1. Militarist Turkish-Islamic Synthesis: Official Ideology, Official History and Nationalism in the Second Constitutional Period
- Author:
- Mehmet O. Alkan
- Publication Date:
- 01-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
- Institution:
- Sakarya University (SAU)
- Abstract:
- The “Promulgation of Freedom” on 23 July 1908 paved the way to the Second Constitutional Period. A clear ideological change occurred in this 10 years period that lasted in 1918. This shift in ideology was a transition from “Islamic-Turkish Synthesis” of Abdülhamid II’s reign to the “Turkish-Islamic Synthesis.” The Committee of Union and Progress could have put into practice “Turkish nationalism” or “militant secularism” as the Republican People’s Party did after 1924 when they took the power after the coup of 23 January 1913. However the Balkan Wars and the World War I enforced them to postpone their will. On the contrary they made use of Islam as a unifying and mobilizing source of power and tried to build Turkish identity between the lines in the education system. That is why, as a result of these circumstances, “Militarist nationalism” and “Militarist Turkish-Islamic Synthesis” came into agenda in the Second Constitutional Period.
- Topic:
- Islam, Constitution, History, and Ideology
- Political Geography:
- Turkey