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“Citizen, Speak Turkish!”: A Nation in the Making

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13537110701293500

1557-2986

Senem Aslan,

Turkey's Politics and Society

Abstract This article analyzes one of the attempts to broaden the use of the Turkish language during the first two decades of the Turkish Republic in order to create a homogeneous nation-state. The “Citizen, Speak Turkish!” campaign, which aimed to put pressure on non-Turkish speakers to speak Turkish in public, shows that a state-centered analysis is inadequate to explain the nation-building process in Turkey. This article demonstrates how the official Turkification policies were supported, recreated, and implemented by a social network composed of those who considered themselves the state's missionaries. It also discusses the debates and conflicts among the nationalists, both at the state and social level, about the boundaries of the Turkish nation. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Ceren Belge, Reşat Kasaba, Ohannes Kılıçdağı, Michael Meeker, Joel Migdal, Nicole Watts, Jason Scheideman, and the participants in the Turkish Studies Group at the University of Washington for their valuable comments. The Maurice and Lois Schwartz Grant of the University of Washington funded the research for this article. Notes 1. “Vatandaş Gözün Aydın,” Hizmet, 30 Jan. 1928 (author's translation). 2. Fuat Dündar, Türkiye Nüfus Sayımlarında Azınlıklar (İstanbul: Doz Yayınları, 1999), p. 157. 3. Erik J. Zürcher, Turkey: A Modern History (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997), p. 189. 4. Charles Tilly, “States and Nationalism in Europe 1492–1992,” Theory and Society, Vol. 23 (Feb. 1994), p. 133. 5. Michael Hechter, Containing Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). 6. For more on modern state formation and nationalism see Charles Tilly, “Reflections on the History of European State Making,” in Charles Tilly (ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1975) and David Laitin, Language Repertoires and State Construction in Africa (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 7. See Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996) and Ana Maria Alonso, “The Politics of Space, Time, and Substance: State Formation, Nationalism, and Ethnicity, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 23 (1994), pp. 379–405. 8. Eugen Joseph Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976). 9. Tilly, p. 140. 10. David Nugent, “Building the State, Making the Nation: The Basis and Limits of State Centralization in ‘Modern’ Peru,” American Anthropologist, Vol. 96, No. 2 (June 1994), p. 335. 11. Ibid., p. 333. 12. Ibid., p. 336. 13. Joel S. Migdal, State in Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Constitute One Another (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 112. 14. Some examples of this literature are Ahmet Yıldız, Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyebilene (İstanbul: İletişim, 2001); Ayhan Aktar, Varlık Vergisi ve Türkleştirme Politikaları (İstanbul: İletişim, 2000); Taha Parla and Andrew Davison, Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey: Progress or Order? (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press: 2004); M. Çağatay Okutan, Tek Parti Döneminde Azınlık Politikaları (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2004); and Hugh Poulton, Top Hat, Grey Wolf, and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic (New York: New York University Press, 1997). 15. During the 1920s very few Turkish Jews were familiar with Hebrew and almost all spoke Judeo-Spanish (Ladino). 16. Dündar, p. 157. 17. Cumhuriyet, 14 Jan. 1928; Milliyet, 16 Jan. 1928. 18. Turkish Hearths was the organization that aimed to disseminate nationalist ideas among the Turkish people. It was financially supported by the single party (RPP) but had a private status. By 1930, Turkish Hearths had 257 branches and 32,000 members all over the country. For more information see Kemal Karpat, “The People's Houses in Turkey,” The Middle East Journal, Vol. 17 (Winter–Spring 1963), pp. 55–67. An extensive study of Turkish Hearths was made by Füsun Üstel, İmparatorluktan Ulus–Devlete Türk Milliyetçiliği: Türk Ocakları (1912–1931), (İstanbul: İletişim, 1997). 19. Milliyet, 21 Jan. 1928. 20. Milliyet, 27 Jan. 1928. 21. Cumhuriyet, 14 Jan. 1928. 22. Quoted in Soner Çağaptay, “Reconfiguring the Turkish Nation in the 1930s,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer 2002), p. 69. 23. For more on Turkification policies see Yıldız. 24. For the text of the Settlement Law see T. C. Resmi Gazete (The Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey), 21 June 1934, n. 2733; also see Kemal Kirişçi, “Disaggregating Turkish Citizenship and Immigration Practices,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3 (July 2000), pp. 1–22 and Çağaptay, pp. 67–82. 25. John R. Perry, “Language Reform in Turkey and Iran,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3 (1985), p. 299. 26. For more on language reform see Yılmaz Çolak, “Language Policy and Official Ideology in Early Republican Turkey,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 40, No. 6 (Nov. 2004), pp. 67–91. 27. M. Çağatay Okutan, Bozkurt’tan Kur’an’a Milli Türk Talebe Birliği (MTTB) 1916–1980 (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2004). 28. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London/New York: Verso, 1991), p. 81. 29. Sibel Bozdoğan, Modernism and Nation Building: Turkish Architectural Culture in the Early Republic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), p. 11. 30. Vakit, 5 Feb. 1928. 31. Hizmet, 28 March 1928. 32. Vakit, 18 Feb. 1928. 33. Cumhuriyet, 20 Feb. 1928. 34. Rıfat Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri: Bir Türkleştirme Serüveni 1923–1945 (İstanbul: İletişim, 2000), pp. 136–7. 35. Vakit, 29 Feb. 1928. 36. Yunus Nadi, “Vatandaş Kavga Etme,” Cumhuriyet, 5 April 1928. 37. Falih Rıfkı, “Türkiye’de Türkçe,” Milliyet, 24 Jan. 1928. 38. Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), p. 222. 39. Ibid., pp. 219–22. 40. Orhan Rahmi, “Türkçe Görüşmeliyiz,” Ahenk, 4 Sep. 1929 (author's translation). 41. Hizmet, 22 Feb. 1928; Ahenk, 15 Jan. 1928. 42. The most important secularization reforms were: the abolition of the Caliphate, religious schools, and Sharia courts; the closure of religious brotherhoods, dervish orders, and sacred tombs; the placement of religious affairs and education under the control of the state; and the ban on wearing the fez and religious attire. 43. Türkmenoğlu Zeynel Besim, “Türkiye’de Türkçe,” Hizmet, 22 Feb. 1928. 44. Halil Halid, “Türkçe Konuşuyorlar mı?” Vakit, 18 Feb. 1928. 45. Hizmet, 30 Jan. 1928. 46. Mehmet Şevki, “Lisan Mektepleri Lazım,” Ahenk, 21 Jan. 1928. 47. Hizmet, 5 March 1928. 48. Türkmenoğlu Zeynel Besim, “Evamir-i Aşre,” Hizmet, 13 March 1928 (author's translation). 49. Cited in Bali, p. 144 (author's translation). 50. Sarah Stein, Making Jews Modern: The Yiddish and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), pp. 70, 78–9. 51. Avram Galanti, Vatandaş Türkçe Konuş Yahut Türkçe’nin Tamimi Meselesi, Tarihi, İçtimai, Siyasi Tetkik (İstanbul: Hüsn-ü Tabiat Matbaası, 1928). 52. Bali, pp. 150–52, 158. 53. “İspanyolca Yerine Türkçe,” Milliyet, 29 Nov. 1932. 54. Dündar, p. 157. 55. For a more detailed discussion, see Ahmet İçduygu, Yılmaz Çolak and Nalan Soyarık, “What is the Matter with Citizenship? A Turkish Debate,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 35. No. 4 (Oct. 1999), pp. 187–208; Mesut Yeğen, “Citizenship and Ethnicity in Turkey,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 40, No. 6 (Nov. 2004), pp. 51–66. 56. Paul R. Brass, “Elite Interests, Popular Passions, and Social Power in the Language Politics of India,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (May 2004), p. 360–61. 57. Taner Akçam, From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (London/New York: Zed Books, 2004), pp. 80–81. 58. Çağlar Keyder, “The Ottoman Empire,” in Karen Barkey and Mark Von Hagen (eds.), After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building (Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), p. 36. 59. The state took a series of initiatives for the Turkification of economic life. In 1923, 50 percent of the foreign companies’ employees were required to be Turks. At that time 90 percent of the employees in foreign companies were non-Turkish citizens and non-Muslims. See M. Çağatay Okutan, Tek Parti Döneminde Azınlık Politikaları (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2004), p. 214. In 1926, the parliament approved a law that required all companies to use the Turkish language in their correspondence. According to Ayhan Aktar, the aim of the law was not to put pressure on those who did not know Turkish to learn Turkish; its aim was to put pressure on the foreign companies to employ Muslim-Turks and increase their number in the private sector. Aktar, p. 117. 60. Avner Levi, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nde Yahudiler (İstanbul: İletişim, 1992), p. 30. 61. Liah Greenfeld and Daniel Chirot, “Nationalism and Aggression,” Theory and Society, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1994), p. 84. 62. Bali, pp. 103–4. 63. M. Çağatay Okutan, Tek Parti Döneminde Azınlık Politikaları, p. 120. 64. Bali, pp. 40, 109. 65. Aron Rodrigue, “From Millet to Minority: Turkish Jewry,” in Pierre Birnbaum and Ira Katznelson (eds.), Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), p. 254. 66. Bali, p. 34. 67. See Mesut Yeğen, endnote 43. The immigration policies also support Yeğen's claim. Those ethnic groups that had independent states and strong nationalist movements, such as Albanians and Arabs, were not allowed to immigrate to Turkey because they were considered difficult to assimilate. However, stateless Balkan Muslims, such as Pomaks and Bosnians, were allowed to immigrate since they were thought to be loyal to the Turkish state. See Soner Çağaptay, p. 75. 68. Vakit, 9 April 1928. 69. Mehmet Mithat, “Bir Milletin Hakimiyeti Hars ve Lisan Hakimiyetidir,” Hizmet, 3 May 1928. 70. Milliyet, 9 April 1928 (author's translation). 71. Bali, p. 147. 72. Milliyet, 9 April 1928. 73. Mehmet Asım, “İfratkar Olmayalım,” Vakit, 9 April 1928. 74. Gıyas İshak, “Gayri Türkler Nasıl Türkleştirilebilir?” Cumhuriyet, 28–29 April 1928. 75. Vakit, 9 April 1928. 76. Milliyet, 9 April 1928. 77. Milliyet, 11 April 1928. 78. Türkmenoğlu Zeynel Besim, “Edirne Hadisesi,” Hizmet, 10 April 1928. 79. Bali, pp. 157–164. 80. M. Çağatay Okutan, Bozkurt’tan Kur’an’a Milli Türk Talebe Birliği, p. 36. 81. Cumhuriyet, 24 Feb. 1933. 82. Cumhuriyet, 26 Feb. 1933; Milliyet, 26 Feb. 1933. 83. Cumhuriyet, 27 Feb. 1933. 84. “Büyük Gazi ve Gençlik,” Cumhuriyet, 28 April 1933 (author's translation). 85. Cumhuriyet, 14 Aug. 1934 and 15 Aug. 1934. 86. Muammer Taylak, Türkiye’de Öğrenci Hareketleri (İstanbul: Hamle Yayınevi, 1997), p. 183. 87. M. Çağatay Okutan, Bozkurt’tan Kur’an’a Milli Türk Talebe Birliği, p. 84. 88. Kenneth G. Lawson, “Belonging or Not: Rossland, British Columbia, during the Great War,” in Joel S. Migdal (ed.), Boundaries and Belonging: States and Societies in the Struggle to Shape Identities and Local Practices (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 177. 89. Bali, pp. 108, 277. 90. Cumhuriyet, 7–8 March 1933. 91. Bali, pp. 108, 142. The last of these bills was proposed by Sabri Toprak, a parliamentarian from Manisa in 1937. He suggested that Turkish citizens who did not speak Turkish in public should either be jailed or fined. For details see TBMM Zabıt Ceridesi, 1938, v. 26, 5th session. This bill led to another extensive debate in the press about the means to spread the Turkish language. However, the parliamentary commission did not pass the bill. For more see Bali, pp. 295–301. 92. Ibid., p. 280. 93. Hasan Cemal, Kürtler (İstanbul: Doğan Kitap, 2003), p. 373. The state's policies towards the Kurds confirm that the state considered loyalty to be more important than Muslimhood for achieving Turkishness. The Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s led the state elite to conclude that the state should keep a close eye on the Kurdish population and that assimilation of the Kurds by using the force of the state is necessary. 94. Migdal, pp. 116–17. 95. Zackary Lockman, “Arab Workers and Arab Nationalism in Palestine”, in James Jankowski and Israel Gershoni (eds.) Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 254.