[NEW ZEALAND'S GREEN LAND: UTOPIA OF THE OTTOMAN INTELLIGENTSIA] Yesil Yurt. [Servet-i Funoun: Journal Illustre Turc Paraissant Le Jeudi, Constantinople, No: 418, Vol. 15]. Directed by Ahmed Ihsan

TEVFIK FIKRET, (1867-1915), Servet-i Fünûn / Ahmed Ihsan Matbaasi, Constantinople, [AH 1315] = 1899.

Original illustrated wrappers. Folio. (33 x 24 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 32 p., richly ills.

First published in any form of this symbolist poem, is the manifest of the attempt to settle in New Zealand by falling into pessimism, written during Sultan Abdülhamid II's tyranny period between two Constitutionalist regimes in the Imperial Ottoman, by Servet-i Fünûn literary scene leading of Ottoman poet Tevfik Fikret and his friends like Mehmed Rauf, Hüseyin Kadri, Dr. Esad Pasa, Hüseyin Cahit, Süleyman Nesip, Ahmet Hikmet Müftüoglu.

In the westernization period, there is an escape especially the Servet-i Fünuncus to New Zealand, Scotland, and Finland. This escape can be seen as both alienation and help-seeking. Historical point of view, sociological research and in-depth analysis personal sufferings of intellectuals who attempted to escape can provide true findings and information, which can light this period, about the dualism of these intellectuals and their attempts to escape. Tevfik Fikret is one of the pioneers who symbolize this escape. Fikret does not leave the homeland, but in much poetry, he attributes a mission of escape and rescue to places in his poem. Places, where this mission is the most intense, are streets, Asiyan, grave, mosque, Istanbul, the parliament, palace, garden, and village.

The first utopian texts in Turkish literature were dreams written in an effort to save the declining Ottoman State. In the period of Servet-i Fünûn [i.e. The Wealth of Sciences], which was a time of crisis, some utopias such as the Yesil Yurt [i.e. Green Land]. Fikret decided to go to New Zealand (after Manisa city) with friends from his literary circle. After a while, he changed his mind and began to construct a special house for his family on the Bosphorus, which he called "Asiyan" (meaning close friends). Asiyan was finished in 1906. New Zealand carries all the characteristics of a utopian place in this poem by Tevfik Fikret.

(Utopias from the Middle East 13).