Hacettepe University Department of Turkish Language and Literature was founded by Prof. Dr. Şükrü ELÇİN in 1969 under the Faculty of Social and Administrative Sciences. Between 1969 and 1974, the department carried out doctoral programs only in the fields of Turkish Language and Turkish Literature within the Faculty of Postgraduate Education in order to train the faculty members that it needs. Student admission to the undergraduate program started in 1975. In the same year, a master's program was opened in addition to the doctoral program. In 1982, as a result of the division of the Faculty of Social and Administrative Sciences into two as the Faculty of Literature and Economics and Administrative Sciences, with the Higher Education Law No. 2547, our Department continued its activities within the Faculty of Letters. Within the framework of the same law, the Faculty of Postgraduate Education was reorganized under the name of the Institute of Social Sciences, and the graduate programs of the Department began to be carried out in three disciplines, namely Classical Turkish Literature, Modern Turkish Literature and Turkish Language, under the institute. In 1982, with the decision of the Council of Higher Education, four departments, namely Old Turkish Language, Old Turkish Literature, New Turkish Language and New Turkish Literature, were established within the Department of Turkish Language and Literature, and the academic staff was structured accordingly. In the same year, in addition to these, the Department of Turkish Folklore was established by Prof. Dr. Dursun YILDIRIM to conduct undergraduate and postgraduate programs. After the decision of the Higher Education Council to close the departments within the department that did not carry out a separate program, the Old Turkic Languages, Classical Turkish Literature, Modern Turkic Languages and Modern Turkish Literature Units were abolished as of the 2002-2003 academic year, and the staff were combined under the name of the Department of Turkish Language and Literature. The Department of Turkish Folklore was separated from our Department in 2013 and became an independent department. Upon the decision of the Council of Higher Education to re-establish the units in the departments, the departments of Old Turkic Languages, Classical Turkish Literature, Modern Turkic Languages, Modern Turkish Literature and Turkish Folk Literature have been created and the academic staff has been transferred to the relevant units since the 2019-2020 academic year.

In the Department of Turkish Language and Literature, within the framework of the Erasmus Program (1987), students are offered the opportunity to study abroad for one or two semesters, and the academic staff the opportunity to teach from one week to two months. Within the scope of the Farabi (2009) and Mevlana (2011) Exchange Programs of the Council of Higher Education, student and lecturer exchanges are carried out between foreign and domestic universities. In addition, since 2010, students who meet the necessary conditions are provided with the opportunity to continue their minor and double major programs simultaneously. Minor students who successfully complete this training are given a certificate, and double major students are awarded a diploma.

The aim of the Turkish Language and Literature Department program is to train teachers, experts and scientists that the country needs, who have the knowledge and skills to understand, interpret, and conduct scientific studies on Turkish language and literature texts from their original sources in philological and literary context from the beginning to the present.

In addition to theoretical and applied courses, the programs are supported by conferences, research and application trips, and the curriculum is constantly updated to meet new needs.

The education language of the department is Turkish, but students can optionally receive English preparatory education. The Department of Turkish Language and Literature successfully carries out education, research and social service activities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels with its competent academic staff. Our faculty members are also deemed worthy of various awards for their work and successfully represent our Department with their administrative duties inside and outside the university.

Between 1969-1982, our founder Prof. Dr. Şükrü ELÇİN chaired to the our university. After his retirement, Prof. Dr. Talat TEKİN (1982-1991), Prof. Dr. Umay GÜNAY (1991-1996), Prof. Dr. Dursun YILDIRIM (1996-2005), Prof. Dr. F. Tulga OCAK (2005-2008), Prof. Dr. Dursun YILDIRIM (2008-2009), Prof. Dr. Bilge ERCİLASUN (2009-2010), Prof. Dr. Abide DOĞAN (2010-2013), Prof. Dr. Şükrü Haluk AKALIN (2013-2016), Prof. Dr. S. Dilek YALÇIN ÇELİK (2016-2019) and Prof. Dr. Emine YILMAZ (2016-2019) served as the head of the department. Prof. Dr. Osman HORATA is currently the head of the department.