Turkish Anticolonialism and Muslim Southeast Asia, 1923â<euro>"1949: Vernacular Diplomacy â<euro>œUnder the Yoke of 3 and a Half Dutchmenâ<euro>•
JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, vol.36, no.3, 2025 (AHCI, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 36 Issue: 3
- Publication Date: 2025
- Doi Number: 10.1353/jwh.2025.a974186
- Journal Name: JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY
- Journal Indexes: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, American History and Life, Geobase, Historical Abstracts, Index Islamicus, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Political Science Complete
- Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This article traces the awkward relationship of the early Turkish Republic with European empires and Asian polities under European colonial domination. It has been argued that Turkey was largely disinterested in the non-Western world, as its primary goal was to be recognized as a state of equal stature to Western nations. We argue that certain segments of Turkish political society remained heavily invested in Asian affairs. We demonstrate this through a case study of Muslim Southeast Asia (the Malay-speaking world), a region that had traditionally held strong ties with the Ottoman Empire. Turkey found itself in the peculiar position of being held up as a beacon of emancipation from the West by independence movements elsewhere while also being committed to integrating itself into a Western-dominated global order. Thus, we argue that Turkey's interactions with the non-European world were fragmented and characterized by ambiguity. Discourses of westernization and anti-colonial rhetoric were both widely deployed. Within these tensions, new subjectivities could be crafted by a patchwork of vernacular actors that paint a picture of the imaginative political discourses in the early Turkish Republic and in a world connected by transregional imperialism.