FROM MUALLIMLER CEMIYETI (TEACHERS SOCIETY) TO İSTANBUL MUALLIMLER BIRLIĞI (ISTANBUL UNION OF TEACHERS): JOURNEY OF A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION (1918-1936)

Abstract

The activities of associations and civil society, in modern terms, within the Ottoman Empire gained a legal ground with the freedom reached in the Second Constitutional Era regarding the operations of societies. Accordingly, teachers began to organize like other professions at that period. Muallimler Cemiyeti (Teachers Society), which had a significant place among teacher organizations in Turkey, was established upon that legal ground on March 9, 1918. Having been founded at the end of the World War I and experienced the negative effects of the occupation of Istanbul, the Society also witnessed the process of transformation from empire to republic. Since it was not possible for the Society to actively work in such a difficult period, it started to publish Muallimler Mecmuası (Journal of Teachers) begninning from September, 1922; and made remarkable contributions to education policies and rights of the teachers. This kind of activities of the Society continued until August, 1925, when it joined Türkiye Muallimler Birliği (Turkey Teachers Union). Then, the Union worked in step with the government till 1928. With its general assembly in August, 1928; İstanbul Union of Teachers turned into a confedaration and had a separate body. The Union aimed at reorganization in 1929, and tried to continue its activities, as in its first phase, until 1936 when the organization repealed itself with the pressure of the government in the process of the abolishment of associations.