I am a MEXT 2020 Scholar at the University of Tokyo. I have a BA in History, Cum Laude from Erasmus University Rotterdam. I previously completed high school at Uskudar American Academy in Istanbul. I specialize in cultural history, with a particular interest in modernization and the development of modern ideologies such as nationalism in non-Western people. My BA Thesis was about Japan's effect on the Young Turks and the development of Turkish national identity. In my graduate studies, I aim to continue studying Japanese and Turkish history in a comparative manner. My research will concern the rise of ultranationalism in both countries during the interwar period and the intellectual connections of these ideologies to Europe.
In this thesis, I aim to explore the ideology of a new generation of young nationalist intellectu... more In this thesis, I aim to explore the ideology of a new generation of young nationalist intellectuals that rose to prominence in 1930s Turkey, signifying a divergence in Turkish nationalism. I label this group the ‘second-generation Turkists’ in order to distinguish them from the early Turkists who contributed to the foundation of the Republic of Turkey as well as the culturally defined and inclusive Kemalist ideology. The rise of the second-generation Turkists revived the questions that surrounded Turkish national identity since its inception: how to define the basis of Turkishness and how to position it vis-à-vis the West. Doing so, they revealed that Kemalism and the Republic did not necessarily provide a conclusive answer to these issues. To track how the second-generation intellectuals approached to these questions in ways that differ from the early Turkists and the Kemalists, I analyse how they imagined Japan in three of their most prominent periodicals from 1931-1944: Atsiz Mecmua, Orhun, and Cinaralti. Japan was idealized as a role model which managed to modernize while protecting its national culture by the Early Turkist intellectuals. They used the trope of Japan to address the fundamental problems of Turkish identity, particularly its ambivalent position between the East and the West. In this sense, what the Turkists imagined in Japan tells us more about what they thought Turkish identity was ought to be, rather than what Japan actually was. I attempt to see if the references to Japan changed or persisted among the second-generation Turkists. Doing so, based on the study of Atsiz Mecmua and Orhun, I argue that the Turkists used their newfound confidence in the Turkish identity to react to the modernity of the West not by idolizing the Japanese model like their predecessors, but by constructing a ‘Turkish model’ based on a romanticized imagination of the ancient past of Central Asian Turks. The grandiosity they imagined in the lost past of the Turks allowed them to formulate the pan-Turkist national ideal to unite all Turks across Asia. However, I claim that this changed during World War II, which is visible in Cinaralti. The War and the existential threat it brought revealed the Turkists that even after years of westernization under Kemalism, they were still too weak to match the superpowers of the West. Under the shadow of the identity crisis the War brought, I identify a proliferation in the mentions of Japan after the daring Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan’s initial success in the War against the most powerful country on Earth garnered the admiration of the second-generation Turkists, who idealized Japan not unlike their predecessors. They imagined the Japanese to be a racially pure nation that showed incredible patriotism and willingness to sacrifice themselves for their country. In essence, the image of Japan in Cinaralti reveals us the stark contrast of what Turkey was and what the Turkists thought it was ought to be, indicating how the fundamental questions that haunted Turkish nationalism continued to persist among the second-generation Turkists.
In this thesis, I aim to explore the multi-faceted nature of Turkish modernization and investigat... more In this thesis, I aim to explore the multi-faceted nature of Turkish modernization and investigate the ambivalence that surrounds the development of Turkish national identity. To that end, I ask why Japan, a non-Western country, was a role model among the Young Turks in the early Twentieth Century who aspired to modernize Turkey. To answer this, I use a theoretical framework that builds upon the works of Cemil Aydın and Renee Worringer to analyze primary sources from nationalist Young Turk intellectuals. I use this framework to re-evaluate how the Young Turks constructed a national self through these sources in the context of the hegemonic discourse of the time that rendered the Europeans exclusive and superior to Eastern nations. Doing so, I reveal how the Young Turk intellectuals employed certain discursive elements in their writings to counter the hegemonic discourse. Through formulating anti-Western critiques, they underlined the lack of morality in the Western civilization because of its imperialist policies. Instead of wholesale westernization, a non-Western modernity that emphasizes moral progress as much as the material one was preferred. In formulating this counter-hegemonic discourse, the Young Turks were inspired by Japan’s success in achieving modernity and parity with the West in the international order. Hence, I argue that Japan, as the embodiment of a non-Western vision of modernity and civilization, was an essential component in the construction of Turkish national identity
In this thesis, I aim to explore the ideology of a new generation of young nationalist intellectu... more In this thesis, I aim to explore the ideology of a new generation of young nationalist intellectuals that rose to prominence in 1930s Turkey, signifying a divergence in Turkish nationalism. I label this group the ‘second-generation Turkists’ in order to distinguish them from the early Turkists who contributed to the foundation of the Republic of Turkey as well as the culturally defined and inclusive Kemalist ideology. The rise of the second-generation Turkists revived the questions that surrounded Turkish national identity since its inception: how to define the basis of Turkishness and how to position it vis-à-vis the West. Doing so, they revealed that Kemalism and the Republic did not necessarily provide a conclusive answer to these issues. To track how the second-generation intellectuals approached to these questions in ways that differ from the early Turkists and the Kemalists, I analyse how they imagined Japan in three of their most prominent periodicals from 1931-1944: Atsiz Mecmua, Orhun, and Cinaralti. Japan was idealized as a role model which managed to modernize while protecting its national culture by the Early Turkist intellectuals. They used the trope of Japan to address the fundamental problems of Turkish identity, particularly its ambivalent position between the East and the West. In this sense, what the Turkists imagined in Japan tells us more about what they thought Turkish identity was ought to be, rather than what Japan actually was. I attempt to see if the references to Japan changed or persisted among the second-generation Turkists. Doing so, based on the study of Atsiz Mecmua and Orhun, I argue that the Turkists used their newfound confidence in the Turkish identity to react to the modernity of the West not by idolizing the Japanese model like their predecessors, but by constructing a ‘Turkish model’ based on a romanticized imagination of the ancient past of Central Asian Turks. The grandiosity they imagined in the lost past of the Turks allowed them to formulate the pan-Turkist national ideal to unite all Turks across Asia. However, I claim that this changed during World War II, which is visible in Cinaralti. The War and the existential threat it brought revealed the Turkists that even after years of westernization under Kemalism, they were still too weak to match the superpowers of the West. Under the shadow of the identity crisis the War brought, I identify a proliferation in the mentions of Japan after the daring Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan’s initial success in the War against the most powerful country on Earth garnered the admiration of the second-generation Turkists, who idealized Japan not unlike their predecessors. They imagined the Japanese to be a racially pure nation that showed incredible patriotism and willingness to sacrifice themselves for their country. In essence, the image of Japan in Cinaralti reveals us the stark contrast of what Turkey was and what the Turkists thought it was ought to be, indicating how the fundamental questions that haunted Turkish nationalism continued to persist among the second-generation Turkists.
In this thesis, I aim to explore the multi-faceted nature of Turkish modernization and investigat... more In this thesis, I aim to explore the multi-faceted nature of Turkish modernization and investigate the ambivalence that surrounds the development of Turkish national identity. To that end, I ask why Japan, a non-Western country, was a role model among the Young Turks in the early Twentieth Century who aspired to modernize Turkey. To answer this, I use a theoretical framework that builds upon the works of Cemil Aydın and Renee Worringer to analyze primary sources from nationalist Young Turk intellectuals. I use this framework to re-evaluate how the Young Turks constructed a national self through these sources in the context of the hegemonic discourse of the time that rendered the Europeans exclusive and superior to Eastern nations. Doing so, I reveal how the Young Turk intellectuals employed certain discursive elements in their writings to counter the hegemonic discourse. Through formulating anti-Western critiques, they underlined the lack of morality in the Western civilization because of its imperialist policies. Instead of wholesale westernization, a non-Western modernity that emphasizes moral progress as much as the material one was preferred. In formulating this counter-hegemonic discourse, the Young Turks were inspired by Japan’s success in achieving modernity and parity with the West in the international order. Hence, I argue that Japan, as the embodiment of a non-Western vision of modernity and civilization, was an essential component in the construction of Turkish national identity
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