Boris Johnson's Turkish grandfather: Who is Ali Kemal?

(1867 – 1922) He was born in Istanbul, his real name is Ali Rıza. He was known by this name because he used the signature of Ali Kemal in his articles for the journal Gülşen, which he published with his friends while he was at the Mülkiye Mektebi. In 1886, when he was in the fourth grade of the Civil Service, he went to Paris and then to Geneva. He sent articles to various newspapers and magazines from Europe. He returned to Istanbul in 1888 to give his final exams. He was exiled to Aleppo in 1889 because he was doing political work. He taught French and literature at Aleppo High School for five years. He fled to Europe in 1894. He sent articles from Paris to the Ikdam newspaper. During his stay abroad, he worked as the second clerk of the Brussels Embassy and as a steward in the farms of some princes in Egypt. Meanwhile, he published the Turkish newspaper. He came to Istanbul a few days before the declaration of the Second Constitutional Monarchy in 1908. He fiercely criticized the Committee of Union and Progress in his articles in the İkdam newspaper. He became a member of the Freedom and Entente Party. In 1919, he served in the government of Damat Ferid Pasha, first as a minister of education and then as a minister of internal affairs. After resigning from his ministry, he started to publish the Peyam-ı Sabah newspaper by combining the Peyam newspaper he was publishing with the Sabah newspaper. He criticized the War of Independence movement in his writings. He was arrested on 18 November 1922 and taken to Izmit. While waiting to be taken to Ankara to stand trial, he was lynched by the people at the instigation of Nurettin Pasha.

Ali Kemal has articles, translations, poetry, and novels on history and literature. He followed Muallim Naci in language and literature. He glorified Abdülhak Hamid and Tevfik Fikret and opposed Servet-i Fünuncular and Turkists.

One-time British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is the son of Stanley Johnson, the grandson of the murdered Ottoman Empire's last Minister of Internal Affairs (Interior Minister) Ali Kemal.

Boris Johnson answered the question about his Turkish origin in a 2005 telephone interview with BBC Uzbek's Ibrat Jumaboyev. "My father's grandfather was Turkish, but my Turkish side is weak," he said.

Boris Johnson's father is Stanley Johnson and his mother is Charlotte Johnson. Stanley Johnson was born in 1940 in Penzance, Cornwall, to Ali and Irene Williams.

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