Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the
Turkish peopleThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
, as either a
nationA nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin. The development and conceptualization of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries,...
al,
ethnicAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over other influences, including religious ones.
Turkish nationalism began with the
Turanian SocietyTuranian Society , a society founded in 1839 by Tatars, aiming at uniting the various Turkic peoples of the Russian empire.The name is derived from Turan, an ancient Persian name for the land to the East of Iran where many Turkic folks live, and Turan, the goal of an all Turks uniting state.The...
founded in 1839, followed in 1908 with the Turkish Society, which later expanded into the Turkish Hearth and eventually expanded to include ideologies such as Pan-Turanism and
Pan-TurkismPan-Turkism is a political movement started more than 100 years ago aiming to unite the various Turkic peoples into a modern political state.-Name:...
.
The Young Turk revolution which overthrew Sultan
Abdul Hamid IIHis Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful, , was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
, allowed Turkish nationalism into power, eventually leading to the
Three Pashas"The Three Pashas", also known as the "dictatorial triumvirate", of the Ottoman Empire included the Ottoman minister of the interior, Mehmed Talat Pasha , the minister of war, Ismail Enver, and the minister of the Navy, Ahmed Djemal,...
control of the late Ottoman government.
Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the
Turkish peopleThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
, as either a
nationA nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin. The development and conceptualization of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries,...
al,
ethnicAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over other influences, including religious ones.
History of Turkish nationalism
Turkish nationalism began with the
Turanian SocietyTuranian Society , a society founded in 1839 by Tatars, aiming at uniting the various Turkic peoples of the Russian empire.The name is derived from Turan, an ancient Persian name for the land to the East of Iran where many Turkic folks live, and Turan, the goal of an all Turks uniting state.The...
founded in 1839, followed in 1908 with the Turkish Society, which later expanded into the Turkish Hearth and eventually expanded to include ideologies such as Pan-Turanism and
Pan-TurkismPan-Turkism is a political movement started more than 100 years ago aiming to unite the various Turkic peoples into a modern political state.-Name:...
.
The Young Turk revolution which overthrew Sultan
Abdul Hamid IIHis Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful, , was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
, allowed Turkish nationalism into power, eventually leading to the
Three Pashas"The Three Pashas", also known as the "dictatorial triumvirate", of the Ottoman Empire included the Ottoman minister of the interior, Mehmed Talat Pasha , the minister of war, Ismail Enver, and the minister of the Navy, Ahmed Djemal,...
control of the late Ottoman government. It is believed that the nationalistic leanings of the
Young TurksThe Young Turks were a coalition of various groups favoring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the monarchy of Ottoman Sultan and favored a re-installation of the shortlived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...
, Enver Pasha in particular, is what led the
Committee of Union and ProgressThe Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Hüseyinzade Ali...
to oversee a series of massacres, mass arrests, and deportations against Anatolia's largest non-Muslim Minority in what is known as the
Armenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
After the collapse of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, the reformer
Mustafa Kemal AtatürkMustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first President....
came to power. Atatürk discouraged the Pan-Turkic ambitions of his predecessors. Atatürk introduced
Hilaire de BarentonHilaire de Barenton , with real name Étienne Boulé, was a friar, historian of the languages of the Middle East. His name is often misspelled as de Baranton.-Biography:...
's
Sun Language TheoryThe Sun Language Theory was a linguistic hypothesis developed in Turkey in the 1930s that proposing that all human languages are descendants of one Central Asian primal language. The theory further proposed that the only language remaining more or less the same as this primal language was Turkish...
into Turkish political and educational circles in 1935, at the high point of attempts to "cleanse" the Turkish language of foreign influence. Turkish researchers at the time also came up with the idea that Early
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
ians were proto-Turks.
Modern Turkish nationalism
Article 301Article 301 is a controversial article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions...
of the Turkish penal code, which is perceived as being contrary to notion of
freedom of speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, states "
A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, the penalty to be imposed shall be imprisonment for a term of six months to three years." It also states that "
Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime."
There have been recent indications that Turkey may abandon or modify Article 301, after the embarrassment suffered by some high profile cases. Nationalists within the judicial system, intent on derailing
Turkey's full admission into the European UnionTurkey's application to accede to the European Union was made on 14 April 1987. Turkey has been an associate member of the European Union and its predecessors since 1963...
, have used Article 301 to initiate trials against people like Nobel-prize-winning Turkish novelist
Orhan PamukFerit Orhan Pamuk generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....
, the Turkish novelist
Elif ŞafakElif Şafak , is an award-winning writer of Turkish descent and the best-selling woman writer in Turkey...
, and the late
Hrant DinkHrant Dink was a Turkish-Armenian editor, journalist and columnist.As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos , Dink was a prominent member of the Armenian minority in Turkey...
.
In May 2007, a law was put into effect allowing Turkey to block Web sites that are deemed insulting to Atatürk.
Anatolianism
Anatolianism refers to the political view asserting that the Turkish people are descendents of indigenous population in
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
. Anatolianism is based in a historical and racial views celebrating the cultures and civilisations of the local ancestors. It was generated by some
TurkishThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
intellectuals in the early part of the 20th century, for whom the idea of a national identity, limited by geographical borders have played a significant role. Anatolianism embraces autochtony and the genealogical link between the modern Turks and the ancient peoples of the region. It became also an element in the process of nation-building in Turkey.
See also
- Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves or Idealist Youth is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party . It is accused of terrorism....
- Ergenekon network
"Ergenekon" is the name given to an alleged clandestine, Kemalist ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with ties to members of the country's military and security forces. The group is accused of terrorism in Turkey...
- Genetic origins of the Turkish people
Native Anatolians began to use Altaic languages instead of Indo-European languages after the migration of Turkic speaking groups into Anatolia. Scientists have long debated the extent to which this shift in language was accompanied by a genetic replacement of the former population, and it has been...
- Pan-Turkism
Pan-Turkism is a political movement started more than 100 years ago aiming to unite the various Turkic peoples into a modern political state.-Name:...
- Turkification
Turkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily...
External links