About the Institute

Our institute was established under the name of “Turkish Revolution Institute” at Istanbul University, which was opened after the university reform on July 31, 1933. With this feature, it is the first Turkish Revolution (History) Institute of Türkiye. On April 21, 1971, it was renamed the Institute of Atatürk’s Revolutions”, after the military coup of September 12, 1980, on March 30, 1983, it was named as “Institute of Atatürk’s Principles and History of Reforms”. In its establishment, scientists and politicians such as Yusuf Hikmet Bayur, Yusuf Kemal Tengirşek, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, and Recep Peker gave lectures. Recep Peker explained the purpose of these courses in those days with the following words:

“The purpose of these courses is to instill warmth and excitement, which is the strongest element of forward movement in the soul of people who have lived through the period of reforms and prepared that era -the new element- to the young Turkish generations who will enter the national working life, and prepare them for the task by educating them with the principles of the revolution we have experienced.”

As the institute, our aim is to carry out postgraduate (master’s and doctorate) studies in the fields of Atatürk’s Principles and History of the Republic. In addition, it is also aimed to enable graduate researches to be conducted on the history and cultures of Turkish and related communities living in neighbouring countries of Türkiye. In our institute, master’s degree programs have been carried out since 1985-1986 academic year, and doctorate programs have been conducted since 1988-1989 education year. Besides, the appointment of lecturers to teach Atatürk’s Principles and the History of Reforms courses taught in various faculties and schools of Istanbul University and the teaching of Atatürk’s Principles and History of Reform course to candidate civil servants admitted to the university are among the activities of the Institute of Atatürk’s Principles and History of Reforms.

In addition to all these, there is a private library and a meeting hall in our institute. All publications in the library were recorded in the inventory book and the receipt catalogue was arranged, and an electronic catalogue was created by saving them in the computer environment. The total number of books, including theses and periodicals, is around 5000.