Religion and Nation-Building in the Turkish Republic: Comparison of High School History Textbooks of 1931–41 and of 1942–50

Abstract

In the period from 1923 to 1946, the new regime was consolidated through a series of radical secularizing reforms. In order to make these reforms acceptable to a wider public, the new Republic tried to build a secular Turkish identity that does not include Islam. High school history textbooks were prepared to this end in 1931. It has generally been argued that the transition to a multi-party regime constituted a break by opening greater space for religion in society. However, the Kemalist Project to develop a secular Turkish identity without Islam ended in 1942, i.e. during the single-party rule of the Republican People's Party (RPP). The reasons behind this change show that the RPP was a more heterogeneous party in terms of the views of its policy-makers on religion.