Opening of Turkish Hearth Theater in Ankara

The night that the artists spent in front of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha on Friday, April 11, 1930, at the Marmara Mansion, opened a new face and hope to the dying, sterile Turkish theater.

Of course, a great person like Gazi would not invite us there to host us. After watching our games with the warmest interest, he had a command to be given to us, a word to say. As a matter of fact, when we are left alone after the compliments that are wide and slow like the waves of the ocean:

- "You, they said, have fulfilled a dream that I have longed to see in our country since I was a military attaché. You prepared such an interconnected artist community with your own talents and showed it to us. Now I ask as the President. What kind of help would you like from the government?"

What could be asked of the government in the face of such a question? First, the taxes, which reached thirty-five percent at that time, what more could not be asked. Our financial and moral problems were endless. But at that moment.

When I looked into the wide eyes of His Holiness, I thought of the future days of the theater as well as the country. I remembered the importance of the future, not the past.

We had just buried a consumptive flag bearer in the Büyükada Cemetery, and one was to be treated in the sanatorium. If it went on like this, after a few years there would be nothing but rows of tombstones from the Turkish theater. What interested me the most was the state of the theater after us.

To Gazi Mustafa Kemal, who is waiting for an answer from me for him.

- "I want a theater, Pasha" , I was able to say.

With this response, I felt relieved, as if I had suddenly gotten rid of the heavy thought that had surrounded my brain in those days.

His Highness the Gazi immediately sent word to Prime Minister İsmet Pasha, even though it was late, and had him summoned.

- "Pasha, I disturbed you, they said, but we want to present an important issue to you" , he introduced me.

Me too:

- "Come on, repeat your request to Pasha" , they said.

"We want a theater school, Pasha," I said.

That evening, His Holiness Gazi ended his speech after the thousand and one compliments they generously handed out to Turkish theater artists among all the elders of the Young Republic of Turkey:

- “ Sirs; You can all be MPs. You can be a minister or even a President. But you cannot be an artist. Let's love these children who gave their lives to a great art .”

MUHSIN ERTUGRUL

Source:  Muhsin Ertuğrul, Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 14.04.1963

Photo source:  Atatürk, Gazi Mustafa Kemal. Photograph by Cemal Işıksel. Turkish Historical Society Printing House. Ankara 1969. Page: 59

Photograph: Cemal Işıksel