Turkish identity: national vs state identity in Turkey and implications for US-Turkey relations

Abstract

There is an abundance of oversimplified labels about Turkey, and this thesis attempts, with a strong angle toward history and patterns, to look deeper into Turkish identity. It will be argued that Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, packaged for the Turks an identity to which they could subscribe. The various components of this initial identity will be distinguished. The nation and state of Turkey overlapped nearly perfectly in the republic’s early years, and the goal was for them to stay so, with Turkey being a pure nation-state in the true sense of the word, but a detachment has developed. This is Turkey’s identity crisis, more than any political or social polarizations in the country today. American ignorance of Turkey’s identity has encouraged Turkish anti-Americanism. The two countries are supposedly ‘faithful allies’ on the political level, but what is understood (or rather misunderstood) on the public level does much relational harm. Mutual ignorance of each must be overcome between these two countries. The Kurdish problem will be discussed as an example of mutual misunderstanding.