Tamer Balci | University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley (original) (raw)
Books by Tamer Balci
This volume covers the origins, historical development, and ideas of one of the largest and most ... more This volume covers the origins, historical development, and ideas of one of the largest and most influential Islamic movements in the world, the Gulen Hizmet Movement. Founded during the Cold War under the inspiration of M. Fethullah Gulen, the GHM expanded to over 130 countries by the first decade of the twenty first century. The movement's circumspect activism sheltered it from illiberal secular practices in Turkey and has guided it through the anxious post-Cold War process of globalization. This edited volume covers various characteristics of the movement from Gulen's unconventional oratory to his educational philosophy. Also, the book covers Gulen's ideas on Islam and democracy and the GHM's indirect political engagement compared to the direct engagement of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other chapters in the book cover the role of women in the movement, the GHM's creation of an alternative public sphere for pious Muslims, and the tension this creation instills in light of Secularism Theory, which is analyzed comparatively with American religious pluralism. The last two chapters question the effectiveness of interfaith dialogue activities promoted by the movement's adherents. A concluding section seeks to synthesize this interdisciplinary scholarship in order to assess the GHM's overall gestalt as a social movement.
Papers by Tamer Balci
Sociology of Islam
This article examines the trajectory of populism/halkçilik, one of the least studied principles o... more This article examines the trajectory of populism/halkçilik, one of the least studied principles of Kemalism, from its origins in the ideas of Enlightenment to its practices in modern Turkey. Unlike its commonly perceived negative connotation that is often associated with irrational political objectives, populism is a manifestation of equality premise of Enlightenment. Populism gained popularity among the nineteenth-century American and Russian farmers as well as fin de siècle French intellectuals and politicians. Neither the Russian Narodnik movement nor the American Populist Party were as influential as the French solidarists who were backed by Vatican to carve a middle path between unrefined Capitalism and revolutionary Marxism. Inspired by its earlier counterparts in France and Russia, Kemalist principle of Populism aimed to end inherited socio-economic inequalities that had existed in the former Ottoman Empire. While modern Turkey curbed some inequalities, it has stumbled upon t...
Digest of Middle East Studies, 2018
This article covers how the history of Islam and the Middle East is covered in the latest K-12 Te... more This article covers how the history of Islam and the Middle East is covered in the latest K-12 Texas textbooks. The study examines three world histories, four world cultures and geography and six American history textbooks published by major publishers. This article demonstrates that Islamophobic attempts to present Islam as a violent religion has been successful in Texas textbooks. On the other hand, the " Islam spread by sword " narrative is contradicted by the same textbooks with a recognition of non-Muslim communities that have lived in the Islamic world throughout Islamic history. The study aims to guide publishers and educators before the next cycle of textbook renewal is initiated in 2019.
This study covers the influence of Ottoman Balkan Heritage on the construction of Turkish nationa... more This study covers the influence of Ottoman Balkan Heritage on the construction of Turkish national identity. In order to shed light on the intricate correlation among the Ottoman heritage, the Balkans and Turkish national identity, this article presents that while the Turkish republican elite took a negative stance on the Ottoman Empire to create a secular nation-state, Balkan migrants’ view on Islam as the main component of their
identity helped to shape the creation of Turkish national identity.
Osmanli Mirasi Arastirmalari Dergisi, 2014
The port city of Samsun has been known as the launching station of Turkish Independence War ever ... more The port city of Samsun has been known as the launching station of Turkish Independence War ever since the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, landed there in 1919. His first step in Samsun was also a step toward the foundation of a Turkish nation state. Turkish state’s investment on nationalist indoctrination has shown its outcome strongly along the Black Sea coast, especially in Samsun. Today, the residents of Turkish Black Sea coast have been referred as one of the most nationalist groups in Turkey. This article covers the roots of Cold War nationalism in Samsun and its vicinity and analyzes this nationalist understanding in light of nationalist theories.
History Studies, Oct 30, 2012
This article covers how Turkish nationalists approached the Ottoman imperial legacy from the earl... more This article covers how Turkish nationalists approached the Ottoman imperial legacy from the early republican period to the end of the Cold War. In order not to discredit the secular Turkish nation-state, the Kemalist republic did not rely on the Ottoman imperial legacy in its national construction. Led by Rıza Nur and Nihal Atsız, chauvinist nationalists outside the grip of the state targeted the multiculturalism of the Ottomans as its weakness. Nevertheless, all nationalists Turkified the empire in their narratives and belittled the contributions of the non-Turkish ruling elite (devshirme). Only after the republic was solidified, did the Kemalist state use the Ottoman imperial legacy cautiously against the rising threat of socialism. Pro-Islamic nationalists found the imperial legacy as a useful political tool to boost up nationalism and combined it with its Islamic legacy paving the road for the reconciliation of Islam and nationalism. The religious Ottoman Muslim image nationalists created became an ideal role model for potential nationalists. Any criticism of the Ottoman Empire was seen as an attack on this role model. This predicament only delayed the objective, academic study of the Ottoman Empire and its legacy.
History Studies International Journal Of History, 2012
History Studies, Oct 30, 2012
Independence of Cyprus in 1960 ended neither the Greek demand to annex the island to Greece, nor ... more Independence of Cyprus in 1960 ended neither the Greek demand to annex the island to Greece, nor the Turkish demand to divide the island along the ethnic lines. This paper analyzes the policies of major actors on the Cyprus problem in its crucial years from 1960 to 1975. An overall examination of the British, Turkish, Greek, American and the Soviet policies on Cyprus along with the policies of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots in this period reveals that all sides except Greece developed alternative policies and proposals to solve the problem. Greece was the only side that did not abandon its Cyprus policy of enosis, union with Greece. The unaccommodating approach of Greece on the Cyprus issue not only paved the road for the end of Greek junta (1967-1974) but also for the eventual collapse of southern flank of NATO in 1975. By 1975, Greece left NATO and Turkey suffered the arms embargo of its NATO ally, the United States of America and in response it shut down the majority of American military bases in Turkey and further weakened the southern flank of NATO.
This article aims to shed light on the origins of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Nine Lights ideol... more This article aims to shed light on the origins of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Nine Lights ideology and explain why this ideology failed to take root. Soon after the Turkish ultranationalists
controlled the Republican Peasants’ Nation Party (RPNP), the party leader Alparslan Turkes¸ embarked on a dual strategy which saw the party maintaining a racist and militaristic
political discourse in informal circles while it officially embraced a moderate and liberal leaning ideology - the Nine Lights. Racist Nihal Atsız had been known as the party ideologue,
but the ideas of liberal-leaning Mumtaz Turhan dominated the Nine Lights. The Nine Lights not only rejected nationalism based on blood, but also embraced the Charter of the
United Nations and thereby issued a de facto recognition of the equality of all nations! In this article, I argue that the Nine Lights ideology failed because the Turkish ultra-nationalists
treated it like a stillborn child and continued to embrace earlier forms of racist and militaristic political discourse. Even after the RPNP became the Nationalist Action Party and adopted the
concept of the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis, it still indoctrinated its youth with the teachings of radical thinkers like Atsız, while the Nine Lights ideology existed only on paper.
History Studies, Jan 30, 2009
This article traces the origins of various proposals to nationalize Islam in Turkey. The initial ... more This article traces the origins of various proposals to nationalize Islam in Turkey. The initial Turkish proposals failed because none of them had a feasible philosophical base to facilitate the co-existence of Islam and secularism. Aside from the previous studies on the nationalization of Islam, this article carries the topic to the Cold War by arguing that the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis was the last stage on the nationalization of Islam. Since TIS had no vision to alter the official ideology, Kemalism, and it claimed the compatibility of Islam, nationalism, secularism as well as Kemalism, it fulfilled the need of a national religion the Turkish state envisioned but it created a de facto Turkish national identity that made Islam a prerequisite for Turkishness.
ÖZET Bu makale Türkiye'de dinin millileştirilmesi ile ilgili farklı projeleri içermektedir. ilk ö... more ÖZET Bu makale Türkiye'de dinin millileştirilmesi ile ilgili farklı projeleri içermektedir. ilk önerilen projeler islam ve laikliğin birarada yaşayabilmesini sağlayabilecek felsefi temelden yoksun oldukları için başarılı olamamışlardır. Dinin millileştirilmesi konusunda daha önce yapılan çalışmalardan farklı olarak bu makale konuyu Soğuk Savaş dönemine taşıyarak Türk-İslam Sentezi'nin dinin millileştirilmesi çabalarının ulaştığı son aşama olduğu tezini vurgulamaktadır. TİS'in Atatürkçülük rejimini değiştirme gibi bir hedefi olmaması ve İslam'ın milliyetçilik, laiklik ve Atatürkçülük ile uyum içinde olduğu görüşlerini savunması TİS'in aranan milli din olmasa bile İslam ve laik devlet arasında bir sistem ayarlaması yapmasını sağlamış ve İslam'ın gayr-i resmi olarak Türklük tanımına dahil olmasını sağlamıştır.
ABSTRACT
This article traces the origins of various proposals to nationalize Islam in Turkey. The initial Turkish proposals failed because none of them had a feasible philosophical base to facilitate the coexistence of Islam and secularism. Aside from the previous studies on the nationalization of Islam, this article carries the topic to the Cold War by arguing that the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis was the last stage on the nationalization of Islam. Since TIS had no vision to alter the official ideology, Kemalism, and it claimed the compatibility of Islam, nationalism, secularism as well as Kemalism, it fulfilled the need of a national religion the Turkish state envisioned but it created a de facto Turkish national identity that made Islam a prerequisite for Turkishness.
Book Reviews by Tamer Balci
Acta Via Serica, 2020
The Scythians are the forgotten people of history. Almost every expert, including Cunliffe, menti... more The Scythians are the forgotten people of history. Almost every expert, including Cunliffe, mentions how little we know about them. It has been decades since a new academic work on the Scythians emerged. The ancient Greeks coined the term Scythia to refer the vast stretch of land from the Danube River in the west to the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the east. Since Scythians left behind neither a major city nor a significant written record, historians and archeologists must gather scattered information about the Scythians either from archaeological findings or from the records of Scythian neighbors, the Greeks, Persians, and Chinese. Turning the fragments of information on Scythians into a coherent work is certainly a daunting task and Barry Cunliffe did a great job to put the pieces of this puzzle together in light of the latest archaeological discoveries.
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Jan 1, 2005
^#04 .-'■ Á ç. >,',:, »\ M £,< V ^*Я _^%^*ï. ■:' ;%&... more ^#04 .-'■ Á ç. >,',:, »\ M £,< V ^*Я _^%^*ï. ■:' ;%'; f _ Я, * 4 ; jê^^^êêm * m. J TURKISH ISLAM AND THE SECULAR STATE The Guien Movement EDITED BY M. Hakan Yavuz John L. Esposito ... TURKISH ISLAM Л ND THE SECULAR STATE EI) IIID В Y M. Hakan Yavuz AND John ...
Summer 2013, Volume XX, Number 2
This volume covers the origins, historical development, and ideas of one of the largest and most ... more This volume covers the origins, historical development, and ideas of one of the largest and most influential Islamic movements in the world, the Gulen Hizmet Movement. Founded during the Cold War under the inspiration of M. Fethullah Gulen, the GHM expanded to over 130 countries by the first decade of the twenty first century. The movement's circumspect activism sheltered it from illiberal secular practices in Turkey and has guided it through the anxious post-Cold War process of globalization. This edited volume covers various characteristics of the movement from Gulen's unconventional oratory to his educational philosophy. Also, the book covers Gulen's ideas on Islam and democracy and the GHM's indirect political engagement compared to the direct engagement of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other chapters in the book cover the role of women in the movement, the GHM's creation of an alternative public sphere for pious Muslims, and the tension this creation instills in light of Secularism Theory, which is analyzed comparatively with American religious pluralism. The last two chapters question the effectiveness of interfaith dialogue activities promoted by the movement's adherents. A concluding section seeks to synthesize this interdisciplinary scholarship in order to assess the GHM's overall gestalt as a social movement.
Sociology of Islam
This article examines the trajectory of populism/halkçilik, one of the least studied principles o... more This article examines the trajectory of populism/halkçilik, one of the least studied principles of Kemalism, from its origins in the ideas of Enlightenment to its practices in modern Turkey. Unlike its commonly perceived negative connotation that is often associated with irrational political objectives, populism is a manifestation of equality premise of Enlightenment. Populism gained popularity among the nineteenth-century American and Russian farmers as well as fin de siècle French intellectuals and politicians. Neither the Russian Narodnik movement nor the American Populist Party were as influential as the French solidarists who were backed by Vatican to carve a middle path between unrefined Capitalism and revolutionary Marxism. Inspired by its earlier counterparts in France and Russia, Kemalist principle of Populism aimed to end inherited socio-economic inequalities that had existed in the former Ottoman Empire. While modern Turkey curbed some inequalities, it has stumbled upon t...
Digest of Middle East Studies, 2018
This article covers how the history of Islam and the Middle East is covered in the latest K-12 Te... more This article covers how the history of Islam and the Middle East is covered in the latest K-12 Texas textbooks. The study examines three world histories, four world cultures and geography and six American history textbooks published by major publishers. This article demonstrates that Islamophobic attempts to present Islam as a violent religion has been successful in Texas textbooks. On the other hand, the " Islam spread by sword " narrative is contradicted by the same textbooks with a recognition of non-Muslim communities that have lived in the Islamic world throughout Islamic history. The study aims to guide publishers and educators before the next cycle of textbook renewal is initiated in 2019.
This study covers the influence of Ottoman Balkan Heritage on the construction of Turkish nationa... more This study covers the influence of Ottoman Balkan Heritage on the construction of Turkish national identity. In order to shed light on the intricate correlation among the Ottoman heritage, the Balkans and Turkish national identity, this article presents that while the Turkish republican elite took a negative stance on the Ottoman Empire to create a secular nation-state, Balkan migrants’ view on Islam as the main component of their
identity helped to shape the creation of Turkish national identity.
Osmanli Mirasi Arastirmalari Dergisi, 2014
The port city of Samsun has been known as the launching station of Turkish Independence War ever ... more The port city of Samsun has been known as the launching station of Turkish Independence War ever since the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, landed there in 1919. His first step in Samsun was also a step toward the foundation of a Turkish nation state. Turkish state’s investment on nationalist indoctrination has shown its outcome strongly along the Black Sea coast, especially in Samsun. Today, the residents of Turkish Black Sea coast have been referred as one of the most nationalist groups in Turkey. This article covers the roots of Cold War nationalism in Samsun and its vicinity and analyzes this nationalist understanding in light of nationalist theories.
History Studies, Oct 30, 2012
This article covers how Turkish nationalists approached the Ottoman imperial legacy from the earl... more This article covers how Turkish nationalists approached the Ottoman imperial legacy from the early republican period to the end of the Cold War. In order not to discredit the secular Turkish nation-state, the Kemalist republic did not rely on the Ottoman imperial legacy in its national construction. Led by Rıza Nur and Nihal Atsız, chauvinist nationalists outside the grip of the state targeted the multiculturalism of the Ottomans as its weakness. Nevertheless, all nationalists Turkified the empire in their narratives and belittled the contributions of the non-Turkish ruling elite (devshirme). Only after the republic was solidified, did the Kemalist state use the Ottoman imperial legacy cautiously against the rising threat of socialism. Pro-Islamic nationalists found the imperial legacy as a useful political tool to boost up nationalism and combined it with its Islamic legacy paving the road for the reconciliation of Islam and nationalism. The religious Ottoman Muslim image nationalists created became an ideal role model for potential nationalists. Any criticism of the Ottoman Empire was seen as an attack on this role model. This predicament only delayed the objective, academic study of the Ottoman Empire and its legacy.
History Studies International Journal Of History, 2012
History Studies, Oct 30, 2012
Independence of Cyprus in 1960 ended neither the Greek demand to annex the island to Greece, nor ... more Independence of Cyprus in 1960 ended neither the Greek demand to annex the island to Greece, nor the Turkish demand to divide the island along the ethnic lines. This paper analyzes the policies of major actors on the Cyprus problem in its crucial years from 1960 to 1975. An overall examination of the British, Turkish, Greek, American and the Soviet policies on Cyprus along with the policies of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots in this period reveals that all sides except Greece developed alternative policies and proposals to solve the problem. Greece was the only side that did not abandon its Cyprus policy of enosis, union with Greece. The unaccommodating approach of Greece on the Cyprus issue not only paved the road for the end of Greek junta (1967-1974) but also for the eventual collapse of southern flank of NATO in 1975. By 1975, Greece left NATO and Turkey suffered the arms embargo of its NATO ally, the United States of America and in response it shut down the majority of American military bases in Turkey and further weakened the southern flank of NATO.
This article aims to shed light on the origins of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Nine Lights ideol... more This article aims to shed light on the origins of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Nine Lights ideology and explain why this ideology failed to take root. Soon after the Turkish ultranationalists
controlled the Republican Peasants’ Nation Party (RPNP), the party leader Alparslan Turkes¸ embarked on a dual strategy which saw the party maintaining a racist and militaristic
political discourse in informal circles while it officially embraced a moderate and liberal leaning ideology - the Nine Lights. Racist Nihal Atsız had been known as the party ideologue,
but the ideas of liberal-leaning Mumtaz Turhan dominated the Nine Lights. The Nine Lights not only rejected nationalism based on blood, but also embraced the Charter of the
United Nations and thereby issued a de facto recognition of the equality of all nations! In this article, I argue that the Nine Lights ideology failed because the Turkish ultra-nationalists
treated it like a stillborn child and continued to embrace earlier forms of racist and militaristic political discourse. Even after the RPNP became the Nationalist Action Party and adopted the
concept of the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis, it still indoctrinated its youth with the teachings of radical thinkers like Atsız, while the Nine Lights ideology existed only on paper.
History Studies, Jan 30, 2009
This article traces the origins of various proposals to nationalize Islam in Turkey. The initial ... more This article traces the origins of various proposals to nationalize Islam in Turkey. The initial Turkish proposals failed because none of them had a feasible philosophical base to facilitate the co-existence of Islam and secularism. Aside from the previous studies on the nationalization of Islam, this article carries the topic to the Cold War by arguing that the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis was the last stage on the nationalization of Islam. Since TIS had no vision to alter the official ideology, Kemalism, and it claimed the compatibility of Islam, nationalism, secularism as well as Kemalism, it fulfilled the need of a national religion the Turkish state envisioned but it created a de facto Turkish national identity that made Islam a prerequisite for Turkishness.
ÖZET Bu makale Türkiye'de dinin millileştirilmesi ile ilgili farklı projeleri içermektedir. ilk ö... more ÖZET Bu makale Türkiye'de dinin millileştirilmesi ile ilgili farklı projeleri içermektedir. ilk önerilen projeler islam ve laikliğin birarada yaşayabilmesini sağlayabilecek felsefi temelden yoksun oldukları için başarılı olamamışlardır. Dinin millileştirilmesi konusunda daha önce yapılan çalışmalardan farklı olarak bu makale konuyu Soğuk Savaş dönemine taşıyarak Türk-İslam Sentezi'nin dinin millileştirilmesi çabalarının ulaştığı son aşama olduğu tezini vurgulamaktadır. TİS'in Atatürkçülük rejimini değiştirme gibi bir hedefi olmaması ve İslam'ın milliyetçilik, laiklik ve Atatürkçülük ile uyum içinde olduğu görüşlerini savunması TİS'in aranan milli din olmasa bile İslam ve laik devlet arasında bir sistem ayarlaması yapmasını sağlamış ve İslam'ın gayr-i resmi olarak Türklük tanımına dahil olmasını sağlamıştır.
ABSTRACT
This article traces the origins of various proposals to nationalize Islam in Turkey. The initial Turkish proposals failed because none of them had a feasible philosophical base to facilitate the coexistence of Islam and secularism. Aside from the previous studies on the nationalization of Islam, this article carries the topic to the Cold War by arguing that the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis was the last stage on the nationalization of Islam. Since TIS had no vision to alter the official ideology, Kemalism, and it claimed the compatibility of Islam, nationalism, secularism as well as Kemalism, it fulfilled the need of a national religion the Turkish state envisioned but it created a de facto Turkish national identity that made Islam a prerequisite for Turkishness.
Acta Via Serica, 2020
The Scythians are the forgotten people of history. Almost every expert, including Cunliffe, menti... more The Scythians are the forgotten people of history. Almost every expert, including Cunliffe, mentions how little we know about them. It has been decades since a new academic work on the Scythians emerged. The ancient Greeks coined the term Scythia to refer the vast stretch of land from the Danube River in the west to the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the east. Since Scythians left behind neither a major city nor a significant written record, historians and archeologists must gather scattered information about the Scythians either from archaeological findings or from the records of Scythian neighbors, the Greeks, Persians, and Chinese. Turning the fragments of information on Scythians into a coherent work is certainly a daunting task and Barry Cunliffe did a great job to put the pieces of this puzzle together in light of the latest archaeological discoveries.
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Jan 1, 2005
^#04 .-'■ Á ç. >,',:, »\ M £,< V ^*Я _^%^*ï. ■:' ;%&... more ^#04 .-'■ Á ç. >,',:, »\ M £,< V ^*Я _^%^*ï. ■:' ;%'; f _ Я, * 4 ; jê^^^êêm * m. J TURKISH ISLAM AND THE SECULAR STATE The Guien Movement EDITED BY M. Hakan Yavuz John L. Esposito ... TURKISH ISLAM Л ND THE SECULAR STATE EI) IIID В Y M. Hakan Yavuz AND John ...
Summer 2013, Volume XX, Number 2