GENERAL DIRECTORS OF THE GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF PRESS AND INTELLIGENCE (1920-1931)

Abstract

General Directorate of Press and Intelligence is an organization that played an important role in the victory of the Turkish National Struggle. The Directorate is one of the organizations that made an important contribution to the Turkish National Struggle in terms of intelligence, both with propaganda and other intelligence activities other than propaganda. In this study, individuals who served as General Directors in the General Directorate of Press and Intelligence from June 7, 1920, the date of its establishment, until June 1, 1931, the date of its abolition, are examined. The study is based on the hypothesis that the General Directors who have a decisive role in the execution of institutional activities, made significant contributions to increasing the institutional performance of the Directorate between 1920-1931 and these contributions naturally had positive reflections on the Turkish National Struggle. While testing this hypothesis, archive documents determined as a result of scanning Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Directorate of State Archives, Minutes of The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, memoirs, primary and secondary sources within the scope of the subject are used. As a result of the holistic evaluation of the sources, which are handled in accordance with the historical research method, it has been determined that the General Directors including Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver, Muhittin Birgen, Ahmed Ağaoğlu and Zekeriya Sertel who have experience in the field of press, had made a significant contribution to the development of Directorate’s institutional capability and performance. Thanks to this contribution of the General Directors, it is seen that the intelligence and propaganda activities in the Turkish National Struggle could be carried out in a healthy way with an institutional understanding and within a certain program.