Yeni adam (the new man)

Building state and nation in the Turkish Republic

How to build a new state: external steps

Gain sovereignty over landPost WWI: Anatolia divided between France, Britain, Greece, Russia, Italy1920 Treaty of Sevres (never implemented):

Creation of Armenia, Kurdish plebisciteTurkish war of independence, 1921-19221923 Treaty of Lausanne

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

Establish bordersWest and EastLose Mosul (1926), Gain Hatay (1939)

Get international recognitionTurkey joins League of Nations, 1932

Human effects: 20% decline in Anatolian population… 2.5 million Anatolian Muslims dead… around 1 million Armenians dead… in some provinces around 30% women were widows…famine, epidemics, mass migration.

What kind of state? The nation state as the

new prototypeRole models: powerful national states New international normsEnd of God: Need for new legitimizing discourse

How to build a new (national) state: internal steps

Establish and extend state authorityCenter

The Republican Regime (Ankara)One-party state under the Republican People’s Party (RPP)

Drawing in the PeripheryCreation of new administrative provinces, railroads

Invent the nationThe new Turk (Gökalp):

National, western, modern, secular

Boundaries of belonging and exclusion

Reinventing the state

Creation of the Turkish Republic, 1923

Abolition of the Sultanate, 1922Abolition of the Caliphate, 1924

Turkish Grand National Assembly under the control of Mustafa Kemal and the RPPIncreasingly authoritarian after 1925

Photo: http://www.stanford.edu/~ofidaner/ataturk/pictures/html

Guiding principles: Kemalism

RepublicanismOpposed to caliphate

NationalismOpposed to internationalismExplicitly Turkish (anti-Ottoman)

PopularismClassless society (anticommunist)

Etatism (“Statism”)State-directed industrialization

SecularismState control over religious institutions

“Revolutionism” or ReformismContinuing commitment to “western” Kemalist reforms

Creating the new nation: Image & Practice

What Turks should wearHats not fezzes (1925) Religious attire prohibited in public (1934)Veil discouraged (but not banned)

How Turks should be namedAbolition of nicknames and personal titles (1934)

No more “Pasha”s, Beys, and Efendis

Taking of surnames (last names) (1934)Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

An early image of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) praying outside of the Turkish Grand National Assembly building. Probably from 1920-1922 prior to the establishment of the Republic and the abolition of the fez.

Photo: http://www.stanford.edu/~ofidaner/ataturk/pictures/html/dua.html

New forms of dress, 1930s.

Creating the nation, cont.Management of time and space

Introduction of Western calendar (1925)Introduction of the metric system (1931)

Relationship with godmodern secular system of jurisprudence (instead of Sharia law) (1926) Banning of religious brotherhoods (tarikat) (1925)Sunday as day of rest (not Friday)

Creating the new nation, cont.

Gender Relations and the status of women

Right to vote and be elected (1934)Celebration of new female imagesBanning of polygamy

How to’s of Nation-building

Two examples of major nation-building projects in

Turkey

1) Cultivate your youth*“The government regards the child as the root of the country, as that which gives the nation its numbers, and as the foundation of the military.

The child is in training to be a member of the country’s governing body … and is the extension of today’s power into the future. The child is the consumer of the country’s products and the producer of agriculture and merchandise. The child is the greatest asset and resource of the country. The child is the nation itself.”

--Dr. Salim Ahmed* Images and content in this section drawn from the work of Kathryn Libal, U. Connecticut. Thanks to her for their use!

The “Robust Turkish Child,” front cover, 1928/29

“A nation’s future is based upon its children’s happiness, health, & industriousness,” from 1927/28

“Robust and Sweet Children”, 1927/28

Long may you live! Today’s our day too.

Cartoon referring to 23 April Sovereignty and Children’s Day, 1930

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with some of his adopted children.

2) Develop and celebrate a common language

New use of Roman alphabet (instead of Arabic) 1928“Purification” of Turkish through eradication of Persian and Arabic-origin wordsSun-language theory: Turkish as the “father” of all languages

Turkish Language Institute (Turk Dil Kurumu)

Photo: Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic, Jan. 1929, p. 94

Ottoman Turkish… Modern Turkish…