The political discourse of Nihal Atsiz

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Turkey

Approval Date: 2019

Student: Hazal Dila Süslü

Supervisor: NECMİ ERDOĞAN

Abstract:

This thesis examines the political discourse of Nihal Atsız (1905- 1975) who is a radical, racist and Turkist ideologue in Turkish nationalism. The main purpose of the thesis is to analyze whether Atsız’s discourse exhibits fascist features or not. Firstly, this thesis discusses the origins of Turkism and the general characteristics of Turkish nationalism until the 1970s in order to map Atsız’s position within Turkish nationalism. Secondly, the major themes in his discourse including race, racism, eugenics, religion, state are analyzed. Then, the ways in which the political discourse of Atsız imagines its enemies such as Communists, Jews, Kurds and Gypsies are examined. Through these analyses, this thesis arguing that his discourse is mainly based on racism and enemy images, the study concludes that it shares significant similarities with other cases of fascism.