"The survival of kemalism"

Abstract

Kemalism is the founding myth of the Turkish Republic, and secularism is an integral part of it. It has become a « reference ideology » for all subsequent generations and to the present, in the sense that all discourses in political contest, including the Islamist, situate themselves in relation to it. The taboos it imposed on these discourses, notably that on the advocacy of the oeriat, remain largely unbroken except by outright rebels and « extremists ». The respectable leaders of the Islamist party pay lip service to it, and even claim its mantel in defence of the Turkish nation and the state as its core, but with the addition of Islam as an essential component of heritage. In practice, however, this ideological hegemony has been gradually eroded from the 1950's, but significantly in recent times, not only by the rise and electoral success of Islamic political advocacy, but also throught the prominence of different Muslim forces and institutions in various spheres of public life and dicourse : education, media, publishing, political parties and government service and in terms of general public visibility. This has led to the sharpening of social tensions between the religious and the secular, superimposed on divisions of class, styles of life and regional affiliations. The affirmation of Kemalism and secularism becomes an essential line of defence for the Westernized bourgeoisie of the main cities and the institutions they control, especially in the media and the political class, and the military is their main refuge.