Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi Cite as/ Atıf: Çonoğlu, S. (2021). Reşat Nuri Güntekin’in “Değirmen” romanında bürokrasi. Turkish Studies - Language, 16(2), 609-621. https://dx.doi.org/10.47845/TurkishStudies.51273 Received/Geliş: 05 May/Mayıs 2021 Checked by plagiarism software Accepted/Kabul: 20 June/Haziran 2021 Published/Yayın: 30 June/Haziran 2021 CC BY-NC 4.0 Reşat Nuri Güntekin’in “Değirmen” Romanında Bürokrasi Bureaucracy in Reşat Nuri Güntekin's Novel " Değirmen" Salim Çonoğlu * Abstract: The functioning of social life in an orderly framework takes place within certain rules and norms. In addition to the norms that emerge with social experiences, traditions and customs, states also create some rules to regulate social life and to continue their institutional functioning in a healthy way. In Reşat Nuri Güntekin's novel "Değirmen", which was serialized in Yedigün magazine in 1943 and first published in 1944, at the time when the life story of the Ottoman Empire was about to come to an end, an earthquake that had never happened in Anatolia in a small town called Sarıpınar, the center -How he reveals the disconnection between the country, the decay, distortion and corruption in the whole state bureaucracy from the bottom up, is explained in an ironic style. "Değirmen" is the novel of an era when the First World War was approaching, and where fragmentation and new formations started all over the world. The Ottoman Empire, which was a huge body until then, is about to complete its life story. Imperial center XIX. While faced with such an existence problem in the 21st century, Anatolia has been struggling with the ill luck for a long time with its rundown, poverty and ruined face due to the negligent behavior of the center, which could not go beyond some memorized thoughts about itself. The town of Sarıpınar, which is the most concrete appea rance of this maximal fortune in the novel “Değirmen”, does not need earthquakes or any other disaster to turn it into a pile of debris. Sarpınar, with its neglected and ruined houses, crooked and muddy streets, and the ruined Constitutional Monarchy school, seems to have turned into a pile of debris without experiencing a major earthquake. The Empire, with the successive shocks it went through, XIX. When it came to ruin in the century, Sarıpınar not only felt these tremors deeply, but with the indifference brought about by being loved from afar, he made living on the wreckage and normalized it for years. During the years of "abundance in Istanbul, famine in Ankara", the failure of the centralist state to fulfill its widespread power and duties both through itself and its representatives is that this hitch in the novel "Değirmen" ensures that we are all about to fall into the abyss that drags the state to its edge. Scructured Abstract: In the Değirmen novel, which was serialized in Yedigün magazine in 1943 and was first published in 1944, during the period when the life story of the Ottoman Empire was about to come to an end, an earthquake that had never really happened in a small town called Sarıpınar in Anatolia, the disconnection between the center and the provinces, How he brought to light the decay, distortion and corruption in the state bureaucracy is explained in an ironic style. Reşat Nuri Güntekin, since leaving Istanbul as an education inspector, has personally and closely seen what it means to be a hometown, and this long-term mission helped him to get to know the hard life outside of Istanbul and the people who are trying to stand in this difficult life. Unlike his contemporaries, Reşat Nuri, * Prof. Dr, Balıkesir Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü. Prof. Dr. Balikesir University, Faculty of Science and letters, Department of Turkish Language and Literature. 0000-0003-3630-0956 conoglu@balikesir.edu.tr