War Veterans’ Facing with Society: “Mahşer” (Armageddon) Anxiety by Peyami Safa

Abstract

Peyami Safa holds mirror to social and cultural structure of Turkish society in his novels by giving place in his works to times when Turkish society has been lived radical transformers.

War is one of the facts that creates radical changes in social life and classifies the people to three grades: People who believe in when the war ends everything will be good, do not return; people who are collaborationist, escape from the war and save themselves; veterans who are disappointed because of their returning, are regretful people. The Mahşer novel which covers events that begins with the return of one veteran to İstanbul from Gallipoli tells about the meeting of veterans with the people. Main character of the novel, Nihat who lives his first disappointment while he has been taken to the custody by the military officials as a criminal begins to think the meaning of martyrdom when he witnesses corruptions and misuses in the Galata-Nişantaşı-Beyoğlu disctrict. After facing the events disappointing, the main character ends up with a suicide attempt. The depressed and chaos situation of main character can be explained with one word: Armageddon (Mahşer).

Through his main character Nihat, Peyami Safa depicts the disappointment and inner conflict of a generation who will fight for the Independence War. The analysis of the novel within that context helps to understand the boundaries of the social degeneration after the war