Ethno-religious 'unmixing' of 'Turkey': 6-7 September riots as a case in Turkish nationalism*

Abstract

. This article examines the structural and ideological factors that paved the way for the eruption of violence against non-Muslims in Turkey on 6 September 1955. I argue that the conventional explanations that treat this instance of collective violence either as spontaneous rioting caused by over-excited masses or as a government conspiracy that eventually got out of control are insufficient in that they fail to answer how and why so many people participated in these riots when we know that nothing on this scale ever took place in the history of the republic. In order to adequately understand the dynamics behind these riots one first needs to situate them in the broader historical context of the emergence, development and crystallisation of Turkish nationalism and national identity that marked the non-Muslim citizens of the republic as the ‘others’ and potential enemies of the real Turkish nation. This historical analysis constitutes the first part of the article. Since ethno-national riots do not always occur whenever there are conflicting identities, one also needs to explain the processes through which ethno-national identities become radicalized and polarized. Thus, in the second part of the article, I focus on the economic, political and social conditions of the post-single-party era (post-1950) that helped to radicalise the sentiments of the growing urban populace against the non-Muslim ‘others’. I argue that it was the socio-economic, ideological and political transformations of the Democrat Party era that made it possible for ethnic entrepreneurs and state provocateurs to mobilise the masses against a fictitious enemy.