scholarly journals Mid-Century Sinan: Vasfi Egeli and the Turkish Republic s First Mosque

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-68
Author(s):  
Gavin Moulton
Keyword(s):  
Turkish Republic

The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taner Akçam
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Armenian Genocide ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
Young Turks ◽  
East And West ◽  
Late Ottoman Empire ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Late Ottoman

Introducing new evidence from more than 600 secret Ottoman documents, this book demonstrates in detail that the Armenian Genocide and the expulsion of Greeks from the late Ottoman Empire resulted from an official effort to rid the empire of its Christian subjects. This book goes deep inside the bureaucratic machinery of Ottoman Turkey to show how a dying empire embraced genocide and ethnic cleansing. Although the deportation and killing of Armenians was internationally condemned in 1915 as a “crime against humanity and civilization,” the Ottoman government initiated a policy of denial that is still maintained by the Turkish Republic. The case for Turkey's “official history” rests on documents from the Ottoman imperial archives, to which access has been heavily restricted until recently. It is this very source that the book now uses to overturn the official narrative. The documents presented here attest to a late-Ottoman policy of Turkification, the goal of which was no less than the radical demographic transformation of Anatolia. To that end, about one-third of Anatolia's 15 million people were displaced, deported, expelled, or massacred, destroying the ethno-religious diversity of an ancient cultural crossroads of East and West, and paving the way for the Turkish Republic. By uncovering the central roles played by demographic engineering and assimilation in the Armenian Genocide, this book will fundamentally change how this crime is understood and show that physical destruction is not the only aspect of the genocidal process.

Fin-de-Siècle Salonica

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Circle Of Friends ◽  
New Institutions

This chapter discusses Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's childhood in the ancient Macedonian capital of Salonica. The future founder of the Turkish Republic was born one winter, either in 1880 or in 1881. His upbringing was more liberal than that of most lower-class Muslims. No one in his family's circle of friends and relatives, for instance, practiced polygamy. Likewise, his father reportedly drank alcohol, which was abhorred by conservatives. The confusing dualism produced in Ottoman society by the reforms of the nineteenth century had its first imprint on Mustafa when his parents entered into a heated argument about his education. There is little doubt that Mustafa Kemal's deep-seated predilection for new institutions and practices owed much to his years as one of a handful of students in the empire who had their primary education at a private elementary school devoid of a strong religious focus.

The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-114
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Kalin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Intellectual Foundations ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Said Nursi ◽  
Turkish Society

This book, originally published in 1962, has now become a classic on the historyof modemTurkish political thought, whose beginning is usually traced back to theT-t period (1836-1878), the most turbulent and crucial period of modemTurkish history. Serif Mardin, the famous Turkish historian and political scientist,is like a household name to those interested in modern Ottoman and Turkishintellectual history. In his numerous books and articles, which followed thepublication of the present work, Mardin took the herculean task of unearthing theparameters of modem Turkish thought with an almost solitary conscience. It issimply impossible to have a discussion about Islam and Turkish society, socialchange, modernization or secularization without referring to Mardin’s work,which is woven around a string of ideas, concepts and analytical tools, all of whichenable him to see the realities of Turkey and the modem Islamic world both fromwithin and from without. His more recent Relwon and Social change in Twkey:’ c irhe of&aYuzaman Said Nuni (New York: SUNY Press, 1989),w hich is thesingle most important book written in English on Said Nursi, the founder of theNurcu movement in Turkey, is the result of the same set of principles Mardin hasadopted throughout his career: diligent scholarship, resistance to fads, and willingnessto understand before passing any judgements on his subject.The present work under review touches upon the most sensitive and crucialperiod of modem Turkish history, viz., the end of the Ottoman era and the establishmentof the modem Turkish Republic. Mardin’s exclusive emphasis is on theTanzirnat period, and the figures that laid the intellectual foundations of it. Thesignificance of this period can hardly be overemphasized, not only for Turkish historybut also for the rest of the Islamic world. It was in this period that a wholegeneration of ottoman intellectuals, from right to left, was faced with the historictask of confronting modem western civilization in the profoundest sense of theterm, and their successes and failures set the agenda for the modem intellectualhistory of Turkey for decades to follow. Their troublesome journey was shaped bythe historical setting, in which they came to terms with such questions as modernism,secularism, westernization, nationalism, Islam, society, science, tradition,and a host of other issues that continue to haunt the minds of the Islamic worldtoday. Their trial, however, was linked to the rest of the members of the Islamicworld in ways, as the present work under review shows, more important than isusually thought, and this issue, namely the place of ottoman intellectual historywithin the larger context of modem klamic thought, has not been resolved. In this ...

The “Caliphate Question”

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Omar Khan
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Arab World ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
British Foreign Policy ◽  
The First World War ◽  
British Policy ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
First World

This paper examines British approaches to the caliphate from the beginning of the First World War to the aftermath of its dissolution in 1924. Background will be given as to how the Islamic conception of the caliphate shifted over time. British use of the caliphate as a political tool in the nineteenth century is also examined, especially with regards to how strong British-Ottoman ties prior to the First World War affected India’s Muslims. The primary focus, however, will be on British ties with King Hussein of the Hejaz. British suggestions of an Arab caliphate encouraged the idea that Hussein should assume the title of caliph, which would later be a cause of agitation and concern for British policy in the British Empire. This is especially true with regards to India, as fear of Indo-Muslim opinion would deeply influence British policy when it came to the Ottoman Empire’s position in the post-bellum period. With the creation of the Turkish Republic and the subsequent disestablishment of the Ottoman caliphate, Hussein, sharif of the Hejaz, would officially announce his claim to the title. This dismayed the British foreign policy establishment, which strove to avoid suggestions of complicity lest further anti-British activity be encouraged in India. Eventually, the end of Hussein would come from Ibn Saud, his principle rival in the Arab world. Despite Hussein’s status as a British ally, the widespread anger against him in the Islamic world over the caliphate would persuade the British to distance themselves from him and his religious pretensions.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon A. Waldman ◽  
Emre Caliskan
Keyword(s):  
Turkish Republic ◽  
Fragile State ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
Illiberal Democracy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Election Victory

After another election victory, but this time winning almost 52 per cent of the vote, Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first popularly elected president in the history of the Turkish Republic. In his victory speech, Erdogan vowed to lead Turkey into a "new era of social reconciliation by leaving old disputes in the Old Turkey." He also called on the public to "mobilize our energy for New Turkey”. However, his polarizing rhetoric and steps towards an illiberal democracy may alienate many Turkish discontents, and unless wounds are healed Turkey risks being a weak and fragile state.

Governing population, public health, and malaria in the early Turkish republic

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle T. Evered ◽  
Emine Ö. Evered
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Turkish Republic

Eternal Guests, Mimics, and Dönme: The Place of German and Turkish Jews in Modern Turkey

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kader Konuk
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
German Jews ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Turkish Culture ◽  
The Status ◽  
Modern Turkey ◽  
The One ◽  
European Civilization

AbstractThe place of Jews was highly ambiguous in the newly founded Turkish Republic: In 1928 an assimilationist campaign was launched against Turkish Jews, while only a few years later, in 1933, German scholars—many of them Jewish—were taken in so as to help Europeanize the nation. Turkish authorities regarded the emigrants as representatives of European civilization and appointed scholars like Erich Auerbach to prestigious academic positions that were vital for redefining the humanities in Turkey. This article explores the country's twofold assimilationist policies. On the one hand, Turkey required of its citizens—regardless of ethnic or religious origins—that they conform to a unified Turkish culture; on the other hand, an equally assimilationist modernization project was designed to achieve cultural recognition from the heart of Europe. By linking historical and contemporary discourses, this article shows how tropes of Jewishness have played—and continue to play—a critical role in the conception of Turkish nationhood. The status of Erich Auerbach, Chair of the Faculty for Western Languages and Literatures at İstanbul University from 1936 to 1947, is central to this investigation into the place of Turkish and German Jews in modern Turkey.

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