New Nationalism of Turkish Republic

Abstract

Turkish foreign policy, largely characterized as political selfishness, reflects the set of ideological concepts known as the new Turkish nationalism, which makes the country a rather difficult partner to deal with. This article examines the problem of the new Turkish nationalism. It focuses particularly on the Turkish-centric integration under the “neo-Ottoman” foreign policy as a new form of Turkish nationalism, which is especially evident on the space of the so-called “Turkic world”. The authors analyze the main features of Turkish nationalism in the econom ic, political, cultural, and educational spheres. They note that in the humanitarian sphere Turkey continues to focus on the “common Turkic” institutions as well as the ideas of the pan-Turkism ideologists of the past amidst the urge for unification. Moreover, the article considers the concept of Turkey’s self-perception as a “hub”, which generally occurs in all the above-mentioned areas. At the same time, all cases under study are affected by the populist expressions of the Turkish political elite about the unity of the Turks of the world.