Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey

Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who is a Turk?

Common wisdom argues that in the interwar period, Kemalist secularism was very successful in eliminating religion from the public sphere in Turkey, leaving Turkish national identity devoid of religious content. However, Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey reaches another conclusion through an investigation of the impact of the Ottoman millet system on Turkish and Balkan nationalism. It demonstrates that even though Mustafa Kemal Atatürk successfully secularized Turkey’s political structure in the interwar period, the legacy of the Ottoman millet system, which divided the Ottoman population into religious compartments called millets, shaped Turkey’s understanding of nationalism in the same era.

This book analyzes this subject through investigating topics including:
● Turkish nationalism
● Nationalism in Eastern Europe in the interwar period
● The Ottoman legacy
● Kemalist citizenship policies and immigration
● Kurds, Ottoman Muslims, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and the ethno-religious limits of Turkishness.

"Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey" is essential reading for scholars and students with research interests in Turkey, Turkish Nationalism, Balkans, and Middle Eastern History.

Contents

List of illustrations / xi
Acknowledgments / xiii
Note on names / xv
Notes on personal names, translations, and archival sources / xvii
Prologue / xix

Introduction: Turkish nationalism today / 1

1 From the Muslim millet to the Turkish nation: the Ottoman legacy / 4
From ethnicities to nations / 4
The fall of the Ottoman Empire: from the Ottoman Muslims to the Turkish nation / 4
The rise of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the fight for Anatolia / 7

2 Secularism, Kemalist nationalism, Turkishness, and the minorities in the 1920s / 11
Anatolian Muslims rally to liberate Turkey / 11
Secularization: the ascent of nominal Islam as a marker of Turkishness / 13
A dilemma for Kemalism: Turkish citizenship vs Turkish nationality / 14
Kurds in the 1920s: the role of religion in assimilation / 19
Jews during the 1920s: the role of the Turkish language in assimilation / 24
Christians in the 1920s: an overview / 27
Greeks in the 1920s / 29
Arab Christians, Jacobites, and other Eastern Christians during the 1920s / 31
Armenians during the 1920s: conflict and confrontation / 32
Conclusion / 39

3 Kemalism par excellence in the 1930s: the rise of Turkish nationalism / 41
Menemen rebellion, Axrı uprising, and SCF experience: the troublesome 1930 / 41
The advent of High Kemalism / 43
CHP’s 1931 Congress / 44
CHP’s 1935 Congress and the six principles of Kemalism / 46
The Inspectorates-General / 47
First Turkish History Congress and the Turkish History Thesis / 48
The rise of ethnic definition of the Turkish nation / 52
The ramifications of the Turkish History Thesis / 54
First Turkish Language Congress and the purification of the Turkish language / 54
Atatürk’s death and the end of a period of High Kemalism / 56
The ethno-racial definition of the Turkish nation vs Turkey’s ethno-religious diversity / 57
Citizen, speak Turkish and adopt a Turkish last name! / 57
Conclusion / 63

4 Who is a Turk? Kemalist citizenship policies / 65
Citizenship as a political tool in interwar Europe: an overview / 65
Turkish censuses under High Kemalism / 66
The privileged position of the Turks among the Turkish citizens / 69
Denaturalization cases / 71
Naturalization cases / 75
Race and ethnicity in Turkish citizenship policies in the 1930s / 79
Conclusion / 80

5 Defining the boundaries of Turkishness: Kemalist immigration and resettlement policies / 82
The nature of immigration to Turkey in the 1920s and the 1930s / 82
The Resettlement Law of 1926 / 84
The resettlement policies toward the Kurds in the 1920s / 86
The Resettlement Law of 1934 / 88
Race and ethnicity in Turkish resettlement policies in the 1930s / 90
Armenians in the High Kemalist resettlement acts / 92
The immigration matrix / 92
Balkan and Caucasus Muslims in the High Kemalist resettlement policies / 94
Hierarchy in immigration to Turkey / 95
The spirit of High Kemalist immigration and resettlement policies / 100

6 Secularized Islam defines Turkishness: Kurds and other Muslims as Turks / 102
Why were the Kurds the biggest challenge to Kemalism? / 102
The Kadro movement and the Kurds: “Are the Kurds a nation?” / 102
Kemalism and the Kurds: 1920s into the 1930s / 105
The Dersim uprising / 107
High Kemalist policy toward the Circassians and other Caucasus Muslims / 113
High Kemalist policy toward the Nusayris, and the Hatay Conundrum / 116
The Sancak controversy of the late 1930s / 117
High Kemalist policies toward the Arabs and the Albanians / 121
Conclusion / 122

7 Ethno-religious limits of Turkishness: Christians excluded from the nation / 124
A general overview / 124
Greeks under High Kemalism / 126
Eastern Christians under High Kemalism / 129
Armenians under High Kemalism / 130
Armenian assassination attempts against the leaders of the Republic / 132
Caution and ethnic bias toward the Armenians / 133
Turkish Armenians at the end of the High Kemalist era / 136
Conclusion: a legacy of uneasiness toward Christianity and the Christians / 137

8 Jews in the 1930s: Turks or not? / 140
Thrace, the focal point of Jewish concentration in Turkey / 140
Ankara’s attitude toward the Thracian Jews and Bulgarian revisionism concerning Thrace / 140
Jewish exodus from Thrace, the 1934 Thracian incidents / 142
The aftermath of the 1934 incidents / 148
Anti-semitism in Turkey in the 1930s / 148
Jewish immigration to Turkey in the 1930s / 151
The death of Atatürk and the arrest of Italian Jews / 153
Conclusion: Jews in the 1930s, Turkish nationalism vs anti-semitism / 155


Conclusion: understanding Turkish nationalism in modern Turkey—the Kemalist legacy / 156
The characteristics of Turkish nationalism in the interwar period / 156
Kemalism’s three zones of Turkishness / 159
The saliency of ethno-religious nationalism in the former Ottoman sphere / 161
Understanding Turkey’s nationality-related dilemmas: the Kemalist legacy / 161

Notes / 163
Bibliography / 223
Index / 245

Introduction: Turkish nationalism today

The use of the term Turk in modern Turkey is a puzzling phenomenon. People in the country see all Muslims as Turks, regardless of their ethnicity or language. In view of this, not only ethnic Turks, but also others such as Kurds, Circassians, and Bosnians are regarded as Turks, while the non-Muslims (including Armenians and Jews) are not, even when they speak Turkish. This is not simply a matter of semantics: in Turkey, being a Turk has tangible benefits. Since only Turks are full members of the nation and considered loyal citizens, this perception is key to joining the mainstream society of the country. On the other hand, not being regarded as a Turk leads to the stigma of being an imperfect citizen.

This explains the marginalization of Jews and of Christians, including Armenians and Greeks, from the Turkish nation. Despite the fact that the contemporary Turkish Constitution of 1980 defines all inhabitants of the country as Turks, in real terms non-Muslims, especially Christians, are not viewed as Turks. For instance, they are barred from becoming diplomats or army officers. Furthermore, public antagonism toward Christianity is not uncommon. An example of this was the recent controversy involving Turkish-Protestant churches. News appeared in the press between 1999 and 2001 (and lately in 2004) that small grassroot churches had sprung up in the major cities. There was an immediate nationalist public backlash against this. The fact that these churches were mostly started by Turkish Muslims who had converted to Christianity was ignored. The public blamed Christian proselytizing by foreign missionaries. Christianity was seen as unfit for Muslim Turks, who would not have converted if it were not for Christian missionaries. This illustrates that Christianity is viewed as alien by the larger Turkish society, a painful situation for the country’s small Christian communities.

Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey
Who is a Turk?

Soner Cagaptay

First published 2006
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© 2006 Soner Cagaptay

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ISBN 0–415–38458–3 (Print Edition)

Soner Cagaptay is senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based think tank. Dr Cagaptay is also chair of Turkey Advanced Area Program at the US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. His research interests include US–Turkish relations and modern Turkish history.