An Intellectual History of Turkish Nationalism: Between Turkish Ethnicity and Islamic Identity by Umut Uzer (review)

In An Intellectual History of Turkish Nationalism: Between Turkish Ethnicity and Islamic Identity, Uzer traces the changes in the phenomenon of "Turkish Nationalism" with a detailed analysis of published texts. Given the abundance of literature on politics, Uzer easily fills a gap by keeping his analysis primarily on the texts while addressing the political context only when necessary. He defines nationalism as "a cultural phenomenon based on language, sentiments, and symbolism and thus cannot be defined as purely an ideology or a political movement" (p. 9). He begins by exploring the birth of Turkish nationalism by highlighting three main factors behind its emergence. Later, he defines three different nationalisms as he traces the transformations in Turkish nationalism from a forward-thinking, revolutionary approach to a conservative ideology that highlights the Islamic past of Turkey.

Uzer defines the three main factors that led to the formation of Turkish nationalism as: beginning of nationalist movements among non-Turkish minorities under Ottoman rule that made Ottomanism "irrelevant"; discovery of a Turkish history that existed before the Ottoman Empire through texts; and migration of Turkish people from Russia who admired the culture but disliked the rule of the sultan, which kindled the need for a "Turkish Nationalism." The second factor, discovery of pre-Ottoman Turkish texts, was the main motivation for the Ottoman intelligentsia to reconnect with their roots. In line with the main argument of many scholars, enabling an earlier history for these individuals re-shaped their identity.¹As soon as the new literature was absorbed, subsequent texts began to be published by many "impactful" authors. Uzer summarizes each by their specific contributions throughout the first chapter. He concludes that these three factors culminated at a time when the Young Turks began to emerge and the Ottoman Empire was at the edge of dissolution, hence resulting in the creation of a Turkish nationalism.

The author acknowledges that the way Turkish nationalism came to be was not necessarily a bottom-up movement but rather was from the top down where the political context at the time did not leave any other choice. While the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Turkish Republic was established, the newly founded Turkish nationalism was difficult for masses to fully adopt. As the initial Turkish nationalism found it difficult to establish roots, it transformed into different versions. Uzer identifies three main versions of Turkish nationalism as Kemalist, Ethnic, and Conservative Nationalism, which all reinforce and influence each other one way or another.

As soon as the Turkish Republic was founded by Atatürk, a Kemalist version of Turkish nationalism was simultaneously constructed and emphasized. Kemalist nationalism, as the first form of Turkish nationalism, mainly adopted a territorial approach that also carried strong ethnic undertones. It emphasized the importance of maintaining the hard-earned motherland while also putting emphasis on the ethnic roots of Turkish people to reinforce unification. Kemalist nationalism mainly stressed Westernization, secularism, and modernity, however, still mentioned Islamic notions because the Muslim masses were responding positively.

Before moving onto Conservative Nationalism, which remains dominant in today's Turkey, Uzer defines "Ethnic Nationalism." While the author recognizes that Kemalist nationalism has its ethnic components, ethnic nationalism remained as a different version of Turkish nationalism that gave more importance to race and ethnicity and Kemalist nationalism mainly underlined the unification of language and religion. According to Uzer, ethnic nationalism was never a dominant approach in Turkey; however, it remains grounded to this day. He notes that in the future, ethnic nationalism has the potential to gain momentum if more individuals embrace the separatist Kurdish identity that is dominant in the southeastern Turkey.

The final chapter deals with conservative nationalism that had been dominant in Turkey since the 1950s. Uzer identifies the main factors behind the emergence of conservative nationalism as: democratization, which unified all opponents of Kemalist nationalism under a conservative party; urbanization, which resulted...