ABSTRACT
Since October 1923, when the Republic was proclaimed by Kemal Atatürk, Turkey has witnessed dramatic transformations in the public definition of state and nation. By comparison with other Western and Middle Eastern nation-states, post-Ottoman Turkey lacked a powerful enlightenment movement aimed at an ‘awakening of Turks to national consciousness’ (KadıoǦlu 1996: 185). As Ahmad puts it ‘Turkey did not rise phoenix-like out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire’, but ‘was “made” in the image of the Kemalist Elite which won struggles against foreign invaders and the old regime’ (1993: ix). The process of modern Turkish state formation has been seen as characterised by the following radical transitions:
a transition in the system of political authority from personal rule to greater reliance on impersonal rules and regulations;
a shift in cosmology from divine law to positivism and rationality;
a shift from an ‘elite-people’ cleavage to a ‘populist-based’ community;
a transition from a religiously-defined community to a nation-state.
(Serif Mardin 2003: 19; cited in Keyman 2010: 318)