A Turkish nationalist, writer, poet and sociologist. Zia played an important role as an intellectual after the young Turk revolution in 1908. He wanted to modernise and westernise Turkey. He was elected as a member of the Parliament of the new Turkish Republic in 1923. Zia's best-known work was Kizil Elma (the red apple), Turkification, Islamization and Modernisation (1918) A History of Turkish Civilisation (1925) and Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilisation. Most of his works were in English. The lines of Mehmet Zia Gokalp's poem are often quoted: 'Minarets are our bayonets, Domes are our helmets, Mosques are our barracks, Believers are our soldiers.'