SAUL MEZAN ABOUT MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2025, N 2, pp. 447 – 504
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62761/645.EB.LXI2.06
Vladimir PAOUNOVSKI 
Institute of Balkans Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: Saul or Shaul Yeroham Mezan was a physician specializing in surgery and urology, a Doctor of Medicine, military officer, public figure, Zionist, anti-fascist, publicist, journalist, poet, historian, and folklorist – a researcher of Sephardism, political scientist and analyst of contemporary politics. The article describes and analyzes S. Mezan’s point of view on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his life-work reflected in the nowadays forgotten essay of political, historical and philosophical nature under the title “Messages to Tomorrow’s Unknown Dictator”, published in French in Sofia in 1939 as well as his articles for “Le Moment”, a French-language newspaper in Bucharest (1935–1940). The reforms and the republican regime in Turkey are juxtaposed in the book by the Bulgarian intellectual of Jewish origin with the dictators and dictatorships of the contemporary era immediately before the outbreak of the sanguinary World War II. S. Mezan characterized the founder of the Turkish Republic as a thoroughly military man. For this reason, the reforms across various spheres – carried out in the name of national independence and the country’s socio-economic prosperity – are seen as entirely derived from and subordinate to the military-strategic considerations of the distinguished Turkish statesman.
Keywords: Saul Mezan, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Dictators and Dictatorships, Turkey, Jews
L’ŒUVRE DE SAÜL MEZAN ET L’INFLUENCE FRANÇAISE SUR LES SEFARADES EN BULGARIE
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2024, N 1
Vladimir PAOUNOVSKI
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: Saul or Shaul Yeroham Mezan is a doctor with specialization in surgery and urology, Doctor of Medicine, officer, public figure, Zionist, anti-fascist, publicist, journalist, poet, historian, and folklorist – researcher of Sephardism, political scientist and current political analyst. He was born in the city of Tatar-Pazardjik (today Pazardjik, Bulgaria) in 1893, and died far from his homeland, as a victim of Nazism, probably around 1943. Nowadays his name is known to a few researchers, as the predominant writings about him and his work are episodic in time and fragmentary in their subject matter. His literary and journalistic works, as well as his socio-political views, remain almost unknown to the general public, including, unfortunately, to the Jewish community in Bulgaria. The objective of the paper is the French-speaking environment in which S. Mezan was formed, and his works in French in various fields of the knowledge, which prevail over the ones in Bulgarian both in quantity and in terms of scientific and social significance. The author also pays special attention to the numerous yet scattered references for the French influence on the language, the way of life and the culture of the Sephardim in Bulgaria in the book by S. Mezan dedicated to them.
Keywords: Jewish studies, Saul Mezan, Sephardic Jews and Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria, French influence in Bulgaria, Literature in French from Bulgaria