- Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
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This article discusses how the discourse of ‘Anatolia, the loveable and beautiful’ was developed after the retreat of the Ottomans from the Balkans and how Anatolia emerged as the construction site of the Kemalist project of ‘national... more
This article discusses how the discourse of ‘Anatolia, the loveable and beautiful’ was developed after the retreat of the Ottomans from the Balkans and how Anatolia emerged as the construction site of the Kemalist project of ‘national modernity’ and ‘Anatolian enlightenment’. Based on a meticulous reading of the ethnographies, histories and monographs on Anatolian cities and regions published between 1923 and 1950 as well as the journals of the local branches of People's Houses, the article demonstrates how the regime attempted to establish its legitimacy by incorporating the local elements into the ‘grand national narrative’ and nationalizing the Anatolian countryside.
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This paper discusses the surge of neo-nationalism and conspiratorial thinking in tandem with the rise of the Turkish revisionist historiography highly critical of Turkish nationalism and its legacy in the 20th century in the 2000s. The... more
This paper discusses the surge of neo-nationalism and conspiratorial thinking in tandem with the rise of the Turkish revisionist historiography highly critical of Turkish nationalism and its legacy in the 20th century in the 2000s. The paper also examines the demonization of these historiographical deviations by proponents of Kemalist nation-statism. Because these revisionists challenged nation-statist assumptions, such as the innocence of the Turkish nation and its self-victimization, their academic output was perceived as blasphemy against the common values of Turkish society, further fomenting neo-nationalist sentiment. Thus, the paper argues that the genesis of a revisionist historiography and the rising popularity of conspiracy theories among the public cannot be disassociated from each other.1
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This study investigates how Seljuks of Rum are posited within the Turkish historty in the republican era. Although this study had confined itself only to academically oriented studies, rather than being a study of historiography, it tried... more
This study investigates how Seljuks of Rum are posited within the Turkish historty in the republican era. Although this study had confined itself only to academically oriented studies, rather than being a study of historiography, it tried to displaty the nationalist baggage that had to be tried to realized upon constructions of Seljuks of Rum. After overviewing the late Ottoman historiography and their shy encounter with Seljuks of Rum and "western Turks", the study begins with discussing the Kemalist imagination of Turkish history with a special focus on the Kemalist position towards Seljuks of Rum in this imagination. Fuad Koprulu, who had revolutionarty impact on the studies of Seljuks of Rum had been also under scrunity and had been analyzed how he had posited Seljuks of Rum in the Turkish history. Finally, study approaches to the later works on Seljuks of Rum and Great Seljuks by politically conservative oriented scholars and especially Osman Turan. In the conclusion, all these alternative interpretations of Seljuks of Rum had been analyzed in the light of their differing modes of nationalism and concluded that different interpretations although clashing partially had been reflections of the gradually consolidating of ideology of the modern Turkish nation-state.
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The Turkish scholarship in historiography and social sciences emerged from the cocoon of Kemalism, but for a long time they continued to bear and reproduce many of the premises, self-images, and self-representations of Kemalism. The... more
The Turkish scholarship in historiography and social sciences emerged from the cocoon of Kemalism, but for a long time they continued to bear and reproduce many of the premises, self-images, and self-representations of Kemalism. The Kemalist domination of this scholarship was disman- tled in the 1970s and 1980s by the new generation of historians and social scientists who were overwhelmingly left-leaning and influenced by the critical scholarship reigning in Europe and North America since 1968. Heavily critical of nationalism and the modernist paradigm, these left- leaning critical scholars had further and more urgent concerns and moti- vations for an encounter with Kemalism. Turkish socialism was also born from Kemalist origins and was heavily influenced by the Kemalist para- digm. For a long time, Turkish socialists perceived Kemalism as a progres- sive bourgeois ideology. They regarded the political agenda of Kemalism as positive and progressive in the course of history as it had struggled with and crushed religion, feudalism, reactionary forces, imperialism, and the domestic lackeys of imperialism.1 The new generation of socialists disagreed. The study of Mete Tuncay on the Kemalist regime published in 19812 was a breakthrough. Although Kemalism was considerably discred- ited among leftist circles during the 1970s, nevertheless many of its premises were retained and reproduced. Tuncay, in his critical reappraisal of Kemalism, set the fundamentals for the critical scholarship of Kemalism and the history of the Kemalist dictatorship. This study addressed a leftist audience3 and aimed to challenge the views and assumptions held within the left. It also attempted to reconstruct Kemalism as an authoritarian ideology far away from democratic and progressive ideals.
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The article overviews the emergence and development of the nomenclature of nationalist Turkish male first names which had to a considerable extent superseded the traditional religiously motivated names and discusses the cultural and... more
The article overviews the emergence and development of the nomenclature of nationalist Turkish male first names which had to a considerable extent superseded the traditional religiously motivated names and discusses the cultural and political background of this process. Demonstrating its “catastrophical success”, the article contributes to the literature on the nationalization of private lives and spheres.
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Abstract Based on a comprehensive reading of the 1912–1914 issues of the journal Turkish Homeland, the highbrow intellectualist periodical of the Turkist intellectuals and the ruling Committee of Union and Progress, this article argues... more
Abstract Based on a comprehensive reading of the 1912–1914 issues of the journal Turkish Homeland, the highbrow intellectualist periodical of the Turkist intellectuals and the ruling Committee of Union and Progress, this article argues that sublime Turkishness envisaged by the Young Turks can be construed as a character build-up. The article also examines how history was utilized as an arsenal from where the sublime ‘Turkish character’ was extracted in a decade in which interest towards Turkic history burgeoned, arguing that valiant Turkic heroes from the glorious Turkic past were discovered or rediscovered to stand out as exemplary men and epitomes of incorruptibleness inspiring the new youth.
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This article examines the evolving British perceptions of the Ottoman Empire from the onset of the Tanzimat to Abdülhamid II. The article aims to attest the emergence of a positive image of the ‘reforming Turk’ and the erosion of this... more
This article examines the evolving British perceptions of the Ottoman Empire from the onset of the Tanzimat to Abdülhamid II. The article aims to attest the emergence of a positive image of the ‘reforming Turk’ and the erosion of this positive assessment following the disillusionment with the achievements of Tanzimat. The article discusses the Christian dimensions of the positive and negative attitudes towards the Ottomans and ‘moral racism’ inherent in both the positive and negative assessments. The article ends with concluding that this reference framework from which the British discourses on the Ottomans derived had eclipsed with the demise of the British nineteenth-century political elite and culture in tandem with the waning of the Ottoman political culture and elite.
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Rather than investigating memoirs as sources for writing history, this article attempts to discuss the political and ideological meanings attributed to memoirs and how the memoir-publishing industry was utilized for such dispositions and... more
Rather than investigating memoirs as sources for writing history, this article attempts to discuss the political and ideological meanings attributed to memoirs and how the memoir-publishing industry was utilized for such dispositions and proclivities in twentieth century Turkey. The article also examines how different social, ideological, and cultural milieus and circles were interested and fascinated with autobiographical writings and memoirs. The article concludes with examining how memoirs subsequently became a contested area and perceived as assets and instruments to be employed against political and ideological opponents with the booming interest in memoirs publishing that began in the 1990s.
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This study investigates the use of religion during the Cold War by the Turkish state via the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet Isleri Baskanligs), the state agency that is responsible for regulating and monitoring the conduct of... more
This study investigates the use of religion during the Cold War by the Turkish state via the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet Isleri Baskanligs), the state agency that is responsible for regulating and monitoring the conduct of religious services (in mosques and elsewhere), as well as for the imposition of ‘proper Islam’. This essay examines sermons delivered during Friday prayers (khutba in Arabic, hutbe in Turkish) which were sanctioned by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) and recited from pulpits throughout the country in addition to articles published in various PRA periodicals that the PRA distributed primarily to train and inform imams (clerics, prayer leaders) and circulated in cities, towns, and thousands of villages across the country. The essay specifically examines sermons1 in the late 1970s on the eve of the 1980 coup when Islamic anti-communism was at its zenith. Before 1980, imams were de jure free to prepare their own sermons due to certain legal loopholes. However, the PRA provided imams with sermons, which were supposed to be used as models, even if these model sermons were not expected to be read verbatim. These model sermons were distributed via the PRA’s periodicals, first and foremost Diyanet Gazetesi (PRA Journal) in the late 1970s during the cultural Second Cold War in Turkey.
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Research Interests: Political Sociology, Political Theory, Middle East Studies, Political Science, Iranian Studies, and 14 morePost-Soviet Regimes, Conspiracy Theories, Political Regimes, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Turkey, Middle East Politics, Conspiracy Theories and Transparency, Authoritarianism, Authoritarian regimes, Russia, Conspiracy Culture, South America, Post Soviet Studies, and Post Soviet Politics
The onset of the Enlightenment ushered in a novel curiosity. Krzystof Pomian defines the early modern era as an ‘age of curiosity’ and as ‘an interim rule between those of theology and science’.1 Especially in the 18th century with the... more
The onset of the Enlightenment ushered in a novel curiosity. Krzystof Pomian defines the early modern era as an ‘age of curiosity’ and as ‘an interim rule between those of theology and science’.1 Especially in the 18th century with the expansion of the British Empire, the British gentleman traveling overseas to British outposts pioneered a new phenomenon, the collecting of curiosities.2 These English gentlemen collected vases, urns, coins, fossils, seeds and plants, stuffed animals, and antiques from exotic places. It is not a coincidence that the British Museum was a natural sequel to the British imperial expansion. It was founded through the will of Sir Hans Sloane to display his vast collec- tions publicly, and it expanded with the contributions of other impe- rial collectors who brought their marvels from all around the world.3 The discovery of Roman, Greek, and, later, ancient Egyptian artifacts in the early 19th century further fueled this fascination. The collectors of antique artifacts developed a dialog with the ancients and attributed meanings to these artifacts far superseding their material qualities.4 Although this curiosity was more an aristocratic preoccupation, the new quest for antiques was not confined to aristocrats who were mesmerized by Greco-Roman artistic products. It certainly had a popular appeal in Britain. Britishness was also reinforced and affirmed via new historical and cultural objects and fascination. Apparently, this new curiosity and vision of history contributed significantly to the emergence of a national imagination and, subsequently a national identity.
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This article probes the transformation of Kemalism to a xenophobic nation-statism with a strong anti-western animus diluting its self-styled westernism and elitism in response to the rise of the reformist-Islamist ruling JDP and its... more
This article probes the transformation of Kemalism to a xenophobic nation-statism with a strong anti-western animus diluting its self-styled westernism and elitism in response to the rise of the reformist-Islamist ruling JDP and its patchy liberal rhetoric and pro-EU stance. The article points to the novel qualities of the Kemalism of the 2000s but also attests to its inherent anti-elitist, anti-liberal and anti-intellectual nature that reigned in the 1930s given that the Kemalist project in the inter-war period involved the denunciation of the Ottoman establishment with its elite and intelligentsia and its replacement with an intelligentsia of its own that is acquainted with anti-liberalism, anti-cosmopolitism and also anti-intellectualism.
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This article probes the transformation of Kemalism to a xenophobic nation-statism with a strong anti-western animus diluting its self-styled westernism and elitism in response to the rise of the reformist-Islamist ruling JDP and its... more
This article probes the transformation of Kemalism to a xenophobic nation-statism with a strong anti-western animus diluting its self-styled westernism and elitism in response to the rise of the reformist-Islamist ruling JDP and its patchy liberal rhetoric and pro-EU stance. The article points to the novel qualities of the Kemalism of the 2000s but also attests to its inherent anti-elitist, anti-liberal and anti-intellectual nature that reigned in the 1930s given that the Kemalist project in the inter-war period involved the denunciation of the Ottoman establishment with its elite and intelligentsia and its replacement with an intelligentsia of its own that is acquainted with anti-liberalism, anti-cosmopolitism and also anti-intellectualism.
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This article will attempt to develop an in-depth examination of the pivotal role of Islam in the articulation of Turkish nationalism and Turkish official identity by examining the sermons authorized and imposed by the Presidency of... more
This article will attempt to develop an in-depth examination of the pivotal role of Islam in the articulation of Turkish nationalism and Turkish official identity by examining the sermons authorized and imposed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA), the state agency regulating religion, and how the their cosmologies of social, moral and political order are entwined. We will further argue that this role involves a twofold process; firstly, the Muslim identity was imagined as a prerequisite for being considered as a Turk and a Turkish citizen and, secondly, the ‘cultural intimacy’ of Turkish nationalism is grounded on the ‘root paradigms’ inherited and attained from the Islamic tradition and theology. These arguments are particularly pertinent at a time when Islamist JDP (Justice and Development Party) consolidated its power and began to instrumentalize PRA for its priorities and visions of Islam. This, however, does not bring a radical reshuffling of PRA. On the contrary, the continuity from the Kemalist-monitored PRA to the JDP-monitored PRA can be attested not only in its organizational features but also in its ideological make up; especially in terms of its perceptions of society, state and social order.
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Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Nationalism and the ancien regime: politics of the Tanzimat 2. Primacy of international politics: diplomacy, and appropriation of the 'new knowledge' 3. A social portrait of the diplomatic service... more
Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Nationalism and the ancien regime: politics of the Tanzimat 2. Primacy of international politics: diplomacy, and appropriation of the 'new knowledge' 3. A social portrait of the diplomatic service 4. The routine of the diplomatic service and its encounters abroad 5. The mentalities and dispositions of the diplomatic service: the great transformation 6. The European patterns and the Ottoman Foreign Office 7. Passages of the diplomatic service from the Empire to the Republic Conclusion Notes Index
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This chapter scrutinizes and discusses the evolution and transformation of the meanings and imagery attributed to the Tanzimat, begin- ning from the invention of the Tanzimat as the rebirth of the Ottoman Empire in 1839. This is... more
This chapter scrutinizes and discusses the evolution and transformation of the meanings and imagery attributed to the Tanzimat, begin- ning from the invention of the Tanzimat as the rebirth of the Ottoman Empire in 1839. This is particularly remarkable because both Turkish historiography and Cold War Western historiography were based on the self-narrative and premises of the Tanzimat, and its historiography was constructed simultaneously with its inception.
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This chapter probes the depiction of the European Middle Ages in the late Ottoman and early Republican Turkish historical imaginations and the employment of these depictions to construct and reinforce national(ist) visions in line with... more
This chapter probes the depiction of the European Middle Ages in the late Ottoman and early Republican Turkish historical imaginations and the employment of these depictions to construct and reinforce national(ist) visions in line with the modernist premises of the late Ottoman-Turkish national imagination and identity. The chapter attempts to demonstrate the continuity from the late Ottoman historical-national imagination to the Kemalist-Republican historical visions with certain breaks and modi- fications as visible in the construction of the imagery of the medieval Europe as the ‘constitutive other’ and anathema of the modernist and anti-Western Turkish nationalism.
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This chapter probes the depiction of the European Middle Ages in the late Ottoman and early Republican Turkish historical imaginations and the employment of these depictions to construct and reinforce national(ist) visions in line with... more
This chapter probes the depiction of the European Middle Ages in the late Ottoman and early Republican Turkish historical imaginations and the employment of these depictions to construct and reinforce national(ist) visions in line with the modernist premises of the late Ottoman-Turkish national imagination and identity. The chapter attempts to demonstrate the continuity from the late Ottoman historical-national imagination to the Kemalist-Republican historical visions with certain breaks and modi- fications as visible in the construction of the imagery of the medieval Europe as the ‘constitutive other’ and anathema of the modernist and anti-Western Turkish nationalism.
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‘On an afternoon in March 1994, two Turkish women, one veiled, the other not, encountered one another in front of the Ayasofya museum in the old quarter of Istanbul. The short-haired woman, dressed in a skirt to her knees, a trimly fit... more
‘On an afternoon in March 1994, two Turkish women, one veiled, the other not, encountered one another in front of the Ayasofya museum in the old quarter of Istanbul. The short-haired woman, dressed in a skirt to her knees, a trimly fit blouse, and a short coat, asked the other woman who was wearing a black veil, whether this was the line for tickets to the museum. The veiled woman was surprised. “You speak Turkish?” she asked in amazement. “Yes, I am Turkish!” asserted the short-haired woman, put off by the question. “Oh! You don’t look Turkish. You look like a Westerner,” said the veiled woman. “You don’t look Turkish either,” said the other. “I thought you were an Arab.” “Oh! said the veiled woman,” “Thanks be to God, we are Turkish and Muslim.” “Well, we are too,” said the short-haired woman.’1 Yael Navaro began the first chapter of her book on the ‘production of the political in the public life of Turkey in the 1990s’2 with a specific reference to the politics of secularism and nationalism with this anecdote. She further discussed the negative imagery of the ‘Arab’ in the mainstream secular media and the extensive employment of this imagery to distinguish the ‘civilized’ and open-minded Turk and to instrumentalize this imagery as a discur- sive strategy against the surging Islamists.3 This chapter probes the Arab imagery in the Turkish national(ist) historiography and examines the transformations this imagery has undergone from the late 19th century onwards.
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The main source of animosity in modern Turkish – Armenian relations is the debate on the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. To provide an evidence-based and thorough perspective on the Turkish political stance in this... more
The main source of animosity in modern Turkish – Armenian relations is the debate on the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. To provide an evidence-based and thorough perspective on the Turkish political stance in this discussion, this article explores all the relevant speeches in Turkish parliamentary records. It pays particular attention to political parties’ stances, the historical evolution of the debate, and the significance of the individual profiles of parliamentarians who contributed to the discussion. The findings show that most political parties in Turkey articulated versions of denial, except for a few marginal anti-denial voices. The study concludes that while political parties’ ideological orientations predominantly shape the Turkish debate on the international recognition of the Armenian genocide, historical contexts, local memories, and the individual backgrounds of parliamentarians seem to inspire minor variations in their tones.
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This article develops a comparative study of Turkish radicalism (i.e. Kemalism and Unionism) demonstrating its resemblances and differences vis-à-vis its European counterparts, especially French republicanism and Bolshevism. The... more
This article develops a comparative study of Turkish radicalism (i.e. Kemalism and Unionism) demonstrating its resemblances and differences vis-à-vis its European counterparts, especially French republicanism and Bolshevism. The historiographical vistas of Turkish radicalism are thoroughly examined to elaborate on the ancien régime imageries of Turkish radicalism and the contradictions inherent in these coexisting historiographical vistas. The article aims to develop a critical perspective of Turkish radicalism, arguing that many clichés reproduced in the academic literature had been in fact produced by the Kemalists as self-fashioning.
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... This transformation, accompanied by the rise and transformation of Islamist politics,26 For some academic assesments of the JDP, see Hakan Yavuz, Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University... more
... This transformation, accompanied by the rise and transformation of Islamist politics,26 For some academic assesments of the JDP, see Hakan Yavuz, Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Hakan Yavuz (ed ...
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Abstract This paper analyses the Turkish historiographical encounter with the Armenian genocide in the 1970s and 1980s. It shows how denialism was institutionalized by the 1980s by the post-1980 junta and its academic–political–security... more
Abstract This paper analyses the Turkish historiographical encounter with the Armenian genocide in the 1970s and 1980s. It shows how denialism was institutionalized by the 1980s by the post-1980 junta and its academic–political–security complex as a response to the revival of the obscured memories of 1915 after decades of oblivion due to the rise of the Armenian efforts to create an awareness regarding the genocide. Hence, the paper historicizes Turkish denialism. Furthermore, not seeing Turkish denialism as a monolithic discourse, it identifies three modes of Turkish denialism, left wing, right wing and centrist, all entrenched in different ideological sets. The paper also discusses the Turkish national security establishment’s strategies to counter Armenian activism.