspaper articles his great-grandfather wrote Ben's taking him
to the library where the originals are kept so you can even read this duck any
yes this is the original copy of the newspaper that your great-grandfather
wrote for it's called big dum-dum and your great-grandfather he's the lead
columnist okay let's say that at the right term okay and this is starting
here running down two and a half columns and there is your great-grandfather's
signature line that's the spy line that's the prime real estate on the
newspaper and its political yes yeah it was political dangerously political a
few weeks after Ali commands returned there was a revolution in Turkey in the
name of Liberty radical nationalists seized power from the autocratic Sultan
but soon the revolutionaries began to use repressive tactics of their own
including political murder appalled by this and convinced there were better
ways to bring about change Ali Kemal used his newspaper columns to speak out
against the new nationalist government the contradiction that the
was was waged was carried out in the name of Liberty but yet Liberty is being
in his view sacrificed or or put on the back burner
force and pressure cannot exist in a constitutional era whereas we try to do
everything by force and pressure so he's he's being critical of the government
he's been critical of the Society for relying on brute strength when according
to him ideas consensus should carry the day Ali Kemal was running real risks by
speaking out there were ominous signs that the nationalist government would
not tolerate his very public criticism only four days before this article is
published on an opposition editor had been assassinated by the chaos the real
tough guys yes and so the person murdered took a political stance very
close to that of your great-grandfather those must have been coming very close
to the bone for him Wow we so this is 1909 and he's starting to get
apprehensive about the fate of people who are in more less his political
position that's right I mean what you see I suppose is a great lesson for
about journalism and politics because there's no doubt is the first duty of a
columnist is to be read and he's writing stuff that is readable when it's
punching its polemical whether it's politically safe is a difficult question
and that's where the boundary between German politics becomes difficult
because the imperative to be read and to be punchy and provocative can conflict
with your political cause
you