ABSTRACT
Membership of the political community through citizenship in civic states is not ethnically or culturally neutral either. In both civic and ethnic states, culture, language and history are the main components of nation building, which in both cases are derived from the favoured dominant ethnic core. The Turkish State system is based on the principle of constitutional/territorial nationalism. The concept of citizenship is defined in article 66 of the Constitution on the ground of legal bond without any reference to ethnic, linguistic or religious origin. Turkish Citizenship Law encourages the immigration of people of 'Turkish race' into the country. Official language policy is considered as unavoidable in nation building. A prohibition of the use of minority languages or the imposition of mandatory language requirements in political participation might result in violations of international human rights law. Using Turkish is also compulsory for public services provided by local municipalities and this has been confirmed by the judicial bodies.
