Turkey: A Past Against History by Christine M. Philliou (review)

Christine Philliou's Turkey: A Past Against History is a study of muhalefet (opposition or dissent) in the late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. The author uses the life and work of journalist, author, and novelist Refik Halid (Karay) (1888–1965) to examine political developments in the transition from empire to nation-state. The selection of Refik Halid is not random; he was a muhalif (dissident or oppositionist) whose pen became a powerful outlet for his political stances. In following Refik Halid's life, Philliou makes clear that the position of a muhalif was not fixed but changed along with developing circumstances. The book thus aims to explore two parallel stories: the era's rapidly shifting politics and Refik Halid's corresponding changes in views. Ultimately, the latter story dominates the book, leaving the impression that it is an examination of the writer, his own transformations, and his impacts on politics, first, and an exploration of the period's geopolitics, second.

The book's seven chapters align with Refik Halid's lifespan and begin with a focus on his family background as a way to set the stage. Here, Philliou lays out the reason for selecting Refik Halid, as opposed to many other figures known for their opposition activity, like Halide Edib (Adıvar). Philliou identifies Refik Halid as an outcast among dissidents because of his family and upbringing. His father worked for the Ottoman Bank and the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA), an institution that critics later depicted "as a humiliating, semicolonial relationship that compromised the empire's dignity." Philliou notes, however, that the OPDA was "a fact of life" for Refik Halid's father's generation (p. 41). Though modern forms of dissent in the empire emerged before him, Refik Halid is an ideal muhalif for Philliou to focus on; he was a significant transitional figure who connected the empire with the republic. Refik Halid's rise as a muhalif began after the Constitutional Revolution in 1908, notably at the time when the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) strived to consolidate their power. Using the pseudonym Kirpi (porcupine), he published entries that mocked the CUP's excesses. He was quickly labeled an opponent and sent to exile in Sinop, then to Çorum and Ankara, only returning in 1918 to Istanbul. Philliou points out that the CUP then labeled their opponents as "mürteci," (a person opposing change) which created a binary that obscured the ideological and political nuances between muhalifler (plural of muhalif). For Philliou, Refik Halid was a liberal oppositionist.

In tracing the transformation of a muhalif, Chapters 4 and 5 are especially rich, as they focus on Refik Halid's views on both the CUP and the rising nationalist opposition under Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk). Following World War I's end, Refik Halid used his pen to criticize and ridicule members of the CUP who abandoned the county. The rise of Mustafa Kemal as a leader did not seem like a major break from the CUP because, for Refik Halid, they were two sides of the same coin; he therefore criticized them equally. Tensions between Mustafa Kemal and Refik Halid were not limited to published critiques and escalated early on when Refik Halid tried to prevent Mustafa Kemal's telegrams from reaching the Ottoman government in Istanbul and the like-minded nationalists who supported him. As General Director of the Postal and Telegraph Services in 1919 and again in 1920, he supported the Ottoman government in Istanbul. Due to his interference, he was labeled a traitor and placed on Mustafa Kemal's 150 personae non grata list of opposition members after the nascent republic emerged victorious against occupying forces. In 1922, as Istanbul came under the control of the Mustafa Kemal-led Ankara government, Refik Halid fled the country to Beirut. There he lived for 16 years and returned to Turkey in 1938 after the ban on early dissidents was lifted...