Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:32:32.042Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Politics of Nationhood and the Displacement of the Founding Moment: Contending Histories of the Turkish Nation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2017

Alev Çinar  and
Hakki Taş
Alev Çinar*
Affiliation:
Political Science, Bilkent University
Hakki Taş
Affiliation:
Institute for Intercultural and International Studies, University of Bremen
*
alevc@bilkent.edu.tr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines the conception of nationhood developed by a political movement referred to as Ulusalcılık (nationalism), which emerged at the turn of the century. We focus on ways in which the Ulusalcı movement makes use of nation-building techniques to establish and propagate its own version of Turkish nationhood as one that is primordially secular and patriotic. This is expressed in its opposition to Islamism, Ottomanism, and what it sees as imperialist Western powers. We argue that the most significant technique Ulusalcı nationalists use to rebuild Turkish nationhood is a relocation of the nation's founding moment, from the official Kemalist one marked by the founding of the Republic in 1923 to the War of Independence fought against the European powers between 1919 and 1922. Our premise is that nationhood is ultimately the product of storytelling, and that the politics of nationhood involves the contentious production, dissemination, and negotiation of different stories and their corresponding founding moments. We analyze the story of Turkish nationhood told in the bestselling book Those Crazy Turks, which became the bible of the Ulusalcı movement. We argue that the Ulusalcı narration of Turkish nationhood interpellates a new national subject that is primordially secular, militaristically patriotic, and adamantly anti-Western. These are projected as essential qualities that must, at all cost, be upheld and defended against Islamist, Ottomanist, and Western powers that are conspiring to bring Turkey down.

Keywords

nationalismpolitics of nationhoodnational historyfounding momentTurkish nationalismUlusalcılıkKemalismsecular nationalismanti-Westernismanti-imperialism
Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 657 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akbay, Cevdet. 2013. Gezi Parkı kalkışmasının arkasında neo-con çetesi var [It is the neo-con gang behind the Gezi Park revolt]. Yeni Şafak, 5 July.Google Scholar
Aktürk, Şener. 2015. The Fourth Style of Politics: Eurasianism as a Pro-Russian Rethinking of Turkey's Geopolitical Identity. Turkish Studies 16, 1: 54–79.Google Scholar
Alaranta, Toni. 2014. Contemporary Kemalism—From Universal Secular-Humanism to Extreme Turkish Nationalism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Altun, Mesut. 2016. Tarihimiz 1919'da başlamadı [Our history did not begin in 1919]. Sabah, 30 Apr.Google Scholar
Aşık, Melih. 2005. Askerler Çılgın Türk'e Hücum Ediyor [Officers storm to the crazy Turks]. Milliyet, 22 Oct.Google Scholar
Bahçeli, Devlet. 2013. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi Genel Başkanı Sayın Devlet Bahçeli'nin “Malazgirt Zaferi'nin 942. Yıldönümü” münasebetiyle yayınladıkları mesaj. [Chairman of the Nationalist Action Party, Mr. Devlet Bahçeli's message delivered on the occasion of the “942th Anniversary of the Manzikert Victory.”], 26 Aug. At http://www.mhp.org.tr/htmldocs/genel_baskan/konusma/2997/index.html (accessed 25 May 2015).Google Scholar
Batuman, Elif. 2014. Ottomania. New Yorker, 17 Feb. At http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/ottomania (accessed 2 Feb. 2017).Google Scholar
Berkan, İsmet. 2004. Hem Ulusalcı hem de Osmanlı [Both Ulusalcı and Ottomanist]. Radikal, 22 Mar.Google Scholar
Berkan, İsmet. 2005. Kızıl Elma'nın Kaç Oyu Var? [How many votes has the Red Apple Coalition got?]. Radikal, 28 Sept.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K. 1993. Dissemination: Time, Narrative and the Margins of the Modern Nation. In Bhabha, H. K., ed., Nation and Narration. New York: Routledge, 291–322.Google Scholar
Billig, Michael. 1995. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Bora, Tanıl. 2003. Nationalist Discourses in Turkey. South Atlantic Quarterly 102, 2/3: 433–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozkurt, Ceyhun. 2008. AB Faşizmi [EU Fascism]. Yeni Çağ Gazetesi, 31 Mar. At http://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/ab-fasizmi-6117h.htm (accessed 25 Mar. 2017).Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Çayır, Kenan. 2008. The Emergence of Contemporary ‘Muslim Democrats.’ In Cizre, Ümit, ed., Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey: The Making of the Justice and Development Party. New York: Routledge, 62–79.Google Scholar
Celnarova, Xénia. 1997. The Religious Ideas of the Early Turks from Point of View of Ziya Gökalp. Asian and African Studies 6, 1: 103–8.Google Scholar
Çınar, Alev. 2001. National History as a Contested Site: The Conquest of Istanbul and Islamist Negotiations of the Nation. Comparative Studies in Society and History 43, 2: 364–91.Google Scholar
Çınar, Alev. 2005. Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Çınar, Alev. 2010. Globalism as the Product of Nationalism Founding Ideology and the Erasure of the Local in Turkey. Theory, Culture & Society 27, 4: 90–118.Google Scholar
Çınar, Alev. 2011. The Justice and Development Party: Turkey's Experience with Islam, Democracy, Liberalism and Secularism. International Journal of Middle East Studies 43, 3: 529–41.Google Scholar
Cizre, Ümit and Çınar, Menderes. 2003. Turkey 2002: Kemalism, Islamism, and Politics in the Light of the February 28 Process. South Atlantic Quarterly 102, 2/3: 309–32.Google Scholar
Coşkun, Bekir. 2016. Bizim tarihimiz 1919'da başlar [Our history begins in 1919]. Sözcü, 1 May.Google Scholar
Dönmez, Rasim Özgür. 2008. Vigilantism in Turkey: Totalitarian Movements and Uncivil Society in a Post-9/11 Democracy. Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 9, 4: 551–74.Google Scholar
Dressler, Markus. 2013. Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eğitimsen. 2016. 2015–2016 Eğitim Öğretim İstatistikleri [2015–2016 statistics on education.], 22 Mar. At http://egitimsen.org.tr/2015-2016-egitim-ogretim-istatistikleri/ (accessed 25 Mar. 2017).Google Scholar
Ellis, Joseph. 2000. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Erdemir, Aykan. 2005. Tradition and Modernity: Alevis’ Ambiguous and Turkey's Ambivalent Subjects. Middle Eastern Studies 41, 6: 937–51.Google Scholar
European Commission. 2007. Eurobarometer 68—Public Opinion in the European Union. At http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb68/eb68_first_en.pdf (accessed 25 Mar. 2017).Google Scholar
Göle, Nilüfer. 2000. Snapshots of Islamic Modernities. Daedalus 129, 1: 91–117.Google Scholar
Gürcan, Metin. 2016. Power Struggle Erupts in Turkey's Security Structure. Al Monitor, 12 Oct. At http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/10/turkey-power-struggle-between-islamists-and-secularits.html (accessed 20 Oct. 2016).Google Scholar
Gürpınar, Doğan. 2013a. The Reinvention of Kemalism: Between Elitism, Anti-Elitism and Anti-Intellectualism. Middle Eastern Studies 49, 3: 454–76.Google Scholar
Gürpınar, Doğan. 2013b. Historical Revisionism vs. Conspiracy Theories: Transformations of Turkish Historical Scholarship and Conspiracy Theories as a Constitutive Element in Transforming Turkish Nationalism. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 15, 4: 412–33.Google Scholar
Hale, William, and Özbudun, Ergun. 2010. Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey—The Case of the AKP. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
İlhan, Atilla. 2005. Yıldız, Hilal ve Kalpak—Gazi'nin “Ulusal” Solculuğu. [The star, the crescent and the fur hat—the Gazi's “Ulusal” leftism]. İstanbul: İş Bankası Yayınları.Google Scholar
Khoury, Nadim. 2016. National Narratives and the Oslo Peace Process: How Peacebuilding Paradigms Address Conflicts over History. Nations and Nationalism 22, 3: 465–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kınalı, Hasan. 2008. Söz konusu vatansa gerisi teferruattır [If the homeland is at stake, then everything else is trivial]. Hürriyet, 1 Feb.Google Scholar
Konuralp, Okan. 2005. Denize Dökülen Ortadoğu Tasarılarıydı [Whatever thrown into the sea were scenarios on the Middle East]. Interview with Turgut Özakman. Tempo, 5 Sept. At http://www.tempodergisi.com.tr/toplum_politika/07104 (accessed 20 May 2008).Google Scholar
Kösebalaban, Hasan. 2005. The Impact of Globalization on Islamic Political Identity: The Case of Turkey. World Affairs 168, 1: 27–37.Google Scholar
Kurban, İklil. 2009. Aslında Türk ulusu laik bir ulustu [The Turkish nation was in fact secular]. Vatan, 1 Jul.Google Scholar
Manisalı, Erol. 2008. AB Faşizmi [EU Fascism]. Yeni Çağ, 30 Mar.Google Scholar
Morden, Michael. 2016. Anatomy of the National Myth: Archetypes and Narrative in the Study of Nationalism. Nations and Nationalism 22, 3: 447–64.Google Scholar
Navaro-Yashin, Yael. 1998. Uses and Abuses of ‘State and Civil Society’ in Contemporary Turkey. New Perspectives on Turkey 18: 1–22.Google Scholar
Oğuzlu, Tarık. 2010–2011. Turkey and Europeanization of Foreign Policy? Political Science Quarterly 125, 4: 657–83.Google Scholar
Ongur, Hakan Ovunc. 2015. Identifying Ottomanisms: The Discursive Evolution of Ottoman Pasts in the Turkish Presents. Middle Eastern Studies 51, 3: 416–32.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya. 2007. Conservative Globalists versus Defensive Nationalists: Political Parties and Paradoxes of Europeanization in Turkey. Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 9, 3: 247–61.Google Scholar
Özakman, Turgut. 2005. Şu Çılgın Türkler [Those crazy Turks]. Istanbul: Bilgi.Google Scholar
Özdalga, Elisabeth. 2009. Those Crazy Turks: Polemical ‘Pamphlet’ Rather than Historical Novel. Middle East Critique 18, 1: 61–71.Google Scholar
Özkırımlı, Umut. 2010. Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. Hampshire, N.Y.: Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Özkırımlı, Umut. 2013. The Topography of Nationalism in Turkey: Actors, Discourses and the Struggle for Hegemony. In Kastoryano, R., ed., Turkey between Nationalism and Globalization. New York: Routledge, 71–86.Google Scholar
Poyraz, Ergun. 2007. Hilafet Ordusundan Arap Kürt Partisine [From the Army of the Caliphate to the Arap Kurdish Party]. Istanbul: Togan.Google Scholar
Saltık, Ahmet. 2004. Laiklik Nedir? Ne Değildir? [What is Laicism and what is not?]. Atatürkçü Düşünce Derneği [Association of Atatürkist thought]. At http://www.add.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=31 (accessed 21 Dec. 2009).Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 2007. Nausea. Alexander, Lloyd, trans., Introduction by Howard, Richard. New York: New Directions Publishing.Google Scholar
Şener, Bülent. 2014. Sevr Fobisi/Sendromu: Türkiyenin Güvenlik Endişesini Anlamak Üzerine Düşünceler [The Sèvres Phobia/Syndrome: thoughts on understanding Turkey's security concerns]. Journal of Turkish Studies 9, 5: 1835–47.Google Scholar
Şevkli, Selma. 2011. Bir “Ulusalcı” Nasıl Düşünür - Seküler Milliyetçiliğin Zihin Haritası. [How Does an “Ulusalcı” Think – The Mental Map of Secular Nationalism]. Istanbul: Ufuk.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. 2003. Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Spillman, Lyn. 1997. Nation and Commemoration: Creating National Identities in the United States and Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taş, Hakkı. 2015. Turkey—from Tutelary to Delegative Democracy. Third World Quarterly 36, 4: 776–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1992. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Türk Tarihi Heyeti [Turkish History Committee]. 1996 [1930]. Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatları: Kemalist Yönetimin Resmi Tarih Tezi [The outline of Turkish history: official history thesis of the Kemalist rule]. 2d ed. Istanbul: Kaynak.Google Scholar
Uslu, Emrullah. 2008. Ulusalcılık: The Neo-Nationalist Resurgence in Turkey. Turkish Studies 9, 1: 73–97.Google Scholar
White, Jenny. 2013. Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Yanık, Lerna. 2008. ‘Those Crazy Turks’ that Got Caught in the ‘Metal Storm’: Nationalism in Turkey's Best Seller Lists. Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies Working Paper Series 4.Google Scholar
Yıldız, Ahmet. 2001. Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene—Türk Ulusal Kimliğinin Etno-Seküler Sınırları (1919–1938) [How happy is he who calls himself a Turk—the ethno-secular boundaries of Turkish national identity (1919–1938)]. Istanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar
Yılmaz, Hakan. 2011. Euroscepticism in Turkey: Parties, Elites, and Public Opinion. South European Society and Politics 16, 1: 185–208.Google Scholar
Zencirci, Gizem. 2014. Civil Society's History: New Constructions of Ottoman Heritage by the Justice and Development Party in Turkey. European Journal of Turkish Studies: Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey, 19 Dec.: 1–20.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Yael. 1997. Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar