This essay seeks to rehistoricise the birth of liberalism in Turkey with the aim of bringing an alternative interpretation to its historiography and throwing some light upon its characteristics, past and present. In contrast to recent comments on liberalism in the Turkish context, it argues that there is an intellectual background of the liberal tradition in Turkey, and that understanding the characteristics of this background requires (1) the mapping out and examination of the key concepts used by liberal writers in the context of the general political lexicon of their times and (2) an intellectual excavation tracing the mostly western European origins of the ideas of Turkish liberals. This leads to the conclusion that early republicans in Turkey embraced a version of liberalism that has not been identified in previous attempts to historicise liberal Turkish thought.