Post on 18-Dec-2015
transcript
How to build a new state: external steps
Gain sovereignty over landPost WWI: Anatolia divided between France, Britain, Greece, Russia, Italy1920 Treaty of Sevres (never implemented):
Creation of Armenia, Kurdish plebisciteTurkish war of independence, 1921-19221923 Treaty of Lausanne
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
Establish bordersWest and EastLose Mosul (1926), Gain Hatay (1939)
Get international recognitionTurkey joins League of Nations, 1932
Human effects: 20% decline in Anatolian population… 2.5 million Anatolian Muslims dead… around 1 million Armenians dead… in some provinces around 30% women were widows…famine, epidemics, mass migration.
What kind of state? The nation state as the
new prototypeRole models: powerful national states New international normsEnd of God: Need for new legitimizing discourse
How to build a new (national) state: internal steps
Establish and extend state authorityCenter
The Republican Regime (Ankara)One-party state under the Republican People’s Party (RPP)
Drawing in the PeripheryCreation of new administrative provinces, railroads
Invent the nationThe new Turk (Gökalp):
National, western, modern, secular
Boundaries of belonging and exclusion
Reinventing the state
Creation of the Turkish Republic, 1923
Abolition of the Sultanate, 1922Abolition of the Caliphate, 1924
Turkish Grand National Assembly under the control of Mustafa Kemal and the RPPIncreasingly authoritarian after 1925
Photo: http://www.stanford.edu/~ofidaner/ataturk/pictures/html
Guiding principles: Kemalism
RepublicanismOpposed to caliphate
NationalismOpposed to internationalismExplicitly Turkish (anti-Ottoman)
PopularismClassless society (anticommunist)
Etatism (“Statism”)State-directed industrialization
SecularismState control over religious institutions
“Revolutionism” or ReformismContinuing commitment to “western” Kemalist reforms
Creating the new nation: Image & Practice
What Turks should wearHats not fezzes (1925) Religious attire prohibited in public (1934)Veil discouraged (but not banned)
How Turks should be namedAbolition of nicknames and personal titles (1934)
No more “Pasha”s, Beys, and Efendis
Taking of surnames (last names) (1934)Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
An early image of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) praying outside of the Turkish Grand National Assembly building. Probably from 1920-1922 prior to the establishment of the Republic and the abolition of the fez.
Photo: http://www.stanford.edu/~ofidaner/ataturk/pictures/html/dua.html
Creating the nation, cont.Management of time and space
Introduction of Western calendar (1925)Introduction of the metric system (1931)
Relationship with godmodern secular system of jurisprudence (instead of Sharia law) (1926) Banning of religious brotherhoods (tarikat) (1925)Sunday as day of rest (not Friday)
Creating the new nation, cont.
Gender Relations and the status of women
Right to vote and be elected (1934)Celebration of new female imagesBanning of polygamy
1) Cultivate your youth*“The government regards the child as the root of the country, as that which gives the nation its numbers, and as the foundation of the military.
The child is in training to be a member of the country’s governing body … and is the extension of today’s power into the future. The child is the consumer of the country’s products and the producer of agriculture and merchandise. The child is the greatest asset and resource of the country. The child is the nation itself.”
--Dr. Salim Ahmed* Images and content in this section drawn from the work of Kathryn Libal, U. Connecticut. Thanks to her for their use!
Long may you live! Today’s our day too.
Cartoon referring to 23 April Sovereignty and Children’s Day, 1930
2) Develop and celebrate a common language
New use of Roman alphabet (instead of Arabic) 1928“Purification” of Turkish through eradication of Persian and Arabic-origin wordsSun-language theory: Turkish as the “father” of all languages
Turkish Language Institute (Turk Dil Kurumu)