Between empire and nation-state: debating and formulating nationality in post-First World War Turkey, 1918-1922

ŞEKER N.

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, cilt.59, sa.3, ss.407-421, 2023 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 59 Sayı: 3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/00263206.2022.2102002
  • Dergi Adı: MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Periodicals Index Online, Geobase, Historical Abstracts, Index Islamicus, Jewish Studies Source, Linguistic Bibliography, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.407-421
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Nationality question, neo-Ottomanness, Turkish union, Kurds, national struggle
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

This article addresses the nationality issue in the post-First World War Turkey through an analysis of the vibrant debates on the future of the defeated Ottoman state and its peoples. It focuses on how nationality was formulated, specifically, by the Ottoman Muslim-Turkish intellectuals, publicists and by the leadership of the National Struggle. Their interpretations of Ottomanism, Turkish nationalism, the wartime destruction of the Armenians, the situation of the Greeks and the future of the Kurds is analyzed in this respect by using the columns and editorials of contemporaneous newspapers and printed official documents. It argues that the diametrically opposed secular Ottoman nationalism cherishing co-existence of all ethnic and religious groups and the Ottomanism based on Muslimness-Turkishness were reformulated in radically changed geopolitical and demographic circumstances as the basis of the future collective identity.