Citizenship and the Nation-State in Greece and Turkey (review)

Amongst the grand narratives of the nation and nationalism neither Greek nor Turkish is all that visible or perceptible. When compared with narratives that we are well familiar with such as German or French nationalisms, we know relatively little about the ways in which nations were articulated and nationalisms were historically enacted in Greece and Turkey. This is, of course, the case in European and American social sciences and humanities especially in the English language. By contrast, there are veritable literatures in both Turkish and Greek on the formation of their respective nations. Thus, while in Turkish and Greek numerous books exist on nation and nationalism, English, French and German social sciences and humanities have paid scant attention to either. Even less scant has been a comparative perspective on the formation of Turkish and Greek nation-states as they undoubtedly share a history. This edited book by Faruk Birtek and Thalia Dragonas addresses both lacunae in the literature: it is a welcome contribution to the study of both Greek and Turkish nation-states as well as providing valuable comparative insights that amply illustrate the usefulness of studying them together. The book is the first in a new series that proposes to initiate a dialogue amongst social and historical studies on Turkey and Greece.

The fruits of this approach are visible throughout most of the volume. Reading Çaglar Keyder on the emergence of Turkish nationalism from the millet system in which the Greek communities played a significant role makes it immediately recognizable how Turkish nationalism was made possible as a response to other emerging nationalisms of the millets rather than either Greek or Turkish nationalism being an isolated and solitary awakening as their advocates would have us believe. The creation of a new geographic imagination and historical symbolism of the Turkish republic and nation were deeply intertwined with similar imaginations and symbolism of competing nationalisms of the millets. Reading Faruk Birtek confirms how spaces of identity and negotiation of difference were radically altered from the millet system and its imperial foundations to the gradual emergence of republication citizenship that began as early as the reform period of the nineteenth century. Reading Kostas Kostis illustrates how much of this shared history is absent from the narratives of Greek nationalism. Kostis demonstrates that the absence of its Ottoman past pervades not only populist and popular historiographies but also professional accounts. If Kostis illustrates this absence in Greek historiography, Padelis Lekas illustrates the success of nationalism in conquering peoplehood. Hakan Erdem demonstrates how the War of Greek independence that took place between 1821 and 1828 is absent from the accounts of Turkish nationalism. In fact, the significance of this independence can hardly be discerned in Turkish republican narratives of its own emergence and, as Erdem argues, it can hardly be overstated. Taken together, chapters by Keyder, Birtek, Kostis, Lakas, and Erdem effectively illustrate the importance of studying the emergence of nationalism in tandem with one another at least in the case of Greek and Turkish nationalisms.

Chapters by Yeşim Arat and Avdela on the struggles of women for recognition and their claim for rights also stage together a very useful comparison. That, for example, women win suffrage in Turkey in 1934, well before their Greek counterparts in 1952, does not mean much unless one considers, as Arat does, the context in which these rights were claimed and extended. Arat argues that until the 1980s, women's political rights were by and large a male-driven discourse that did not involve staged struggles or claims for recognition. This was at least the case in the early years of the republican citizenship. By contrast, Avdela illustrates that Greek women won suffrage as a result of its politicizing motherhood and gaining rights to public sphere. How these differences can be accounted for by historical analyses and how they make a difference today in Greek and Turkish regimes of...