türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Milliyet Newspaper, 7 February 2021)
İmam Abdüllatif (Tanrıverdi) speaking at the Gülbaba Tomb
in Budapest.
Some previously unknown information has emerged from the
Hungarian National Archives about İmam Abdüllatif (Tanrıverdi), a
Moslem clergyman from Erzurum who undertook some special
activities in Hungary during the Turkish War of Independence. With
the support of the Ankara government, İmam Abdüllatif engaged in
lobbying and propaganda in Hungary on behalf of the nationalists.
By means of a publishing house he set up in Hungary, İmam Abdüllatif
single-handedly tried to counter Armenian and Pontic Greek claims of
genocide. Prof. Dr. Melek Çolak of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University's
History Department, uncovered the material about İmam Abdüllatif in
the Hungarian archives.
According to the archival documents, İmam Abdüllatif was sent by
the then-Ottoman government in 1910 to Hungary to gain the sympathy
of the Moslems of Bosnia, which had been annexed by the Austrian-
Hungarian Empire. In Budapest, he quickly learned Hungarian and
established close ties with Hungarian intellectuals, Turkologs and
Turanists, becoming active in the Hungarian Turan Association,
teaching Turkish at Péter Pazmany University in 1912 and a year later
beginning to write in the Turan magazine.
During the Turkish War of Independence, İmam Abdüllatif organized
Turkish student in Hungary for lobbying efforts, cared for wounded
Turkish soldiers and watched over a cemetery for Turkish martyrs.
The Gül Baba Tomb became his center for lobbying for the forces of
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk).
An American soldier named Forrest Yowell was active in anti-Turkish
efforts at that time, so in April 1923 İmam Abdüllatif published a
7-part brochure to counter Yowell's claims entitled "The Reasons and
Aims of Mr. Yolwell's Slanders". İmam Abdüllatif also targeted
"Scotus Viator" (the pseudonym of Robert Seton-Watson), an English
critic of the Hungarian government, likening him to Turkey's enemies.
İmam Abdüllatif died in Budapest in September 1946. His widow,
a Hungarian named Nezihe Tanrısever, wrote to Turkish President
Ismet İnönü and in a letter dated 12 August 1948 she asked İnönü
for help, noting that she was destitute and that the Hungarian
government would not help her. In response, İnönü sent her $100,
with which Nezihe hanım had a tomb made for her late husband.
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