ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the ideological basis of Turkish nationalism. It will focus on three key areas of Mann’s historiographic model, namely ideological power’s inherent characteristics, the development of nonreligious modes of social explication and what he terms the rise of ‘protonationalism’ in north-western Europe. Considered first will be the social origins and growth of modernism in the late Ottoman Empire and its effects following the First World War. Important areas of development here are the importation of Western concepts of post-Enlightenment rationalism, language reform and changes in educational provisions. Second, the origins of ‘Turkism’ will be traced and compared to pan-Islamic and pan-Ottoman alternatives current in the thinking of the bureaucratic and military elites of the late Ottoman period. Third, the post-imperial emergence of ethnocentrism will be looked at in relation to policies pursued during the 1914-18 war and in the early years of the Turkish republic. The extent to which these were successful in the narrowing of the Ottoman centre/periphery divide will be examined with particular reference to legislation enacted during the 1920s.
