The foundation of the Turkish National Student Union and the attendance of the International Student Union at the Second Warsaw Congress

Abstract

In the early twentieth century many countries across the world established national student unions and sent representatives to the International Student Union. Believing this to be a fundamental need in a globalising world, the new Turkish state did not wait long before joining this union. In fact, several student associations in Turkey attended events run by the Turkish National Student Union, which was founded in the 1920s. Several student associations that had existed before the Turkish National Student Union and were founded by university students after the Second Constitutional Period, began to organise events such as debates, protests, and conferences related to the political, social, and cultural issues of the day. For instance, they organised protests against those teachers who did not support the national struggle. In 1924, these disparate unions, having previously functioned without any particular structure, were re-constituted as a national union, the Turkish National Student Union. The code of practice of this union was formed by looking at those of the unions of several European nations. Some members of this union attended the Warsaw meeting of the International Student Union in September 1924 to represent Turkey. It could be said that a culturally transformed and newly reformed Turkey was thereby presenting itself to the international world of education. The realisation of this project and Turkey’s participation in the Second Warsaw Congress is discussed in this article. Printed sources and reports of the period also allow us to take into consideration the foundation history of the Student Union established in 1919.