Review: Onur Atalay's Türk'e Tapmak: Seküler Din ve İki Savaş Arası Kemalizm (original) (raw)
Related papers
'The origins and legacy of Kemalism,' in Khamsin #11: Modern Turkey - Development and Crisis (1984)
1984
This article was published in Khamsin #11 (1984) under the pseudonym A. Ender. It offers an analysis on the role of Kemalism - the form Turkish nationalism took in overseeing the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic, demonstrating its ethnic nationalist nature with the annexation of Kurdistan and its authoritarianism in repressing popular and working class organisations. http://libcom.org/library/khamsin-11-modern-turkey-development-crisis
This essay focuses on the question of how to make sense of the salience of Kemalism today. Building on Max Weber's notion of charisma and Laclau and Mouffe's concept of hegemony, it suggests viewing Kemalism as a chain of discourses that have both charismatic and hegemonic aspects. It is suggested that the way in which it is interpreted by the political actors and the dynamics between its contesting interpretations are more relevant than the original charismatic and hegemonic aspects of this ideology for understanding its significance today. It is argued that the present period does not represent the dissolution of Kemalist hegemony, as argued by some, but that it can best be understood in terms of the resurfacing clash between the security-centered and the democracy-centered interpretations of Kemalism. Kemalism and Atatürk's personal cult are conspicuously present in political discourse and public life in Turkey. Atatürk monuments have been erected all around the country, Atatürk posters decorate the walls even of currency exchange offices, and the 70-year-old political discourse that has evolved around the question of "who is the real Atatürkist" are only some of the most striking examples. This symbolic presence came to the fore once again with the spring 2007 debates over the next presidential candidate. On
Athens Journal of History, 2018
The failed coup of July 2016, while uncovering the struggle inside Turkish institutions and Islamic movement, represented the fall of Kemalism and the rise of a new face of political Islam, too. This process is not simply due to the long-lasting AKP government, but also to the deep changes occurred between 1980 (date of the bloodiest coup in Turkey's history) and the electoral victory of Erdoğan's party in 2002. These crucial twenty years lead us to reconsider the relationship between Kemalism and Islamism not as a pure dichotomy but as a complex interaction, which is better understandable in the light of domestic/international factors, Turkish Islamism's particular features and internal contradictions of Kemalist ideology. These two decades also show the continuity of some dynamics in Turkey's history, in particular the persistence of a tutelary democracy; the inclusion/exclusion of parties from the political system; the compatibility of nationalism and Islamism; the alienation of normal political order between Right/Left. Ultimately, despite their different paradigms of modernization, both Kemalist and AKP Islamic élites have preserved the "continuous coup regime". Turkish model of authoritarianism is now entering a new phase with the permanent extension of the state of emergency and the approval of the presidential reform.
Framing the Kemalist Revolution (MA Thesis)
2023
The Kemalist Revolution represents a major turning point in Turkey’s contemporary history. This revolution established the Turkish Republic that the world knows today, and more importantly, it established a system that is an intertwined mixture of contemporary political systems dominated by secular values, in light of which the political behaviour of institutions and individuals is determined. It produced a constitution that stipulates a strong guardianship system based on secular values, which has kept the legacy of the Kemalist Revolution dominant in the history of Turkey until today. The goal of this thesis is to achieve a better understanding of where the Kemalist Revolution stands against a broader background of revolutions in history. Hence, it attempts to explore this revolution, including its unique characteristics as well as its points of intersection with some other revolutions such as the French, Russian, and Iranian revolutions. Hence this thesis will also address the current debate in Western historiography about the Kemalist Revolution. The study is divided into an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter of my thesis provides a general overview of revolution as a historical phenomenon, its definitions, and the most important theories that have attempted to explain and analyse revolution. The second chapter is an attempt to understand the peculiar characteristics of the Kemalist Revolution by comparing it to the French, Russian, and Iranian revolutions. Finally, the third chapter deals with the Western scholarly literature and contemporary research on the Kemalist Revolution, where I review recent or current debates about the Kemalist Revolution. Keywords: Revolution, Kemalism, Kemalist Revolution.
In Pursuit of Post-Kemalism. The Ins and Outs of a Mass Accusation
European Journal of Turkish Studies, 2022
This dossier is dedicated to a controversy as vigorous as it is vertiginous, sometimes even incandescent – some would call it a polemic – in which dozens of Turkish academics, journalists, and intellectuals have found themselves involved over the last decade or so: that of “post-Kemalism.” There’s no doubt that this matter has been the talk of the town. One colleague, a political scientist, referred to it as “one of the most prominent academic debates in Turkish studies”; another, a historian, deemed it nothing less than “the most important discussion of current paradigms in the field of Turkish studies”. Indeed, in Turkey, one publication follows another on the subject, attesting to the fact that the debate on post-Kemalism has found resonance in both academia and society. However, apart from a few podcasts and online meetings, as well as one or two publications, the discussion has remained confined to the Turkish-speaking editorial space.