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Race, Assimilation and Kemalism: Turkish Nationalism and the Minorities in the 1930s

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0026320042000213474

1743-7881

Soner Çaǧaptay,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes For more on nationalism in Turkey's European neighbourhood in the 1930s, consult Ivo Banac and Katherine Verdery (ed.), National Character and National Ideology in Interwar Eastern Europe (New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 1995); and Antony Polonsky, The Little Dictators: The History of Eastern Europe Since 1918 (London: Routledge, 1975), pp.1–62, 77–94, 127–56. For some recent examples of these works, which examine Turkish nationalism before the 1930s, see in particular: Hasan Kayalı, Arabs and the Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabs, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997); Jacob M. Landau, Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press, 1995); and Masami Arai, Turkish Nationalism in the Young Turk Era (Leiden: Brill, 1992). For a few notable examples of these works, consult: Rıfat N. Bali, Musa'nın Evlatları Cumhuriyet'in Yurttaşları [The children of Moses, citizens of the republic] (Istanbul: İletişim, 2001); Ayhan Aktar, Varlık Vergisi ve 'Türkleştirme' Politikaları [The wealth tax and the 'Turkification' policies] (Istanbul: İletişim, 2000); Rıfat N. Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri: Bir Türkleştirme Serüveni (1923–1945) [Turkish Jews under the Turkish republic: an episode of Turkification (1923–45)] (Istanbul: İletişim, 1999); and Taha Parla, Kemalist Tek-Parti İdeolojisi ve CHP'nin Altı Ok'u [The single party ideology of Kemalism and the Six Arrow of the CHP] (Istanbul: İletişim, 1995). For more on the destruction and expulsion of the Ottoman Muslims from Central Europe in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, see Alexandre Popović, L'Islam Balkanique (Berlin: in Komission bei Otto Harassowitz–Wiesbaden, 1986), pp.183–7, 257–60; and Mustafa Imamović, Historija Bošnjaka [History of the Bosniaks] (Sarajevo: Bošnjaka Zajednica Kulture Sarajevo, 1997), pp.280–99. For the persecution of the Balkan Muslims during and after the establishment of Greek, Serbian, Montenegrin, and Bulgarian states in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and the Balkan Wars, consult Popović, L'Islam Balkanique, pp.108–12, 113–– 34, 302–11; 260–4, 265–7; 207–8, 294–6, 135–47; and 66–73, 73–8, 74–7. For general works on the persecution of the Ottoman Muslims in Europe and the Black Sea basin, see Justin McCarthy, Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of the Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922 (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1995); and Alexandre Toumarkine, Les Migrations des Musulmanes Balkaniques en Anatolie (1876–1913) (Istanbul: Isis, 1995). Çağlar Keyder, 'Consequences of the Exchange of Populations for Turkey', unpublished article. İstatistik Yıllığı: İkinci Cilt 1929 [Statistics yearbook: Vol.2 1929] TC Başvekalet İstatistik Umum Müd. (Istanbul: Cumhuriyet Matbaası, 1929), p.45; İstatistik Yıllığı: 1934–5 Cilt 7 [Statistics yearbook: 1934–5, Vol.7] (Ankara: Başbakanlık İstatistik G.D, 1934–5), p.159. For a breakdown of the country's population according to linguistic groups in the 1930s, revealing the diversity of Muslim communities, see İstatistik Yıllığı Cilt 10 (Statistics yearbook, Vol.10) Başbakanlık İstatistik Umum Müdürlüğü, (Ankara: Hüsnütabiat, 1938–9), pp.64–5. For more on various Muslim communities in Anatolia, see Peter Alford Andrews and Rüdiger Benninghaus (ed. and comp.), Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1989). Turkey. Constitution. 'Translation into English of the Turkish Constitution of 1924, embodying such amendments to the text as have been made to date', typescript, (S.1: s.n., 1937?), p.9. Ayhan Aktar, 'Cumhuriyet'in İlk Yıllarında Uygulanan Türkleştirme Politikaları', [Turkification policies during the early years of the republic] Tarih ve Toplum, No.156 (Dec. 1996); also consult Soner Cagaptay, 'Population Resettlement and Immigration Policies of Interwar Turkey: A Study of Turkish Nationalism', Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, Vol.26, No.2 (Fall 2002); and 'Reconfiguring the Turkish Nation in the 1930s', Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol.8, No.2 (Summer 2002). For more on the Kurds in the 1920s, see M. Hakan Yavuz, 'Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey', Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol.7, No.3 (2001), pp.1–24; and Martin van Bruinessen Origins and Development of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey, typescript, (Berlin: Berliner Institut für vergleichende Sozialforschung, 1981). For more on this, see Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında, pp.1–242. For the story of the Greeks in the 1920s, see Alexis Alexandris, The Greek Minority of Istanbul and Greek–Turkish Relations 1918–1974 (Athens: Center for Asia Minor Studies, 1983), pp.144–73. For Armenians in this period, consult Soner Cagaptay, 'Race, Religion, and Ethnicity under High Kemalism' (Ph.D. Dissertation in progress, Yale University). See Soner Cagaptay, 'Anatolian Armenians in the 1920s: Religion, Identity and Security in Early Republican Turkey', unpublished paper. Afet [İnan], et. al., Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatları (General Themes of Turkish History) (Istanbul: Devlet Matbaası, 1930). Uluğ İğdemir, 'Atatürk'ün Emriyle Hazırlanan Programme' (A programme prepared on Atatürk's orders) in Belleten, Vol.27 (1963), p.644. Ibid., p.644. Ibid., p.647. Ibid., p.644. Members of the Society for the Study of Turkish History (eds.), Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatlarına Methal [Introduction to the General Themes of Turkish History] (Istanbul; Devlet Matbaası, 1930). Mustafa Ergün, Atatürk Devri Türk Eğitimi (Turkish Education under Atatürk) (Ankara: DTCF, 1982), p.126. Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatlarına, pp.26–30. Afet [İnan], 'Tarihten Evvel ve Tarih Fecrinde' [In Prehistoric Times and at the Dawn of History] Birinci Türk Tarih Kongresi [First Turkish History Congress] (Ankara: T.C. Maarif Vekaleti, 1933), p.31. Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatlarına, pp.50–8. [İnan], Tarihten Evvel ve Tarih Fecrinde, p.34. Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatlarına, p.8. Great Britain. Foreign Office: Political Departments: General Correspondence from 1906. Turkey. FO 371/16983.528. Embassy to the Foreign Office (London), 27 Jan. 1933. Annual Report for 1932 (hereafter Foreign Office). Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of Turkey 1930–1944. SD 867.4016 ARMENIANS/8. Sherill (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 8 Nov. 1932 (hereafter State Department). State Department. 867.9111/383. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 16 Nov. 1932. Digest of Turkish News, 30 October–12 November 1932. For Atatürk's role in the creation of the Turkish History Thesis, see Ergün, Atatürk Devri Türk Eğitimi, pp.125–132; and İğdemir, 'Atatürk'ün Emriyle Hazırlanan Program', pp.105–8. Türkiye Halkının Antropolojik Karakteri ve Türkiye Tarihi: Türk Irkının Vatanı Anadolu 64,000 kişi üzerinde Anket [The Anthropological Character of the People of Turkey and Turkish history: Anatolia, the Homeland of the Turkish Race and a Survey conducted on 64,000 people] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1947). For available copies of some of these works, see Eugène Pittard, Les Races et l'Histoire Introduction Ethnologique à l'Histoire (Paris: Le Renaissance du Livre, 1924); Arthur de Gobineau, The Inequality of Human Races, with preface by George L. Mosse, (New York: H. Fertig, 1999); and Alfred Cort Haddon, The Races of Man and Their Distribution (New York: Gordon Press, 1981). Ahmet Yıldız, Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyebilene [Happy is he, who can say he is a Turk) (Istanbul: İletişim, 2001), pp.165–6; and Artun Ünsal, 'La Bibliothèque Politique Française d'Atatürk', in Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont and Paul Dumont (eds.), La Turquie et la France a L'Époque d'Atatürk, Collection Turcica 1, (Paris: Association pour le Dévelopment d'Études Turques, 1981), p.42. Afet İnan, Medeni Bilgiler ve Atatürk'ün El Yazıları [Civics and Atatürk's Manuscripts] (Ankara: TTK, 1969), p.38; Tarih I Tarihten-evvelki Zamanlar ve Eski Zamanlar [History I Prehistoric and Ancient Ages] (Istanbul; Devlet Matbaası, 1931), p.20. İsmail Arar, 'Atatürk'ün Günümüz Olaylarına Işık Tutan Bazı Konuşmaları' [Some Homilies by Atatürk that Shed Light on our Era], Belleten, Vol.45–6, No.177 (1981), pp.23–4. İnan, Medeni Bilgiler, p.371. Afet [İnan], Vatandaşlık İçin Medeni Bilgiler [Civic Guidelines for Citizenship] (Istanbul: Devlet Matbaası, 1931), p.13. Yıldız, Ne Mutlu Türküm, p.159. State Department, 867.402/48. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 17 Oct. 1932. Memorandum. Birinci Türk Dil Kurultayı (First Turkish Language Congress) (Istanbul: Devlet Matbaası, 1933), pp.393–5. Ibid., pp.71–80. Ibid., pp.94–104. Birinci Türk Dil Kurultayı, pp.249–50. State Department, 867.402/48, From the Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 17 Oct. 1932. Uriel Heyd, Language Reform in Turkey (Jerusalem: Israel Oriental Society, 1954), pp.26–9. For a good review of the language purification movement, see Geoffrey Lewis, The Turkish Language Reform (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). State Department, 867.9111/353. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 16 Nov. 1932. Digest of Turkish Press 30 Oct.–12 Nov. 1932. Heyd, Language Reform, p.33. State Department, 867.402/74. Shaw (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 9 Sept. 1936. Foreign Office. FO 371/20094/E5890. Morgan (Istanbul) to Eden (London), 18 Sept. 1936. In formulating the 'Sun Language Theory', the Turkish scholars had been inspired by Austrian linguist Dr Hermann F. Kvergić of Vienna, who had argued that, 'Man first realized his own identity when he conceived the idea of establishing what the external objects surrounding him were.' Lewis, The Turkish Language Reform, p.57. For a Kemalist-era work that summarizes the Sun Language Theory succinctly, see Güneş Dil Teorisi ve Üçüncü Dil Kurultayı: Gaziantep Saylavı Ömer Besim Aksoy Tarafından 26 Eylül 1936 Dil Bayramında Verilen Konferans [The Sun Language Theory and the third Turkish Language Congress: a conference given by MP Ömer Besim Aksoy (Gaziantep) on the occasion of the language day on 26 Sept. 1936], (Gaziantep: C.H. Partisi Basımevi, 1937). Foreign Office, FO 371/20094/E5890. Morgan (Istanbul) to Eden (London), 18 Sept. 1936. State Department, 867.402/74. Shaw (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 9 Sept. 1936. Translation of article from La République, 29 Aug. 1936. Cumhuriyet, 6 Aug. 1935. İkinci Türk Tarih Kongresi, pp.8–15. Ibid., p.77. İstatistik Yıllığı, Cilt 10, pp.64–5. Ibid., pp.64–5. Heyd, Language Reform, p.30. State Department, 867.00/2048. Bursky (Izmir) to the State Department (Washington), 1 Nov. 1930. News of Izmir – 1930, No. 2. Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, is the language of the Sephardic Jews, who fled from Spain and Portugal during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and settled in various parts of the Ottoman Empire. This language is essentially medieval Spanish (and to a much lesser extent Portuguese) with a Hebrew influence in its vocabulary. Over the centuries, it has also been laden with words from Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Bulgarian, and Arabic. For a work from the 1920s, which explains the historical reasons as to why the Turkish Jews spoke Judeo-Spanish and French, see Avram Galanti, Vatandaş Türkçe Konuş [Citizen Speak Turkish] (Istanbul: Hüsn-i Tabiat Matbaası, 1928). On the other hand, for more on the Alliance schools, consult Aron Rodrigue, French Jews, Turkish Jews: The Alliance Israélite Universelle and The Politics of Jewish Schooling in Turkey (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990). State Department, 867.4016 JEWS/3. George (Izmir) to the State Department (Washington), 13 Dec. 1932. Germany: Auswärtiges Amt. Records of the German Foreign Office received by the Department of State, 1920–1945. T–120 4900. AA T–120 4900. Rosenberg (Ankara) to German Foreign Ministry (Berlin), 20 Dec. 1933. TBMM Zabıt Ceridesi, session IV, Vol.23, p.70. State Department, 867.9111/391. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 21 Feb. 1933. Digest of Turkish Press 5 Feb.–18 Feb. 1933. State Department, 867.9111/392. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 8 March 1933. Digest of Turkish Press 19 Feb.–4 March 1933. State Department, 867.9111/405. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), Aug. 1933. Digest of Turkish Press 16 July–11 Aug. 1933. State Department, 867.9111/390. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), Feb. 1933. Digest of Turkish Press 22 Jan.–4 Feb. 1933. State Department, 867.9111/410. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 11 Dec. 1933. Digest of Turkish Press 5 Nov.–2 Dec. 1933. Ibid. Jacob. M. Landau, Tekinalp: Bir Türk Yurtseveri (1883–1961) [Tekinalp: a Turkish patriot (1883–1961)] (Istanbul: İletişim, 1996), p.20. Foreign Office, FO 371/17958/ E4912. Loraine (Angora) to the Foreign Office (London), 7 July 1934; and Foreign Office. FO 371/17958/E6178. Catton (Mersina) to Morgan (Angora), 17 Sept. 1934. Foreign Office, FO 371/16985/E2053. Embassy (Constantinople) to the Foreign Office (London), 6 April 1933. Foreign Office, FO 371/16985/E2053. Embassy (Angora) to the Foreign Office (London), 6 April 1934. State Department, 867.9111/ Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 11 Jan. 1933. Digest of Turkish Press. Foreign Office, FO 371/17958/E4912. Loraine (Angora) to the Foreign Office (London), 27 July 1934. Copy of letter, Catton (Mersina) to Loraine (Angora), 7 July 1934. Foreign Office, FO 371/17969/E5028. Davis (Smyrna) to Loraine (Angora), 19 July 1934. FO 371/17969/E5028. Davis (Smyrna) to Loraine (Angora), 2 Aug. 1934. CHP Dördüncü Büyük Kurultayı Görüşmeleri Tutulgası [Records of the sessions of CHP's Fourth General Congress] (Ankara: 9–16 May 1935), p.149. Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında, pp.269–72. State Department, 867.9111/422. Embassy (Istanbul) to the State Department (Washington), 3 Oct. 1934. Digest of Turkish Press, 12 Aug.–22 Sept. 1934. Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında, p.273. Landau, Tekinalp, p.21. Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında, pp.275–6. Ibid., pp.281–7. Ibid., pp.377–9. Aktar, Varlık Vergisi ve 'Türkleştirme', pp.60–6, 103–8; Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında, pp.502–3; and Parla, Kemalist Tek–Parti İdeolojisi, pp.176–221. Erik Jan Zurcher, 'Young Turks, Ottoman Muslims and Turkish Nationalists', in Kemal Karpat (ed.), Modern Turkey and Ottoman Past (Leiden: Brill, 2000), p.179. Foreign Office, FO 371/21915/E4624. Loraine (Ankara) to the Foreign Office (London), 8 Aug. 1938. For the fluctuating meanings of the term 'nation' over the last few centuries, see American Heritage Dictionary, (1975), p.874.