Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı

Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı studied at Galatasaray High School and Imperial School of Medicine. The recorded working language is Turkish, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic. The field of work recorded is philosophy, creative and professional writing and poetry. Employment is recorded with Istanbul University.

• Name — Rıza Tevfik (Bölükbaşı) • Honorific Suffix — Bey • Born — 1869 • Birthplace — Mustafapaşa, Adrianople Vilayet, Ottoman Empire • Died — 31 December 1949 (aged 80) • Place of death — Istanbul, Turkey • Relations — Debre-i Ahmet Durmuş (Grandfather) Besim Tevfik (Brother) • Occupation — Politician • Parents — Hoca Mehmet Tevfik Efendi (Father)

• Illustration — Rıza Tevfik in his early days • Illustration — Rıza Tevfik departing to London in 1912 Rıza Tevfik was born in 1869 in Mustafapaşa, today Svilengrad in Bulgaria, to an Albanian father and Circassian mother, who died when he was young. He had a brother Besim, who would later commit suicide in Edirne. Placed in a Jewish school in Constantinople by his father, who was a prefect, Rıza Tevfik learned Spanish and French at an early age. He was remarked as a restless personality during his student years, first in the famed Galatasaray High School, and then in the Imperial School of Medicine (Tıbbiye), and he was arrested and incarcerated several times, not falling short of inciting fellow inmates to revolt during his prison months. He graduated in 1897 and became a doctor. In 1907, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), and was one of that party's deputies for Edirne in the Chamber of Deputies (the popularly elected lower house of the re-established Ottoman Parliament) of 1908. He split with the CUP in 1911, joining for a short while the newly founded opposition Freedom and Accord Party (Liberal Entente), and was vehemently opposed to its entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I.

• Illustration — Rıza Tevfik (far left) with the three other representatives at the Treaty of Sèvres; the grand vizier Damat Ferid Pasha, minister of finance Mehmet Tevfik Biren, and the ambassador Reşat Halis; on board an Allied warship taking them to the Paris Peace Conference Rıza Tevfik was named the Minister of Education of the Ottoman Empire (Maarif Nazırı) in several cabinets (11 November 1918 – 12 January 1919) formed after the fall of the CUP and the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I. He was also appointed to the Senate (the upper house of the Ottoman Parliament) by the sultan, of which he became President twice (24 May – 18 June 1919 and 31 July – 21 October 1920). He was one of the four signatories of the stillborn Treaty of Sèvres, being included in the delegation to the Paris Peace Conference by the grand vizier Damat Ferid Pasha, although he occupied no official position at the time of the negotiations, simply being a professor in Istanbul University. He wrote how "It is insolence to object to a state like England, which represents civilization", and that "European civilization will cleanse Anatolia of this harmful pest", referring to Turkish Nationalists. Since he was one of the signatories of the abortive treaty, he was included in the 150 persona non grata of Turkey after the Turkish victory in the Turkish War of Independence, and he had to leave Turkey in late 1922.

Rıza Tevfik lived in the United States, Cyprus, Hejaz, Jordan (where he was made the director of the National Museum and Library in 1925), and Lebanon during the following 20 years, until he could return to Turkey in the frame of a 1938 amnesty. He returned to Turkey in 1943. He adopted the last name Bölükbaşı after the 1934 Surname Law. In the meantime, he had had his collection of poetry published in Nicosia. He resumed work as a university professor in Istanbul until his death on 31 December 1949. Aside from his poetry and his articles on philosophy, he is also notable for his translations into Turkish for most of the poems of Omar Khayyam.