Secularism, Islamism, Emblemata: The Visual Discourse of Progress in Turkey

Abstract

The modern Near East is a region experiencing a painful confronta tion between tradition and modernity.1 Modernization projects which were launched during the early twentieth century to reconcile it with European modernity are argued to have failed. In many places, the projects to build secular nation-states have been overturned in favor of a revival of the glories of classical Islam. The Islamist militants, intellectuals, and politicians all argue that a return to the Islamic theocracy is the remedy for the ills of underdevelopment and the recovery of social order. To enforce their ideology, Islamists started a militant struggle against their own nationals some three decades ago, and having made advances at home, Islamist politics pose a serious threat to global peace today.2 What unleashed the age-old notion of Islamic theocracy as a hope for Muslims in the twenty-first century? This essay penetrates the question by looking at the changes in the design of the emblem for the City of Ankara?now a loaded symbol of visual culture in Turkey. Turkey is a pivotal country simply because reform started there by the abolishment of the Caliphate?the spiritual leadership post of Islam?in 1924. It is the only country with a Muslim major ity where secularism is established as a constitutional principle, and where a secular culture has taken root. Turkey also is placed at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, seeking membership in the European Community. However, the country experiences an identity dilemma in matters concerning religion and secularism. There is a body of visual evidence tied to political arguments which were staged during the declining days of the Ottoman theo cratic monarchy over what would deliver the country from under development. These arguments of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continued into the twentieth and the twenty-first?the period of the modern Turkish Republic. The visual evidence has a long pedigree that begins in the eleventh century, when the previ ously shamanist Turkic tribes adopted Islam as their religion. There are sixteenth century banners of conquest inscribed with Koranic scriptures; eighteenth century courtly art influenced by European encounters; the cultural influence of nineteenth century Europe