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Ömer Seyfettin (1884–1920) was one of the significant ideologues of Turkish nationalism disseminating his ideas through his activism and his literature by invoking Turkish history. In the journal Young Pens, published in Ottoman Salonica between 1910–1912, Seyfetttin together with Ziya Gökalp laid the foundations of Turkish nationalist thought as well as national policies toward the Turkish language. While Gökalp developed a more systematic ideology of Turkism with his writings, Seyfettin appealed to the sentiments of the Turkish people with his short plays arguing that Turkish nationalism was the only viable option for the Turkish speaking people of the Balkans and Anatolia. A literary figure as well as an ideologue, Seyfettin's ideas against Ottomanism and Islamism were clearly expressed in his plays and articles focusing on Ottoman Turks, their heroism and their betrayal by the subject peoples living under the Ottoman state. Consequently, nationalism was the only natural solution to the plight of the Turks and for the prospects of their salvation against imperial encroachments and minority separatist movements. His literary production, however, had strong nationalist tones making ideological considerations to be more important than any intention to produce belles-lettres. Seyfettin's influence can be observed as his plays are still included in the curriculum of Turkish primary and secondary education as devised by the Ministry of National Education in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places of interreligious encounter provide opportunities to understand secularity as an experience, one that almost necessarily involves the religious other. As the meaning and operations of secularism and its entanglements with the state vary across cultural and legal systems, this is also a fruitful terrain for comparison, particularly regarding states in which the structures of governance are bound up with some form of political secularism. The case studies presented here explore formations of secularism in India and Turkey by paying attention to how the secular works in everyday life through interreligious relations at shared sacred sites. Personal understandings and experiences of multireligious coexistence oftentimes are articulated and performed through arenas of mundane interaction, giving shape and substance to otherwise abstract concepts of pluralism, secularism, and laicism. However, these ways of being secular exist within frames of intensifying religious nationalism in which the secular is being redefined by state actors and political networks to protect and promote the majority's religious sensibilities. In this shifting landscape, secularism is reworked as a tool of the ruling parties in Turkey and India to further their religio-political agendas. Comparing cases of lived secularism in India and Turkey reveals a constellation of shifting meanings and sensibilities around sharing polities and places with religious others. Whether peacefully shared or contested, monumental or wayside, shared shrines expose the mundane ways in which the secular is a shifting signifier, sometimes evoking a political principle, sometimes an ethical ideal, and sometimes an oppressive, antireligious ideology. This article identifies what is at stake in these various formations and how each perspective on secularism comes with its own set of expectations and dispensations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on Village Institutes, schools that were established in the early years of the Turkish Republic and had an integral part in the nationformation process of Turkey. The purpose of this paper is to inquire how a former Village Institute in a Tatar village is remembered by its graduates, village inhabitants, and people who are nostalgic to the enlightenment ideals these schools represented. The paper is based on an ethnographic study, which includes interviews conducted with the former students, the elderly in the village, and the members of an NGO called YKKED (Yeni Kusak Köy Enstitülüler Dernegi) "New Generation Village Institutes Association". This paper investigates the voluntary practices to remember these schools, yet also discusses the possibility of involuntary memory in modern times by approaching the ruins of the former Village Institute as an affective space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish History Education Journal (TUHED) is the property of Ahmet Simsek and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines the Eurovision stage as a cultural space that cultivated an affective-discursive terrain forging Turkish national identity. It draws upon the media texts as a heuristic to examine how an image of 'Turkishness' was created and negotiated. Focusing in particular on four specific cases (Semiha Yankı in 1975, Çetin Alp in 1983, Şebnem Paker in 1997 and Sertab Erener in 2003), this study suggests that the Eurovision stage was a space where 'Turkishness' encountered an imagined 'Europeanness'. In these cases, affective discourses gave meanings of national allegories of 'Turkishness' to performing bodies on the Eurovision stage. The affective registers generated a discursive formation shaping the contours of 'Turkishness' in relation to Europe. Yet these discourses did not generate fixed and stable meanings. In particular, the construction of national success was negotiated and contested in terms of the appropriateness of the national embodiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservative Thought / Muhafazakar Düşünce is the property of Muhafazakar Dusunce Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches / İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Languages which until the 18th and 19th century were only tools to communicate attained new roles with the appearance of the nation-states and nationalism. They were associated with national identity. It was assumed that every nation had a language and that every language group could claim a nationhood. Bilingualism was seen as a prestigious attainment provided the language next to the “language of the nation” is not associated with a nation or an ethnic group which is perceived as a threat to the nation. The unprestigious language which belongs to the “other” is suppressed or ignored. Cases from Greece and Turkey show that this preference/rejection practice is still experienced in our times as a problem of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Religious Studies / Dini Araştırmalar is the property of Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi Yayinlari and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Antalya Bilim University Law Review is the property of Antalya International University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Islam has been assessed as speculation or a tenet for a political venture since many years. The foremost methodical efforts for varied the religion into a political speculation were within toil of "Islamic modernists". In Islamic political thinking 'Secularism' is the contentious notion because of the chronological aspects, issues and vagueness of a notion itself. A foremost dilemma is an existence of 'secularism' in the 'Muslim' states. Analyzed within the "Turkish" standpoint with the "Ottomans" religious modernization abides the leading incident converting a canon belonging to the belief into a speculation to legalize a modernist political development. Topical incident of "political Islam" has the traditionally novel occurrence. Islamism and its crucial traditions have been acknowledging its authority in Turkey. An evaluation of the belief of Islam as well as its exclusive attributes particularly those that might have associated with the political affairs and government of the Turkish Republic; help to comprehend the connection between the two. Majority of the Muslim inhabitants influences the state politically as well as communally. This dissertation scrutinizes the Islamism as political speculation in Turkish republic. It endeavors to ascertain the chronological stipulation under which this function has assorted. While appraising the internal strain of "post-colonial nationalism", this paper consigns the existing position of pious politics in the locale of challenges that hoisted in opposition to an inclusive mission belonging to rejuvenation. This paper also discusses that in 19th century "Islamism" in 'Turkey' has the prologue to a venture of "westernization" and today, it's the precursor of a dilemmas to the venture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the foundation of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi-AKP) after a paradigm shift and its maintenance through retooling, which involves strategic positionings and tactical manoeuvres within its new paradigm. The positionings and manoeuvres that the party took vis-à-vis states of exception have been imperative for its survival in government. The main argument of the article is that the AKP retooled itself in the face of crises rather than going through a paradigmatic change, that is to say, resorting back to the Islamism of the party elite's origins, in Kuhnian terms. Through the fluidity of its discourse and the unrivalled charisma of its leader, the AKP has -multiple times- changed the center of gravity of its discourse and policies without having to disarticulate its founding political imaginary. Neither its recently increased nationalism nor authoritarianism was the result of an ideological orientation, just like the democratic reforms in its initial years. They were mostly by-products of survival efforts at power positioning, through retooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pro-Kurdish nationalist mobilization in Turkey was mostly built on the right to self-determination aligned with the Marxist-Leninist ideology for the insurgent Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the early 1980s and ethnic minority rights for the secular-leftist pro-Kurdish legal parties in the 1990s. The Turkish state mostly framed the legal and illegal pro-Kurdish mobilization as 'the enemy of the state' and 'the enemy of Islam' in its counter-insurgency efforts. However, in the 2000s, the PKK and the pro-Kurdish legal parties became more tolerant and inclusive toward Islamic Kurdish identity by mobilizing their sympathizers in events such as 'Civic Friday Prayers' and a 'Democratic Islamic Congress'. This move aimed to function as an antidote to the rising popularity of the ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Kurdish Hizbullah in the early 2000s. In other words, Islam and pious Muslim identity has increasingly become contested among Turkish Islamists, Kurdish Islamists, and the secular Kurdish nationalists. This article seeks to unpack why, how, and under what conditions such competing actors and mechanisms shape the discursive and power relationships in the Kurdish-Turkish public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to reveal the attitudes and behavior of Armenians during the invasions, and the consequences of these attitudes and behavior in the context of "Aintab's Struggle of Existence", a book written by Asadur Khederian, who spent most of his life in Gaziantep. Khederian was born in Kayseri in 1893. He used the pen name, "A. Gesar", in his works. He lived in the USA for quite some time, and was the editor of an Armenian newspaper during the short period of time that he resided in California. He translated the English works of some Armenian writers into Armenian. As well as working for the Armenian newspaper, Hayrenik, Khederian also compiled a book in 1953 of the memoirs of Misak Torlakian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation who is considered to be a prominent figure in Armenian national history. In his book titled "Aintab's Struggle of Existence", Khederian, who passed away in 1955, explained the events that took place between April 1920 and December 1921 from his own point of view as someone who was in the Armenian defensive line. As stated by those who translated the book into Turkish, comparisons are obviously important for scientific purposes so that different and alternative points of view can be appreciated. However, while memoirs are quite useful in analyzing historical events, they are also a type of source material that must be treated in caution. For this reason, events must be relayed not only through personal points of view, but also through official documents. While it is helpful to hear from active participants of the events, the information they provide must certainly be compared to documents and official records. It is to be expected in memoirs that there will be a significant level of nationalism in the language that is used and in the emotional perspectives that are portrayed by both sides. As also highlighted by the translators, what is important is to capture the truth by answering the question of "how" the events of the same date which took place in the same location and perpetrated by the same individuals are told. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For at least the past 30 years, the Kurdish question has been the most urgent agenda concern for Turkey. Denial of the Kurdish question is a state narrative and an administrative strategy in Turkey that was produced by the founders of the Republic and disseminated by its leadership using the state apparatus. However, we know very little about how denial operates within lay person accounts of the Kurdish question. Learning about the narrative forms that lay people produce in their accounts on the Kurdish question is necessary to understand the micro-level appearance of the question. Denial appears to be a foundational strategy employed by lay Kurds and Turks in different forms, through numerous arguments, and from different motivations, as evidenced in their personal accounts. This study investigates the arguments, forms, and functions of this denial in the personal accounts of lay Turks and Kurds in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism has been continuously drawing the public attention because of the conceptual content and its proteiform approach, because of the effects that it produces, which sometimes are taken to extremes, and most of all because of the particularities of the cultural spaces that host it. In a perfect symbiosis with the concept of nation, nationalism brings an undeniable contribution to the identitary configuration of a group. A nation's identity outlines its distinctive characteristics from other nations or peoples and it draws its cultural, spiritual, historical and linguistic specificities by creating the premises of the identitary pattern. There are several nations with a significant historical path in terms of conflicts that have defined their evolution, and the Kurdish population in Turkey is a relevant example. This is why we propose a theoretical approach of the Kurdish nationalism, from conceptualizing strong terms of our speech such as 'identity' or the 'politics of recognition' to profiling the most important milestones of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict from 1978 to present. The purpose of this article resides in a theoretical approach of one important statement: taking ownership on the national identity goes farther than just the feeling of belonging to a nation-state. In the case of the Kurdish minority, this claim is strongly confirmed, as the Kurdish population has very significant presences in countries like Turkey, Iran, Iraq or Syria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attack carried out by Daesh against Kobane in 2014 prompted the mobilization of worldwide media attention and of large crowds protesting across Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast and beyond. This paper examines the potentially transformative effects of this event on the popular geopolitical codes of the Kurdish nationalist movement in Turkey. This is done through a qualitative content analysis of 36 op-ed articles published in the newspapers Evrensel and Özgür Gündem. Three core findings stand out: (a) a constant emphasis on Turkey's alleged links with Daesh, even before Kobane; (b) a boundary deactivation with respect to the US and ‘the West’; and (c) a re-articulation of self-representative frames, which initially relied on post-materialistic arguments and later emphasized security and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the uses and abuses of two terms, ‘White’ and ‘Black Turk’, which have been significant in the ways modern Turkish society and national identity have been defined and contested in recent decades. Initially emerging in social analysis in the 1990s, ‘White Turk’ was a metaphor for and critique of the class culture, subjectivity and worldviews of the ‘new middle classes’ in a period of rapid integration to neoliberalism and globalized capitalism. Over time, both White and Black Turks have come to be used as part of a politics of identity and a politics of authenticity to characterize who are seen as the ‘authentic self’ and inauthentic others of national identity and to assert different visions for the future of Turkish society. White Turk has been adopted as an identity by outspoken members of the media and business elite, whereas its binary opposite, Black Turk, has been appropriated by Islamist politicians of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a metaphor to characterize the marginalization and purported oppression of their conservative Muslim constituency. As White and Black Turks were adopted as self-proclaimed identities, they provided a basis for a culturalist depiction of Turkish society, contributing over time to an increasingly divisive politics. Even though the AKP initially used the reference to White and Black Turks to appeal to specific demands for inclusion, as it increased its grip on power, it also (hyper)politicized the terms to articulate nativist claims to authenticity. In recent years, this nativist populism has been used to justify increasing authoritarianism and to delegitimize belonging and political participation of those deemed inauthentic others of the body politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of the Balkan Wars on the formation of Turkish nationalism through examples from the youth poems of Nazım Hikmet. The traces of the traumas created by the spatial and cultural consequences of the Balkan Wars on the Turkish intellectuals of the postwar period have been tried to be interpreted through literary works. In this context, inferences were made through quotations from Nazım Hikmet's poems written between 1913 and 1930. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History Studies (13094688) is the property of History Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses the attempts by the rulers of the Ottoman empire to modernize the society--by modernizing the bureaucracy to implement reforms needs as: promotion of Ottomanism as a counter ideology to nationalism, reform of provincial administration, and an Ottoman constitution. The reformers were so strongly committed to Ottoman values, that they could not become committed to the radical social and political changes required for modernization. As a result, the changes made in the bureaucracy only increased the ascriptive orientation of the society, and continued the authoritarian rule. Commitment to fundamental social and political change would seem to be among the conditions for bureaucrats to help effect modernization in underdeveloped countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to examine the identity rebirth in the post-Soviet Azerbaijan in the context of expanded relationships between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Various formats of identity expression, in particular at the linguistic level, are studied from the perspective of possible factors that arise from developing political, economic and socio-cultural links between the two countries. Attitudes towards the increased influence of the Turkish language are investigated on the basis of survey analysis. The dynamics of the Turkish factor in the formation or rebirth of national identity is analyzed across various periods of Azerbaijan's independence. The article has a particular focus on language behavior and attitudes of graduates from Turkish schools or Universities in order to explain the possible influence (or lack of influence) of the Turkish language and culture on new identity formats. On the other hand, we offer reflection on intergenerational dynamics of attitudes towards Turkey and Turkish by contrasting linguistic purism with new Turkification tendencies. Finally, we put forward certain suggestions on how the enhanced linguocultural relations factor could contribute to a higher quality of cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, especially in the professional and intellectual spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey is fully engaged in its “hydraulic mission,” very extensively and rapidly “developing” water resources throughout its territory. The extensive hydraulic development attempts conducted by the Turkish government create local, national, inter-state, and transnational contestations among the different interest groups. A great deal of scholarly literature has analyzed the rationale behind Turkey’s massive-scale hydraulic development. While some studies link Turkey’s hydraulic mission to its energy and food security, others highlight the importance of domestic conflicts, as in the case of the Kurdish issue in the southeast. However, few works examine the relationship between hydraulic development and state- and nation-making processes in the early period of the republic. This paper seeks to analyze the role of hydraulic development in state- and nation-making in the context of Turkey by looking at the institutional documents published by official authorities and speeches made by key politicians. Drawing mainly upon the theory of water nationalism and its related conceptual frameworks, this study argues that hydraulic development has formed one of the important components of the modernization process in Turkey, thereby playing a significant role in its state- and nation-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the Copenhagen School's securitization theory in order to analyze the attempts at desecuritizing Turkey's relations with Iran based on the foreign policy of the 'National Outlook' movement. Through analyzing Erbakan's policies, the article sheds light on his role in shaping foreign policy and the consequences of successful securitization and de-securitization acts. In doing so, the article also touches upon the agent-structure interplay in different levels of analysis and its cross-sectoral effects. The article shows that successful desecuritization and securitization occurred, although the acts resulted in suppression from existing dominant secular structures through military interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A revisionist tone that has created several crisis has become more pronounced in Turkish foreign policy. This trend has been particularly evident after 2010 when the AKP consolidated its power base, the military's tutelage over politics subsequently disappeared and the Arab Spring opened a new window of opportunity for Turkey in the Middle East. This has been surprising because de-militarization of political space was envisioned to produce more cooperative stances in the globalized post-Cold War world. This trend has occurred alongside what many would argue has been the AKP's authoritarian and Islamist agenda. Such an argument suggests that earlier the AKP had pragmatically used democratic values and integrationist policies to weaken the military, and then adopted Islamism in foreign policy and authoritarianism in domestic politics. This study aims to explore the common characteristics of the AKP in domestic and international realms while the extant paradigm tends to divide the AKP period into two categories, which are democratic/pro-western and authoritarian/Islamist. In order to suggest a common characteristic to identify the AKP's domestic and foreign policy in a holistic manner, this article applies the term ‘populism’ to describe a number of AKP policies and positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish nationalism has long been an enigma for scholars interested in the formation of national identity. The nationalist movement that succeeded in crafting the Republic of Turkey relied upon rhetoric that defined the nation in explicitly secular, civic, and territorial terms. Though the earliest scholarship on Turkish nationalism supported this perspective, more recent research has pointed to Turkey's efforts to homogenize the new state as evidence of the importance of ethnicity, and particularly religion, in constructing Turkish national identity. Yet this marked mismatch between political rhetoric and politics on the ground is perplexing. If Turkey was meant to be a secular and civic state, why did Turkish nationalist policies place such a heavy emphasis on ethnic and religious purity? Moreover, why did religious identity become such a salient characteristic for determining membership in the national community and for defining national identity? This article draws upon historical research and social identity complexity theory to analyze this seeming dichotomy between religious and civic definitions of the Turkish nation. I argue that the subjective overlap between religious and civic ingroups during the late Ottoman Empire and efforts by nationalists to rally the populace through religious appeals explains the persistence of religious definitions of the nation despite the Turkish nationalist movement's civic rhetoric, and accounts for much of the Turkish state's religiously oriented policies and exclusionary practices toward religious minorities in its early decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the nationalist attempt of Turkey to create an ethnically and linguistically homogenous population initiated a long process that has resulted in widespread repression, abuse of power, harassment and discrimination on ethnic grounds. Topics include The Kurd descendant and Durkheim inspired Turkish thinker Ziya Gökalp (1876-1924) regarded as the brains behind the other ideological current.

This article tells the story of the construction of Turkish national identity in the early republican era by addressing two canonical novels about occupied İstanbul: Sodom ve Gomore (“Sodom and Gomorrah”) by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu and Biz İnsanlar (“We People”) by Peyami Safa. Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic, Turkish nationalist intellectuals attempted to offer certain formulations and implemented various mechanisms to create a national self. The study aims to focus on the ways in which Karaosmanoğlu and Safa create the new Turkish national identity and deals with the questions of how occupied İstanbul was perceived by these intellectuals and how the memory of the Allied occupation of İstanbul, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the National Liberation Struggle shaped Turkish elites’ self-identification as well as their formulation of the national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the current ambiguous position of the cult of Atatürk in Turkish society and politics, as both a state cult that is not entirely desired by the ruling party and a fragmented and contested people’s cult. The article argues that the commodification and personal appropriation of the cult of Atatürk in the 1990s and 2000s blurred the lines between state and society and between political ideologies, eventually turning the cult into a much more inclusive realm than before, which enables debating national identity in Turkey despite the contentious political environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the Islamist movement and its ideology throughout the process of modernization and analyzes the political discourse of the Islamists about a world of consumption and the Islamic lifestyle. The article depicts the course of the Islamist political discourse from the beginning. The political discourse of the Islamists showed variations depending on the changing domestic and foreign conjunctions. Developed through a defensive understanding in the final period of the Ottoman State, the discourse of the Islamist movement underwent further changes in the following periods, which was influenced by the internal conditions of the country and developments outside. As the Islamist movement has always adapted to modern political life, political and intellectual changes in the modern period caused the Islamist discourse to change politically and acquire an appropriate language for the new situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

De facto states, according to the most established elaborations of the concept, by definition strive towards full-fledged, internationally recognised independence. However, in many cases, independence may actually be perceived as a second best option. This article argues that in seeking further integration with a patron post-Soviet de facto states are behaving similarly to small-sized dependent jurisdictions in other parts of the world. Conceptualising post-Soviet de facto states as small dependent jurisdictions contributes to a more nuanced understanding of their state-building project, their relationship with the patron state, their political economy, as well as their long-term path of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the roles played by the memory of past migrations in the construction of national identity. National narratives tend to include and exclude certain migration experiences. Looking at historical evidence and alternative narratives of past migrations can help redefining a more inclusive national identity. Using the case of Turkey, the article identifies the migrations absent from the official narrative: migrations to Anatolia before 1071 CE (the arrival of Turkic tribes) and forced migrations during the Ottoman and Republican periods. Rehabilitating these migratory experiences leads to the recognition of both a glorious and violent past, and can help bringing together Turkey’s diverse identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study, conducted in Turkey, examined feelings toward Muslim refugees among Turkish participants (n = 605) in comparison to feelings toward established non‐Muslim national minority groups. Using the social identity perspective, these feelings were examined in relation to national and religious group identifications, and the endorsement of multicultural beliefs. The feelings toward both refugees and minority communities were similarly negative, yet the processes behind these feelings were somewhat different. While stronger national identification was associated with more negative feelings toward Muslim refugees, stronger religious group identification was associated with more negative feelings toward non‐Muslim minority communities. Further, higher endorsement of multiculturalism was associated with less negative feelings toward both refugees and minority communities, but only for relatively low national identifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Ziya Gökalp was one of the most important intellectuals to shape Turkish nationalism, scholarship has not systematically examined the links between his sociological perspective and nationalism. This study shows how Gökalp’s culture‒civilization theory, predominantly adapted from Emile Durkheim’s sociological perspective, provides a basis for his Turkish nationalism. Gökalp developed two central premises in line with Durkheimian sociology: (a) civilization is dependent on cultural unity; and (b) religion is the root of culture. Via the culture‒civilization duality, Gökalp constructed a Turkish nationalism that excluded non-Muslim and non-Sunni minorities. This article not only provides a comprehensive account of the roots of Turkish nationalism but also posits a fresh perspective on Gökalp’s trinity of Turkification, Islamization and modernization. In so doing, it underlines Durkheim’s indirect impact on the foundations of Turkish nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to explore the forced dislocation of immigrant Gyspy townspeople from a Turkish town, Bayramiç, Çanakkale in 1970. It focuses on the workings of social categories of Turkishness and Gypsyness through this exclusionary violent case, how they were re-employed and reproduced exclusively in conjunction with Turkish nationalism. It was the time of socio-economic transformation and rise in populist–nationalist discourses in Turkey. In the town, the reflections of this historical context demonstrated the transformation in power allocation and competing personal interests in highway transportation and forestry. Eventually, the attacks started as “Drivers’ Fight” but turned into “Gypsy hunt” with the effects of socio-economic competition and interests, the employment of historical stigma of Gypsyness and terrorization of the perpetrators in the town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish nationalism has long presented a study in contrasts. The nationalist movement that created the Republic of Turkey sought to define the nation in explicitly civic and inclusive terms, promoting a variety of integrationist reforms. Those same nationalist politicians, however, endorsed other policies that were far more exclusionary, expelling many religious and ethnic minorities from the new nation and imposing harsh restrictions on those who remained. The seemingly contradictory nature of Turkish nationalist policies has been mirrored by much of the scholarship on Turkish nationalism, which has often viewed Turkish nationality through the lens of the “civic/ethnic divide,” with various scholars arguing that the Turkish nation is exclusively civic or ethnic. This article seeks to transcend this dichotomous way of looking at Turkish nationalism. I argue that the policies previously seen as being exclusively civic or ethnic are in fact both examples of boundary-making processes, designed to forge a cohesive nationalist community. Seen through a boundary-making perspective, the seemingly contradictory nature of Turkish nationalist policies in its early years is not paradoxical at all, but represents a multidimensional effort to construct a cohesive national community that could replace the defunct Ottoman state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses diplomatic tourism during the Cold War and the gendered performance of Turkish national identity in the U.S. It discusses the important role of the Tarsus ocean cruise, which Turkish filmmaker Sabahat Filmer embarked on, as an example of diplomatic tourism. It also discusses the significant role of the travelers in the public negotiations to determine Turkey's place in the Cold War and its relations with the U.S.

Sculptures at public spaces represent more than art; they constitute the symbols of nationalism of the particular state. They visualize myths that help to strengthen national feelings; scenes from wars or scenes that recall the emotional bounds that form the nation. Looking from the ethno-symbolic framework, sculptures help to form common myths, recall common historical memories and become a part of the public culture, renewing national emotions in a daily basis of public life. This paper focuses on the role of sculptures in the formation of Turkish nationalism, arguing that, sculptures can be battleground for competing perspectives of nationalism. Particularly when the common ground for different societal segments is shaken, each segment has a different interpretation for the common myths and memories. Then, sculptures can have positive or negative meanings depending on the point of view. Turkey is an illustrative case, there are three different perspectives to nationalism: secular, Islamist, and minority views. This paper discusses the role of sculpture as representation of common myths, forming and contesting nationalism referring to these segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the concept of fraternal natalism to examine the long-standing alliances between different state actors in Turkey –governments, physicians, religious authorities, and the military– to build, restore, and consolidate reproductive righteousness. It argues that fraternal natalism relies on a narrative of a national crisis to put forward and justify controversial policies in line with the Turkish state's reproductive imaginaries. This natalism provokes demographic anxieties about religious and ethnoracialized "others," casting them as inherently dangerous for the nation's continuity and security. Looking at these strategies through the lens of fraternal natalism exposes the continuities and disjunctures in reproductive righteousness rather than exceptionalizing particular actors and historical periods. It also reveals how religious rhetoric and constructions of race/ethnicity are mutually foundational in the formation of reproductive politics. Although the article develops the concept through a historical and discursive analysis of reproductive politics in Turkey, it can be applied to other contexts to chart the complex configurations of state actors involved in molding reproductive behaviors and population practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to shed light on the journey of the Hittite sun disk, a cult object from the Early Bronze Age, from the architectural, narrative and discursive boundaries of a public museum to the streets of contemporary Ankara. First, it explores the role that the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations played, through the invention of secular symbols, in (re)defining modern Turkish identity. Then it probes into the processes by which the sun disk became an increasingly popular and yet controversial political symbol. In doing so, the article examines how a state-sanctioned memory-making project heralded a 'clash of imaginations': conservative and Islamist versus secular-leftist urban identities, embodying conflicting visions of Ankara's past and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012 Amsterdam Gay Pride Canal Parade hosted a Turkish Boat, organized by Dutch citizens of Turkish decent. The newspaper articles consistently emphasized what an advancement this was for the Turkish migrants, considering their ‘cultural background.’ Simultaneously, public opinion on the former immigrants from Turkey and Morocco as intolerant towards LGBTI people and how they are ‘gay bashing on the streets’ was still present. The scholarship on homonationalism and gay imperialism has been dealing with questions of Orientalism, islamophobia and racism since the 2000s. The question of agency within this scholarship, however, was not dealt with extensively. This paper will engage with this question by mapping out Dutch homonationalism and focusing on how this specific context produces historically contingent subject positions – such as gay, lesbian, Muslim, Turkish or Moroccan-Dutch – that are hierarchized within the Dutch public sphere. None of them is innocent of power or neutral, the power configurations among these subject positions lay the ground of agency upon which the subject can act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focusses on converts from Islam to the Christian faith in Turkey. Converts are confronted with special challenges. Based on Islamic theology and Turkish nationalism most Turks cannot think of positive reasons to choose Christianity. So verbal assaults with social consequences like ostracism, prejudice, suspicion, and very low esteem are very common. The First Letter of Peter provides advice for strengthening new Christians by defining their identity as chosen und loved people of God. Personal caring for converts from Islam is crucial to provide a new "home" in assuring them of their new identity. They have to learn to evaluate accusations honestly, and from a faith-based position, and to integrate their new faith with their old environment. In the context of modern Turkey a fresh look at history can be meaningful: There were Turkish Christians before Islam, and there are still Christian Turkish people today. More important however is a genuine spiritual approach that understands verbal assaults within the framework of God's history with his people. Converts should find their identity "in Christ". At the same time, being in Christ must become practical in finding a new family in the local church and seeing themselves as part of the worldwide multinational body of Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the roles of history and memory in geopolitics? How does urban experience influence geopolitical understandings of one's place in the world? This article brings these questions to a study of how Ottoman Turkish citizens of Istanbul came to link ethnicity with nationalism and to view their Greek Orthodox neighbors as national betrayers. I propose an explicitly cultural geopolitics: an affective, embodied critical geopolitics contextually dependent on experience, encounter, and memory in place. My sources are postwar Ottoman humor gazettes published in Istanbul, the waning capital of the Ottoman Empire, while it was occupied by Allied forces immediately after World War I. The future sovereignty of the city was unknown, and there was no coherent state structure. As normative (and also subversive) popular media, humor gazettes illustrate the reverberation of postwar geopolitics with the lived and remembered processes of urban place. Ethno-nationalist Turkish belonging in Istanbul was a form of urbanism, composed of place-based norms for behavior and a commonly understood cultural geography of the city. Satirical depictions of urban Turkish and Greek encounters during the armistice era betray a Turkish anxiety surrounding territorial and historical claims to the city and also a simultaneous questioning and hardening of the imagined geographies that demarcated Turkish and Greek identities as nationally distinct. This research illuminates the topological and relational dimensions of ethno-nationalist identity formation and the role of urban cultural processes in political belonging in the contemporary Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]