Birth of Modern Turkey and Nationalism rise: The Kemalism assimilation

Résumé du document

Reflecting on the Turkish Nationalism in the 1930's is an interesting phenomenon. The Turkish nationalism is a combination of the European nationalism waves of the inter-war period and the need of the hour ?unity' in the newly created Republic of Turkey. Further, it is also involved in the present Turkish issues, concerning the diplomatic relationships with its neighbors (Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia) and military situation in the south eastern zone of the country. Turkish nationalism and treatments of Ankara towards religious or 'ethnical' minorities in the 1930's can be highlighted through a set of measures undertaken by the Administration. In this report, we will first see the components of the Turkish nationalism through the racist notion and its consequences in terms of its limits. We will also delve into the other parameters of the Nation. Thereafter, we will study the treatment of demographic entities meted out by the Republic of Turkey. It should be noted that the Republic of Turkey would always be involved in serving the purpose of granting the State stability. All credit in this case, will be given to National Unity. With the institution of the Nationalism 'tool', we wish to assimilate ethnic minorities initially. In the latter phase, the reflection will be on the secularization of a country mostly inhabited by Muslims.

Extraits

[...] This purpose is easily understandable in the context of secular State creation that only recognizes one united people, but this unity had to be firstly in the facts, that mean integration by the best vector: language. The adaptation of Jewish communities, humanly and economically important, made itself progressively and at a different speed depending on areas, causing sometimes inner-community troubles. Integration by adopting the Turkish language, helped by the Speak Turkish campaign, opened the gates to Turkishness and allows to pass over the aged racial point, that means reasonable nationalism and not racism, but still protecting the unity of the nation in these troubled times. [...]

[...] Birth of Modern Turkey and Nationalism rise: The Kemalism assimilation Turkish Nationalism in the 1930's is an interesting phenomenon both regarding to European nationalism waves of the inter-war period and to the needed unity of the newly created Republic of Turkey. It is also involved in present Turkish issues, concerning diplomatic relationships with its neighbors (Greece, Cyprus, Armenia) and military situation in the south-east of the country. Turkish nationalism and treatments of Ankara towards religious or ethnicals minorities in the 1930's can be point out through a set of measures taken by the Administration. [...]

[...] This component of Turkishness was now allowing minorities from all to join the Turkish nation by learning the language in a will of assimilation. II- The treatment of demographic entities by the Republic of Turkey The wish to assimilate ethnic minorities In the 1920's, Turkey faced a troubled time, from War to Republic foundation, accompanied with an important decrease of non-Muslim population that deeply changed the population formation. These changes were quite abrupt, and consisted in “emigration or death” of Anatolian Christians, Armenians, and Greeks. [...]

[...] This aim had been difficult to lead,Government had the duty to substitute the Islam identity inherited from the Ottoman Empire to Turkishness in the mind and in the heart of all its Muslim population. The stability and legitimacy of the new Turkish State depended of that unification around common values and history, mostly granted and spread by the works of the Turkish Heart's Committee for the Study of Turkish History, who gave back to the population its History and its Pride. [...]

[...] Importance of the language established, Turkey officials used it as a vector of nationalism, and organized three Turkish Language Congress as soon as 1932, whose aim was to compare Turkish with other language. It stated that Turkish had connections with Indo-Europeans Languages, as Turks had connections with all the Nations: the Language Theory responded to the History Thesis. This Congress also worked on purification of the language from foreign influences such as Arab or Persian, in order to give Turkish language its past shine and to free itself from outer influences. [...]