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Social and Intellectual Origins of Neo-Ottomanism: Searching for a Post-National Vision
This article will unpack the intellectual and sociopolitical conditions under which the idea of neo-Ottomanism was formulated, by focusing on the following questions: What is neo-Ottomanism, who constructed the term, and for what purpose? What aspects of the Ottoman legacy have been incorporated in the 'self' definition of a new Turkey? Is this shift temporary or rooted in a more far-reaching transformation of Turkish society that will shape future sociopolitical choices? The article examines the intellectual origins of the term 'neo-Ottomanism' by examining the role of cultural entrepreneurs, such as Yahya Kemal and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, along with the interactions among social factors, in the search for a new 'old' identity of Ottomanism by reimagining the Ottoman past. It seeks to provide a historical and sociological perspective of the process of reconfiguring the past, and especially its implications in domestic and foreign policy. Due to the oppressive nation-building project of the Kemalist regime, literature, art, music, and poetry became alternative sites for preserving, updating, and reconstructing the Ottoman memory. After explaining the formation of neo-Ottoman discourse in the 1990s, the article will address the debate about the politics of identity under the Justice and Development Party (JDP).
NEO-OTTOMAN MEMORY OF "NEW TURKEY"
The article aims to present the process of creating the so-called neo-Ottoman memory politics under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has remained in power since 2002. In the first two decades of the 21 st century, Turkey underwent a thorough transformation, including the replacement of elites, the undermining of the ideological foundations of the Kemalist republic, as well as the redefinition of Turkish nationalism and state identity. The key element of these changes was the ongoing rehabilitation of the Ottoman Empire-relegated by the republic to the position of episode in the history of the Turks. As a result of the creation of the so-called "Turkish-Islamic synthesis" in the 1980s, as well as the development of social nostalgia for the former empire in the following decade, the new politics of memory, meeting this nostalgia, achieved spectacular success. However, it was conducted in a top-down manner, with great care taken to ensure that the content appearing in the public sphere was consistent with the intentions of the new power elite. This new memory, however, did not remove the republican heritage-its absorption became a key factor in strengthening the legitimacy of "New Turkey"-a monumental project of political and identity transformation.
New Perspectives on Turkey, 2017
In contemporary Turkey, a growing interest in Ottoman history represents a change in both the official state discourse and popular culture. This nostalgia appropriates, reinterprets, decontextualizes, and juxtaposes formerly distinct symbols, ideas, objects, and histories in unprecedented ways. In this paper, we distinguish between state-led neo-Ottomanism and popular cultural Ottomania, focusing on the ways in which people in Turkey are interpellated by these two different yet interrelated discourses, depending on their social positions. As the boundary between highbrow and popular culture erodes, popular cultural representations come to reinterpret and rehabilitate the Ottoman past while also inventing new insecurities centering on historical “truth.” Utilizing in-depth interviews, we show that individuals juxtapose the popular television series Muhteşem Yüzyıl (The Magnificent Century) with what they deem “proper” history, in the process rendering popular culture a “false” version. We also identify four particular interpretive clusters among the consumers of Ottomania: for some, the Ottoman Empire was the epitome of tolerance, where different groups lived peacefully; for others, the imperial past represents Turkish and/or Islamic identities; and finally, critics see the empire as a burden on contemporary Turkey.
Conservative Narrative: Contemporary Neo- Ottomanist Approaches in Turkish Politics
Middle East Critique, 2020
Turkish politicians, intellectuals and ordinary citizens usually take an ambivalent view of the Ottoman state. The founding fathers of Turkey, mostly soldiers and bureaucrats in the Ottoman state structure had, for the most part, negative perceptions owing to the loss of territory and defeats during the latter days of the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, republican Turkey endeavored to create a modern Turkish nation that was very much part of Western civilization. Nevertheless, fascination with the Ottoman Empire rose to the fore during the multiparty era of the 1950s and further increased in the 1980s and now under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. The AKP leadership has been articulating a new identity and historical perspective to create a new national identity for Turkey. This article analyzes the nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire in Turkish politics by focusing on the conservative ideologue Necip Fazıl Kısakurek (1904–1983), who had a significant impact on the AKP leadership as well as on efforts to create a new post-Kemalist Turkey.
Turkey's radical transformation of state and society under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's republican rule (1923)(1924)(1925)(1926)(1927)(1928)(1929)(1930)(1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938) has been subject to a gradual revision under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government since 2002. The creation of a new state identity has been buttressed with Islamic and Ottoman discourses, which entail a reinterpretation of Ottoman history. This study analyzes the changes in modern Turkey in the last sixteen years within the context of the use of the Ottoman past in the formation of a new national identity by the AKP government.
The Social Origins of Nostalgia for Ottomanism
Nostalgia for the Empire, 2020
This chapter outlines six social factors that augmented a rise in Ottoman nostalgia as a countering identity and ideology against the Turkish Republic’s Westernizing reforms: the demographic makeup of Turkey as a republic of refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homes in the Balkans and Caucasus; the Westernization project of Turkey’s founding fathers for creating a European nation-state by suppressing the legacy of the Ottoman Empire; the process of democratization (i.e., mobilization of masses to move into political domains and bringing a multiplicity of identities to redefine state identity and policies); the expansion of the public sphere with newspapers, journals, and digital media to accommodate discussions of various identities and formerly taboo subjects; the introduction of market forces aligned with Turgut Özal’s neoliberal economic policies and the rise of the new Anatolian bourgeoisie; and finally, the shift from factual history to imagined memory.
Glorification of the Past as a Political Tool: Ottoman history in contemporary Turkish politics
The Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 2018
Turkey’s radical transformation of state and society under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s republican rule (1923–1938) has been subject to a gradual revision under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government since 2002. The creation of a new state identity has been buttressed with Islamic and Ottoman discourses, which entail a reinterpretation of Ottoman history. This study analyzes the changes in modern Turkey in the last sixteen years within the context of the use of the Ottoman past in the formation of a new national identity by the AKP government.