Was there room for Christian Turks in early Republican Turkey? Debates on the migration and Turkishness of the Gagauz

Abstract

The article traces the debates on the migration of the Gagauz into post-Ottoman Turkey and the controversy over their ‘Turkishness’. The debates, concurrent with the migration of Muslim communities to Turkey, formed the basis of the dominant view on the Turkishness of the Gagauz in the current literature. A significant number of scholars have argued that the Gagauz were not admitted to Turkey, and, therefore, the ruling elite did not view Christian Turks as a valid cultural, legal, and social category in the nation. A critical reappraisal of archival documents, media debates, political discussions, academic studies, newspaper articles, and memoirs, however, does not support this conclusion. Reassessing the boundaries between religion and ethnicity in early Republican Turkey, the present article offers fresh insights into the attempts of republican intellectuals to assert the acceptance of Christian Turks. It argues that the debates on the Turkishness of the Gagauz were indicative of a special stage in the development of Turkish nationalism in the 1930s.