ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines the role of legislation and the judiciary in the management of diversity in Turkey and demonstrates how state policies have been articulated into the laws and embodied through court jurisprudence. In the process of consolidating the nation-state, the ruling elite of the Republic considered that the only way of achieving unity was through uniformity, assimilation and homogenization of differences into Turkishness. Moreover, legislation and court jurisprudence show that the identity of the 'Turk', claimed to be a neutral, political identity, is in fact crafted along lines of ethno-cultural religious particularity. The uniformizing and universalizing tendencies of the modern state worked against the conventional structure of the Empire, and resulted in building resentment among its diverse population. The concept of 'citizenship' in the AYM's case law also comes closer to the concept of 'nation' because it pointing to ethno-religious characteristics.
