ABSTRACT
Turkish nationalism in the early years of the Republic was a top-down constructivist attempt, an idealist plan of social engineering aimed at creating one people out of many. This nationalist attempt, however, created a zone of conflict from the bottom-up; a conflict over ownership of the state, a power struggle between the religious and secular, between the elites and commoners, between the Kurds and Turks, between Alevis and Sunnis that would haunt Turkey for the duration of its entire existence. This chapter illustrates a constant battle between these elements determining the ways in which Turkish nationalism has become a defining feature of the Turkish politics.
