Turkish nationalism


Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a national, ethnic, or linguistic group.

History

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to power. He introduced a language reform with the aim to "cleanse" the Turkish language of foreign influence. He also promoted the Sun Language Theory in Turkish political and educational circles from 1935. Turkish researchers at the time also came up with the idea that Early Sumerians were proto-Turks.

Variants

Ideologies associated with Turkish nationalism include Pan-Turkism or Turanism, Neo-Ottomanism, Anatolianism, and secular, civic nationalist Kemalism.

Kemalism

Implemented by Atatürk, the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey features nationalism as one of its six fundamental pillars, displayed as six arrows.
The Kemalist revolution aimed to create a nation state from the remnants of the multi-religious and multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire. Kemalist nationalism originates from the social contract theories, especially from the principles advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his Social Contract. The Kemalist perception of social contract was effected by the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which was perceived as a product of failure of the Ottoman "Millet" system and the ineffective Ottomanism. Kemalist nationalism, after experiencing the Ottoman Empire's breakdown into pieces, defined the social contract as its "highest ideal".
Kemalist ideology defines the "Turkish Nation" as a nation of Turkish People who always love and seek to exalt their family, country and nation, who know their duties and responsibilities towards the democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law, founded on human rights, and on the tenets laid down in the preamble to the constitution of the Republic of Turkey. The Turkish Nation is defined as such: Kemalist criteria for national identity or simply being Turkish refers to a shared language, and/or shared values defined as a common history, and the will to share a future. Kemalist ideology defines the "Turkish people" as:

Pan-Turkism

"Turanist" nationalism began with the Turanian Society founded in 1839, followed in 1908 with the Turkish Society, which later expanded into the Turkish Hearths and eventually expanded to include ideologies such as Pan-Turanism and Pan-Turkism.
The Young Turk Revolution which overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid II, allowed Turkish nationalism into power, eventually leading to the Three Pashas control of the late Ottoman government, but Mustafa Kemal explicitly rejected the ideology of Turanism just as he rejected Pan-Islamism. During the Turkish War of Independence, on December 1, 1921 Kemal stated:
... We never established Pan-Islamism. Perhaps we said "We are establishing it and we shall complete it." Our enemies said "Let us kill them before they complete it." We never established Pan-Turanism. Perhaps we said "We are establishing it and we shall complete it." Our enemies said, "Let us kill them before they complete it." That is the whole problem, instead of bringing pressure and resentment upon ourselves from our enemies... Let us know our places!

Anatolianism

"Anatolianism" takes as its starting point that the main source of Turkish culture should be Anatolia, and the main base of this thought is that the Turkish people had built a quite new civilization in Anatolia after 1071 when they won at the Battle of Manzikert.
In the early Republican era, some intellectuals like Hilmi Ziya Ülken and Nurettin Topçu proposed that the origins of the Turkish nationalism should be sought in Anatolia, not in "Turan".
Hilmi Ziya Ülken, one of the founders of Anatolianism, was objecting to Neo-Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism as well as to Turanism. Between 1918 and 1919 he published the periodical Anadolu with Reşat Kayı. In 1919 Ülken wrote a book titled Anadolunun Bugünki Vazifeleri, but it was not published. In 1923, Ülken and his friends published the periodical Anadolu. They worked to form an alternative thought to Ottomanism, Islamism and Turanism, and they opposed the specificity of Turkish history traced origins outside of Anatolia. Their conclusion was Memleketçilik.

Turkish-Islamic synthesis

The tension between Pan-Turkic and Pan-Islamic Turkish nationalism persisted in modern Turkey. Following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, its said that Turk predates Islam by centuries and Pan-Turkic was declared the official state ideology.

Turkish-Cypriot nationalism

Emphasizes the support for the independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and desires that the TRNC stay independent from Turkey while opposing the idea of a United Cyprus with the Greek-dominated Republic of Cyprus.

Neo-Nazism and neo-fascism

A neo-Nazi group existed in 1969 in İzmir, when a group of former Republican Villagers Nation Party members founded the association "Nasyonal Aktivitede Zinde İnkişaf". The club maintained two combat units. The members wore SA uniforms and used the Hitler salute. One of the leaders was re-admitted to the Nationalist Movement Party in 1975.
Today, apart from neo-fascist Grey Wolves and the Turkish ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party, there are some neo-Nazi organizations in Turkey such as the Turkish Nazi Party or the National Socialist Party of Turkey, which are mainly based on the Internet.

The "Insulting Turkishness" laws

of the Turkish Penal Code, which is perceived as being contrary to notion of freedom of speech, states "The person who publicly denigrates the Turkish Nation, the Republic of Turkey, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the judicial organs of the State, shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to two years. But also it can be only with permission of the minister of justice" However, it also states that "Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime."
There have been recent indications that Turkey may repeal or modify Article 301, after the embarrassment suffered by some high-profile cases. Nationalists within the judicial system, intent on derailing Turkey's full admission into the European Union, have used Article 301 to initiate trials against people like Nobel Prize–winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, and the late Hrant Dink for supporting the existence of the Armenian Genocide.
In May 2007, a law was put into effect allowing Turkey to block Web sites that are deemed insulting to Atatürk.