Religion and Turkish Nationalism: From Conflict to Synthesis

Abstract

Turkish nationalism developed in different strands in the context of Ottoman decline and was crystallized in opposition to Ottoman institutions and Sunni Islam that it considered responsible for Ottoman underdevelopment. Yet given the extraordinary conditions that led to the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalists concealed their views about Islam. Only when Kemal Atatürk established his undisputable rule in the mid-1920s, could he begin a comprehensive project of secularization and build a Turkish national identity against the Ottoman and Islamic legacy. Yet this campaign was not devoid of contradictions. Sunni Islam remained a de facto criterion of Turkishness against non-Muslim communities, even of Turkic descent, as the case of the Gagauz manifests. Following the rise of Kurdish nationalism and socialism, the Evren military regime departed from Kemalist legacy by giving official status to a synthetic approach of Turkish nationalism and Sunni Islam. Islam gradually recovered its position in the public sphere and found its expression in public education and foreign policy vision.