Türk Tarih Tezi Açisindan Halkevlerinin Türk Dili Ve Kültürü Üzerine Faaliyetleri; Yozgat Halkevi Örneği

The Turkish History Thesis was a reflection of Turkism movement that had developed with influences of Crimean, Kazan and Azerbaijani intellectuals and matured during the Republican Period. The thesis was based on the idea that being different from Europe the Turkish culture, language and history were among the world’s ancient cultures and languages. The thesis was expressed in 1930s with the support of Ataturk and became very influential on Turkey’s educational and cultural policies, namely course books. People’s Houses became very functional for practice of the Turkish History Thesis in the field and the branches of the people’s houses made important works on language and culture. In order to simplify and enrich the Turkish language, a special attention was paid and field works were held on determination of place names. The collation branches organized by the people’s houses registered proverbs, mani, games and traditional sports like jeered and wrestling as well as other values belonging to the Turkish culture. Many of them were saved by the efforts of the people’s houses. With the efforts of Departments of Sports, Performance and Language-Literature, Yozgat People’s House made collation in the region and despite its limited possibilities it registered local poets’ poems, local games, proverbs and wedding traditions in Yozgad Newspaper and journals published by the people’s house. Sports and Performance branches did not only revive the traditional games but also brought shadow performances like Karagöz-Hacivat to the remotest villages. In this article, the people’s houses’ activities on the Turkish language and culture in relation with the Turkish History Thesis will be evaluated in the framework of the Yozgat People’s House’s works.