Browsing by Subject "Kemalism."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Open Access
The cultural policies of Turkish Republic during the establishment of nation state (1923-1938)
(2000) Kamacı, İpek
This study aims to analyse the understanding of cultural politics during the establishment period of Turkish Republic. It is argued that this understanding of culturai politics is ideologically shaped by Kemalism that maintains Ziya Gokalp's separation of culture and civilization. These two contradictory elements are intermixed within the will of modernization and nation building process. O/kii, Yeni turk Mecmumn and programs of Republican People's Party were studied in order to make apparent the transferring of cultural politics on the public. In this context, party programs and magazins are examined in terms of their content with regard to an identity formation characterized by nationalist, populist and secular values.
Open Access
Kemalism meets the Copenhagen Criteria : the emergence of Neo-Kemalism
(2005) Günay, Defne
Turkey’s long-drawn-out journey came to another turning point after getting 3 October 2005 as a date for the launch of accession talks with the European Union. This decision made by the Union on 17 December 2004 was an upshot of huge steps taken by subsequent Turkish governments in terms of transforming its democracy so as to comply with the Copenhagen criteria. This wave of democratization inevitably has raised questions about the fate of Kemalism, which has been largely penetrated by these reforms. When these reforms are coupled with some allegations both from the EU and from within Turkey as being a barrier to Turkey’s EU membership, it became inevitable to put Kemalism and its fate into interrogation. This thesis aims to answer the question of how and why prevalent interpretation of Kemalism is being strained by the EU conditionality that permeates fundamentals of Kemalism.
Open Access
The peculiarities of Turkish revolutionary ideology in the 1930s : the Ülkü version of Kemalism, 1933-1936
(2003) Aydın, Ertan
This dissertation analyzes a specific version of Turkish revolutionary ideology in the 1930s, the ‹lk¸ version of Kemalism by means of textual interpretation of ‹lk¸, the official journal of the Peopleís Houses, between February 1933 and August 1936. The ‹lk¸ journal was published by a particular faction of the Kemalists, the ‹lk¸ group, who competed with ìconservative modernistî Kemalism and Kadrocu Kemalism for political and intellectual supremacy within the regime. ‹lk¸ eliteís solidarist, radical secularist, and anti-liberal alternatives to the state power enabled them to present a more appealing version of Kemalism for the context of the 1930s, which was the most authoritarian and radical phase of the Turkish Republic. This study employs new methodological perspective for understanding the nature of Kemalist ideology, which would provide a key to understand the temporal and flexible nature of Kemalism. In fact, this is part and parcel of a general approach to revolutions that highlights ìpolitics,î ìpolitical language,î and ìsymbolic politicsî as the basic unit of analysis. When the Turkish ruling elite encountered an ideological crisis owing to the world economic depression and the failed Free Party experience, prominent figures of ‹lk¸ attempted to form the content of the revolutionary ideology by way of employing solidarist ideological assumptions. Solidarism became an important means to establish secular, rational and social foundations of ethics as a substitute for religion, which was said to prepare the Turkish society to meet requirements of ìdemocracyî. The solidarist line of argumentation not only created tension between democracy and secularism but also provided justification for postponing democracy to an uncertain stage of time when the democratic eligibility of the people would be proven by the ìtrueî representatives of the national will (milli irade). ‹lk¸ís solidarism gave way to an understanding of democracy that was truly embedded, if not confined to, in the restrictions of a peculiar consideration of morality which the ‹lk¸ elite called ìrevolutionary ethicsî (inkılap ahlakiyatı) or ìsecular moralityî (laik ahlak).
Open Access
The republican character of Islamism in Turkey from the perspective of 'the political'
(1998) Çınar, Menderes
This dissertation is an exploratory research that critically reviews the existing approaches to Islamism so as to evaluate their suitability and effectiveness and to suggest an altemative framework to approach Islamism. Islamism is primarily a political movement about the fundamentals of the society rather than a religious movement. Studying Islamismin terms of its religiosity, in terms of its modernity and in terms of its different civilizational outlook is not explanatory as far as its political aspects are concemed. Therefore, Islamism could be better comprehended if studied on political grounds and in relation to the context within which it emerges. This dissertation considers Islamism not in terms of its substance, which is Islamisation, but in terms of its alternative structuration of politics and in terms of its vision of state society relationship. The definition of concept of "the political" is central part of the alternative framework. A structuration of political sphere is determined by the underlying mode of societal integration. Although mixtures are possible, there are basically two modes of integration: liberal and republican. When viewed from this perspective it becomes apparent that the National Outlook Movement' s Islamİst opposition to Kemalist Westernization is accompanied by a gramınatical similarity, i.e. the structuration of the legitimate sphere of politics. Despite their substantive differences, both Kemalism and Islamism resemble each other grammatically and, as far as their structuration(s) of politics concerned, belong to the same family of republicanism.
Open Access
Search for an ethno-secular delimitation of Turkish national identity in the Kemalist era (1924-1938) with particular reference to the ethnicist conception of Kemalist nationalism
(1998) Yıldız, Ahmet
This study deals with the search for the creation of an ethno- secular Turkish national identity with particular reference to the ethnicist conception of Kemalist nationalism espoused by a group of bureaucratic- intellectual elites over three distinct periods in the years between 1919- 1938 with an historical perspective. In the period of 1919-1924, nationality was defined by religion, and hence, Turkish national identity had a predominantly religious character. As a reflection of this state of "forced" pluralism, official political discourse considered ethnic diversity as a given social condition. In the second period (1924-1929), a radical rupture from the religious definition occurred with the adoption of Republicanism consisting of legal and political components. The legal component of the republican definition was overwhelmed by its political component, however. The motto of this definition was the "unity in language, culture and ideal" The third period (1929-1938) of the delimitation of Turkish national identity in the Kemalist era was characterised by the efforts of a group of bureaucratic-intellectual elites who adopted the ethnicist conception of Kemalist nationalism to articulate racial motives, which defined national community at the basis of Turkish ethnie and structured around the sense of common origin, into the republican definition. The symbolic reflection of this articulation was the motto of the "unity in language, culture and blood" The emergent definition of "ethno-secular Turkish man" within the evolution of the parameters of Turkish national identity during the Kemalist era(1924-1938) was that the complete, genuine, or pure Turk was the one who embraced the cause of the Republican ideal, devoted to Westernised Turkish culture, spoke Turkish and descended from Turkish origin. Those who lacked any of the said parameters had to be compensated for. Aloofness to religiosity, the adoption of Turkish not only as official language but also as the mother-tongue, devotion to the monolithically defined Westernised Turkish culture intermixed with the political ideal preached by the new Republic, and the attainment of purity and strength of race were the suggested "compensators." Ethnicism and Turkification policies were the two natural corollaries of the ethnicist conception of Kemalist nationalism. Being constituted as such, the "other" of this nationalism involved religious Turks, non-Turkish Muslim ethnies, and non-Muslim minorities.
Open Access
The westernization paradigms of the Committee of Union and Progress and Ataturk : rupture or continuity?
(1998) Güney, Ali Riza
This thesis analyzes the continuties and divergences between the Committee of Union and Progress and Atatiirk concerning the westernization paradigm in the fields of economy, religion and nationalism. The thesis also covers the westernization paradigms of certain key figures and groups in the nineteenth century.