Search results

This article probes the transformation of Kemalism to a xenophobic nation-statism with a strong anti-western animus diluting its self-styled westernism and elitism in response to the rise of the reformist-Islamist ruling JDP and its patchy liberal rhetoric and pro-EU stance. The article points to the novel qualities of the Kemalism of the 2000s but also attests to its inherent anti-elitist, anti-liberal and anti-intellectual nature that reigned in the 1930s given that the Kemalist project in the inter-war period involved the denunciation of the Ottoman establishment with its elite and intelligentsia and its replacement with an intelligentsia of its own that is acquainted with anti-liberalism, anti-cosmopolitism and also anti-intellectualism. Adapted from the source document.

The article overviews the emergence and development of the nomenclature of nationalist Turkish male first names which had to a considerable extent superseded the traditional religiously motivated names and discusses the cultural and political background of this process. Demonstrating its "catastrophical success", the article contributes to the literature on the nationalization of private lives and spheres. Adapted from the source document.

This article discusses how the discourse of 'Anatolia, the loveable and beautiful' was developed after the retreat of the Ottomans from the Balkans and how Anatolia emerged as the construction site of the Kemalist project of 'national modernity' and 'Anatolian enlightenment'. Based on a meticulous reading of the ethnographies, histories and monographs on Anatolian cities and regions published between 1923 and 1950 as well as the journals of the local branches of People's Houses, the article demonstrates how the regime attempted to establish its legitimacy by incorporating the local elements into the 'grand national narrative' and nationalizing the Anatolian countryside. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractThe article examines the rise of the 'reactionary modernist' project that developed after the devastating defeat of the Balkan Wars and which was promoted by the Young Turks by means of articles published in Turkish Homeland, the intellectual platform of the Young Turks. The article argues that the outlines of this project to a large extent shaped the contours of Turkish nationalism then, and that they have hence been constitutive of Turkish nationalism ever since.