Self-Perception and Identity in Contemporary Turkey

Abstract

The process of westernization which Turkey has undergone in the last 150-200 years has entailed far-reaching changes in collective as well as individual self-perception. This in turn has had to do with the emergence among the Turks of a European-inspired nationalist movement, based on a newly conceived separate ethnic (or racial) entity. Ottoman Turks, at least members of the educated elite, had two main foci of loyalty and identity during most of their recorded history.1 One was Islam, the religion adopted by the ancient Turks upon their contact with the spreading Muslim Empire and civilization. The other was the Ottoman dynasty and state, loyalty to which rested not only on the traditional loyalty among Turks to their tribal or political chief, but also on the position of the Ottomans as the champions of Islam in the world. In time the dynasty acquired the sanctity which kept it in power for centuries. An Ottoman gentleman, until well into the nineteenth century, would therefore identify himself as a Muslim and an Ottoman, never as a Turk, a term which was used either to differentiate between Turks and non-Turks, or as a derogatory reference to the ignorant peasant or nomad of Anatolia. Turkish history was written basically as Islamic or Ottoman history, and, perhaps a perfect example of Turkish assimilation in Islamic civilization the Turkish language became so loaded with Persian and Arabic words and forms that it almost lost its original character. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, both foci of identity and loyalty were reinforced rather than weakened by the changing political and social circumstances. The alienation and separatism of the non-Muslim elements in the state, culminating in a series of rebellions, drove the Turkish reformist elite to try to bring about the integration of all communities into a single Ottoman 'nation' (millet). This doctrine of Ottomanism (Osmanlilik) was in essence a 'patriotic' kind of nationalism, borrowed from Europe, and based on allegiance to dynasty, state and homeland. It went along with the adoption of the principle of the legal equality of all religious communities in the Empire leading to many of the steps toward secularization and modernization which were part of the comprehensive reform movement known as the Tanzimat. As the century progressed and separatism made headway among non-Turkish Muslim citizens as well, however, it became important to re-emphasize the old