Modernity and the Transformation of Turkish Culture: Between Assimilation and Denial

1. Modernity is about dynamism and openness towards change • However, this openness towards change may also be perceived as a threat. • Shall we not suffer through our change? What shall we turn into? • This fear of change promotes a logic of closure.

2. It is the western culture that has most effectively and creatively resisted this logic of closure • We see in western history the rupture of this closure and the questioning of everything that is medieval • Institutions, significations, beliefs etc. • This challenge to what has pre existed can be referred to as “modernity’s dynamism”

3. This of course is one way of talking about western modernization • Another significant way modernity can be described is through the way it has defined itself against the ‘pre-modern’ • The dynamic west distinguishing itself from the static and immobile orient • The world is divided into two between the enlightened and the benighted • The “other” in this case was the orient and it was declared alien to western modernity • This meant that Europe closed itself imperiously to the reality of these other cultures

4. This meant that the case of the premodern was quite problematic • Europe was closed to the realities of the pre-modern societies, but expected them to be like Europe. • For the pre-modern societies, it was not possible to shut out the need cultural dynamism of Europe. The western achievement provoked admiration. • The not yet modern cultures felt the compulsion to emulate the western model

5. In this sense, there was an openness to change on behalf of the pre-modern societies towards modernity • However this attempt to emulate was almost never successful. • The institutional, social dynamics were usually adopted but the cultural dynamism of modernity remained missing • This also means that exposure to modern cultures resulted not in cultural creativity and emancipation but in conformism and dependency. • Of course, there was also the fear that dissolvent principles of modernization would be fatal to the historical culture. • In this sense, there seemes to be two choices: assimilation of an alien modernity or reversion to fake authenticity of origins. (false choice – a choice imposed by the West! İnterrupting Sayfa 63)

6. Where can we situate Turkish modernization project within this equation? • We shall first try to consider “Turkey” of the European imagination. Memories of the Ottoman threat etc. • Than we will look at the reality of Turkish culture and its transformation towards modernization. • Than we will look at more recent developments. The resurgence of repressed elements of culture throughout the post 1990s.

7. Turkey” of the European imagination • The Turks sought to be admitted as full members of Western society in order to escape from the position of being its “other” • Although at certain aspects they have managed to become a part of Europe • Among Europeans, there has remained the sense that Turkey is not authentically of the west

8. The case of Turkish membership of the EU Union for example has been forcefully put by successive governments (Sayfa 65 Interrupting) • However, Europe is not convinced. It argues that Turkey has not yet fully resolved its identity crises towards westernization • The Europe expects Turkey to assimilate western values and standards. However it also tells Turkey that it will never succeed • In other words, Europe demands a sacrifice and does not accept it. • Turkey in its history, made this sacrifice by making the westward turn

9. From the period of the Tanzimat (1839 – 1876 Ottoman Reforms) reforms, through to the movements of the Young Ottomans and Young Turks the Ottoman empire tried to find itself a place in the west • The reforms of Ataturk are a result of this process. • Turkey opened itself to the forces of western modernization unconditionally • The west was equated with civilization thus modernization • Universal culture (western/modern), science, technology, rationalism were all adopted as components of modernization. • In order to reach the level of western civilizations a social transformation was needed that would civilize people.

10. As a result of these ideals, institutions of nationalism and nation-state were adopted since they were western. • Westernization was the road to salvation and it had to be adopted fully. • However, the modernization and national culture instituted in Turkey turned out to be an empty affair. • The institutions and arrangements of a modern society have been put in place • But the cultural dynamics of modernity have been lacking.

11. When we think about Turkish modernization, we can tell this story from two different perspectives. • It can be told via Kemalism’s openness to Europe, cultural assimilation and development • But it can also be told as a narrative of denial. Of what Kemalism closed Turkish culture and society to. • We will mainly deal with the second narrative today. • For the Kemalist elite, modernity could be accomplished only through the rejection of historical and traditional culture

12. This resulted in the suppression of historical memory in the collectivity. • But perhaps more problematically, it resulted in the denial and repression of Turkish culture and society. • The Ottoman past was perceived as backward, particularly its religious and imperial culture was denounced as the source of all evil. • The Ataturk reforms worked effectively in erasing the historical legacy

13. According to Ataturk, the new Turkey had no relations with the Ottoman past • The Republican elite attempted to annihilate the past • But this was not just a war against the past • This was also the suppression of the contemporary actuality. • Anything that came from the past and which was now a part of contemporary culture proposed a problem for Turkish modernity

14. Turkish modernization • The Ottoman Empire consisted of numerous communities that had their own local names. • The sum of these local communities made up the Ottoman society. • How then these communities with diverse backgrounds and belongings were able to live together? • the Empire left each community within its own dynamics as long as they paid their taxes and accepted the rulership of the Ottoman Empire. Each culture lived within its own neighborly boundaries. • the Empire as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic society

15. With the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, a process of Westernization started to take place. • This was as early as Tanzimat • The idea of Westernization was actually a result of the decline of the Empire, and the creators of this ideology were mostly revolutionary groups who later converged under the name of Young Turks

16. The establishment of the Turkish Republic can also be marked as the starting point of the construction of modern Turkey. • While the Republic was being formed, the founders of modern Turkey have been visibly influenced by the remnants of the Ottoman era. • However these influences have not always been towards preserving continuity with the past. • Many characteristic traits of the new Turkish nation have emerged as a reaction to, or a break with the social structure of the recently collapsed Empire.

17. The modernizing elites of Turkey intended to carry the movement of modernization deep into the lives of the public and hearts of the people. • “They were not satisfied with simply increasing rationality, bureaucratization, and organizational efficiency; they also professed a need for social transformation in order to achieve secularization, autonomy for the individual, and the equality of men and women” [Keyder, 1997, p.37]. • This process of modernization of Turkey has mostly been perceived and interpreted as a modernization from above. • “The Turkish mode of modernization is an unusual example of how indigenous ruling elites have imposed their notions of a Western cultural model, resulting in conversion almost on a civilization scale” [Göle, 1997, pp. 83,84].

18. In order to make a break with the collapsed Empire and form a modern nation-state, many revolutions and reforms needed to be made. • One, and maybe the most important of the reactions to and breaks with the Ottoman era can be seen as the transition from the multi cultural, ethnic and religious society to a single, unifying, transcendent national identity. • Because modern Turkey needed to become a nation-state, which was conceived around a unified national identity. • The government pursued the goal of cultural homogenization.