Yeni adam (the new man)
Building state and nation in the
Turkish Republic
How to build a new state:
external steps
Gain sovereignty over land
Post WWI: Anatolia divided between France, Britain, Greece,
Russia, Italy
1920 Treaty of Sevres (never implemented):
Creation of Armenia, Kurdish plebiscite
Turkish war of independence, 1921-1922
1923 Treaty of Lausanne
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
Establish borders
West and East
Lose Mosul (1926), Gain Hatay (1939)
Get international recognition
Turkey 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
prototype
Role models: powerful national states
New international norms
End of God: Need for new legitimizing
discourse
How to build a new (national)
state: internal steps
Establish and extend state authority
Center
The Republican Regime (Ankara)
One-party state under the Republican People’s Party
(RPP)
Drawing in the Periphery
Creation of new administrative provinces, railroads
Invent the nation
The 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, 1922
Abolition of the Caliphate, 1924
Turkish Grand National
Assembly under the control of
Mustafa Kemal and the RPP
Increasingly authoritarian
after 1925
Photo: http://www.stanford.edu/~ofidaner/ataturk/pictures/html
Guiding principles: Kemalism
Republicanism
Opposed to caliphate
Nationalism
Opposed to internationalism
Explicitly Turkish (anti-Ottoman)
Popularism
Classless society (anticommunist)
Etatism (“Statism”)
State-directed industrialization
Secularism
State control over religious institutions
“Revolutionism” or Reformism
Continuing commitment to “western” Kemalist reforms
Creating the new nation:
Image & Practice
What Turks should wear
Hats not fezzes (1925)
Religious attire prohibited in public (1934)
Veil discouraged (but not banned)
How Turks should be named
Abolition 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 19201922 prior to the establishment of the Republic and the abolition of
the fez.
Photo: http://www.stanford.edu/~ofidaner/ataturk/pictures/html/dua.html
New forms of dress, 1930s.
Creating the nation, cont.
Management of time and space
Introduction of Western calendar (1925)
Introduction of the metric system (1931)
Relationship with god
modern 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 images
Banning of polygamy
How to’s of Nation-building
Two examples of major nationbuilding projects in Turkey
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!
The “Robust
Turkish Child,”
front cover,
1928/29
“A nation’s future is based
upon its children’s
happiness, health, &
industriousness,” from
1927/28
“Robust and
Sweet
Children”,
1927/28
Cartoon referring to 23
April Sovereignty and
Children’s Day, 1930
Long may you live!
Today’s our day too.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with
some of his adopted
children.
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
words
Sun-language theory: Turkish
as the “father” of all
languages
Turkish Language Institute
(Turk Dil Kurumu)
Photo: Maynard Owen
Williams, National
Geographic, Jan. 1929, p.
94
Ottoman Turkish…
Modern Turkish…