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Turkish nationalism



 
 
Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people
Turkish people

The Turkish people , also known as "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early history text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk." This ideal...
, as either a nation
Nation

A nation is a cultural and social community. In as much as most members never meet each other, yet feel a common bond, it may be considered an imagined community....
al, ethnic
Ethnic group

An 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 recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common culture, linguistic, religion, human behaviour or Race traits, real or presumed, as indic...
 or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over all others influences, including religious ones.

ish nationalism began with the Turanian Society
Turanian Society

Turanian 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 Persian empire where many Turkic folks live, and Turan, the goal of an all Turks uniting state....
 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-Turkism
Pan-Turkism

Pan-Turkism is a political movement aiming to unite the various Turkic peoples into a modern political state, a confederation, or an economic union closely resembling that of the European Union....
.

The Young Turk revolution which overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid II
Abdul Hamid II

Abd?lhamid II, Abdul Hamid II or Abd Al-Hamid II Khan Ghazi, His Imperial Majesty, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire....
, allowed Turkish nationalism into power, eventually leading to the Three Pashas
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 Ottoman Navy, Ahmed Djemal, ....
 control of the late Ottoman government.






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Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people
Turkish people

The Turkish people , also known as "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early history text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk." This ideal...
, as either a nation
Nation

A nation is a cultural and social community. In as much as most members never meet each other, yet feel a common bond, it may be considered an imagined community....
al, ethnic
Ethnic group

An 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 recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common culture, linguistic, religion, human behaviour or Race traits, real or presumed, as indic...
 or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over all others influences, including religious ones.

History of Turkish nationalism

Turkish nationalism began with the Turanian Society
Turanian Society

Turanian 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 Persian empire where many Turkic folks live, and Turan, the goal of an all Turks uniting state....
 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-Turkism
Pan-Turkism

Pan-Turkism is a political movement aiming to unite the various Turkic peoples into a modern political state, a confederation, or an economic union closely resembling that of the European Union....
.

The Young Turk revolution which overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid II
Abdul Hamid II

Abd?lhamid II, Abdul Hamid II or Abd Al-Hamid II Khan Ghazi, His Imperial Majesty, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire....
, allowed Turkish nationalism into power, eventually leading to the Three Pashas
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 Ottoman Navy, Ahmed Djemal, ....
 control of the late Ottoman government. It is believed that the nationalistic leanings of the Young Turks
Young Turks

The Young Turks were a coalition of various groups favoring reformation of the Administration of the Ottoman Empire. Through the Young Turk Revolution, their movement brought about the Second Constitutional Era ....
, Enver Pasha in particular, is what led the Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress

The Committee of Union and Progress , initially a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students Ibrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, Ishak S?kuti and H?seyinzade Ali, became a political organization, established by Bahaeddin Sakir among Young Turks in 1906, during the dissolution period of the Otto...
 to oversee a series of massacres, mass arrests, and deportations against Anatolia's largest non-Muslim Minority in what is known as the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, the Great Calamity —refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian people population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I....
 during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
, the reformer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk was a Turkish people army officer, revolutionary statesman, and Father of the Nation Turkey as well as its List of Presidents of Turkey....
 came to power. Atatürk discouraged the Pan-Turkic ambitions of his predecessors. Atatürk introduced Hilaire de Baranton's Sun Language Theory
Sun Language Theory

The Sun Language Theory was a linguistics hypothesis 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 is Turkish language....
 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 Sumer
Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and a historical region located in Southern Iraq , known as the Cradle of civilization. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period through the Uruk period and the Dynastic periods until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC....
ians were proto-Turks.

Modern Turkish nationalism


Article 301
Article 301 (Turkish penal code)

Article 301 is a controversial article of the Turkey 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 speech
Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to denote 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 Union
Accession of Turkey to the European Union

Turkey'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 Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk

Ferit Orhan Pamuk generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkey novelist and professor of comparative literature at Columbia University....
, the Turkish novelist Elif Safak
Elif Safak

Elif Safak , is an award-winning writer of Turkish people descent. She has published novels written in Turkish language as well as English language....
, and the late Hrant Dink
Hrant Dink

Hrant Dink was a Armenians in Turkey editing, journalist and columnist.As editing#Executive editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos , Dink was a prominent member of the Armenians minority in Turkey....
.

In May 2007, a law was put into effect allowing Turkey to block Web sites that are deemed insulting to Atatürk.

See also

  • Anatolianism
    Anatolianism

    Anatolianism is a term used to refer to the political view, that asserts a idea the Turkish people to be a descedents of indigenous population in Anatolia....
  • Grey Wolves
    Grey Wolves

    Grey Wolves or Idealist Youth is an Nationalism#Nationalism and extremism neo-fascist youth organization of the Turkey Nationalist Movement Party .....
  • Ergenekon network
    Ergenekon network

    "Ergenekon" is the name given to an alleged clandestine, secularism Ultranationalism organization in Turkey with ties to members of the country's Military of Turkey and Law enforcement in Turkey forces....


Further reading




External links

  • Turanian Community
  • Turkish Nationalist Community