Before Gökalp and After Gökalp: Ziya Gökalp and Literary Turkism, 1876-1923
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Before Gökalp and After Gökalp: Ziya Gökalp and Literary Turkism, 1876-1923 THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Amy L. Archer Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2015 Master's Examination Committee: Carter Vaughn Findley, Advisor Jane Hathaway, Committee Member Copyright by Amy L. Archer 2015 Abstract Ziya Gökalp has been credited as the architect of Turkish nationalism, having provided the framework for social and cultural solidarity among Turks in the Turkish Republic through his writings Türkleşmek, İslamlaşmak, Muasırlaşmak (1918) and Türkçülüğün Esasları (1923). Scholars - notably Heyd, Parla, and Berkes – have examined and analyzed Gökalp’s non-fiction works in order to provide a greater understanding of the Turkish intellectual’s social and political thought. Yet Gökalp also left behind a large body of fictional works, including poetry, epics, and folk tales, that have been largely neglected in the scholarship. The aim of this work is to look at Gökalp’s fictional works alongside his political and social writings in order to better understand the purpose and views of such an influential and controversial figure. ii Dedication To my mom, for her love and support. iii Acknowledgments I would like to give my sincere thanks to Professor Carter Findley and Professor Jane Hathaway for their advice and guidance during this project. Many thanks are also due to William Clifford for his love and patience and to Sanja Kadrić for her friendship and support. iv Vita 2004................................................................West Melbourne Christian Academy 2010................................................................B.A. History, Flagler College 2012 to present ..............................................Graduate Fellow, Department of History, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: History v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 The Development of Competing Nationalisms, 1876-1908 ............................................... 7 The Early Life of and Intellectual Influences on Ziya Gökalp ......................................... 18 The Russian Roots of Turkish Nationalism ...................................................................... 22 Durkheimian Sociology and Corporatism ........................................................................ 29 The Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Rise of Turkism, 1908-1914 ...................... 32 The New Republic and Türkçülüğün Esasları, 1918-1924 .............................................. 42 Gökalp and Literary Turkism ........................................................................................... 52 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 69 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 73 vi Introduction Throughout the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire faced a series of external crises that threatened its stability and integrity. Meanwhile, the rise of ethnic-nationalism among minority Ottoman subjects was jeopardizing the integrity of the historically multi- ethnic and multi-confessional empire from within. Bureaucrats and intellectuals, struggling to maintain the empire, initiated a series of reforms known as the Tanzimat. Tanzimat reformers developed the idea of and advocated for Osmanlılık (Ottomanism) in an attempt to reverse internal splintering by fostering a sense of loyalty to the Ottoman state as well as a shared identity among peoples across ethnic, linguistic, and confessional lines. Ottoman subjects, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, were largely unreceptive to Ottomanism, which ultimately failed to slow the growth of nationalist sentiments among the empire’s non-Muslim and non-Turkish populations. After the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 struck a final blow to Ottomanism, Ottoman intellectuals argued for alternative paths for developing a collective identity and social solidarity, a process widely understood as integral to modernization and necessary for preserving the empire. Westernism (frequently conflated with modernity), Islamism, and pan-Turkism emerged as the most promising concepts to achieve unity, although they were generally thought to be competing and incompatible schools of thought. It was in this contentious intellectual environment that Ziya Gökalp began to develop and put forth 1 his ideas on Turkism, a concept that rejected the notion that Turkishness, Islam, and Westernism were conflicting identities and paths to modernity; to the contrary, he asserted that all three were not only complementary but crucial to the well-being and success of Ottoman society. Although Gökalp’s Turkism could not save the Ottoman Empire, his social and political ideology survived the empire’s dissolution and helped to shape the national identity of the Turkish nation-state that subsequently emerged. Indeed, it is difficult to overstate Gökalp’s influence on modern Turkey - politically, economically, socially, and culturally – even if the fruit of his ideology is often subtle and indirect. Following Gökalp’s death in 1924, Turkish politician and intellectual Ruşen Eşref [Ünaydın] wrote that “in science and knowledge there are two Turkeys, before Gökalp and after Gökalp;”1 his legacy is complex and contested, and numerous scholars have examined his life and works in an attempt to better understand his ideology and role in Turkish history. The two major English-language works on Gökalp that have, for the most part, determined the dominant narratives regarding Gökalp are Uriel Heyd’s Foundations of Turkish Nationalism: The Life and Teachings of Ziya Gökalp (1950) and Taha Parla’s The Social and Political Thought of Ziya Gökalp: 1876-1924 (1985). Heyd and Parla primarily examine Gökalp’s published political works to write intellectual histories that provide a deeper insight into his worldview, yet come to radically different conclusions on his role and abilities as an intellectual. 1 Ali Nüzhet Göksel, Ziya Gökalp: Hayatı, Sanatı, Eseri (Istanbul: Varlık Yayınevi, 1959), 15-16. 2 Heyd’s Foundations of Turkish Nationalism begins with a brief biography of Gökalp, followed by a breakdown of Gökalp’s philosophy and teachings based principally on his published non-fiction writings. Heyd’s purpose is to “describe Gökalp’s life and teachings systematically and critically,” being focused solely on his role “as the theorist of modern nationalism.”2 While Heyd’s work is sympathetic to Gökalp, the author makes it clear that he does not consider the Turkish intellectual to be a consistent and systematic thinker,3 noting that “[i]t has been necessary […] to sift all these [collections of writings] in order to discover his ideas and weave them as far as possible into a connected system of thought. This process reveals various changes of opinion and inner contradictions in different periods of his life.”4 He categorizes Gökalp’s thought not only as often inconsistent, but also unoriginal, insisting that the Turkish ideologue simply reframed the works of Durkheim and other prominent Western thinkers to fit the Turkish context. Furthermore, as a public intellectual, Gökalp should be recognized for his role in shaping the early development of Turkish nationalism but cannot claim any notable credit for affecting Kemalism or molding the Turkish Republic under Atatürk. Parla’s Social and Political Thought, however, aims to carry out a “systematic and critical analysis of the meaning and influence of Ziya Gökalp’s political theory.”5 In doing so, he argues against Heyd’s conclusions on a number of points. First, Parla 2 Uriel Heyd, Foundations of Turkish Nationalism: The Life and Teachings of Ziya Gökalp (London: Luzac and the Harvill Press, 1950), x. 3 Heyd, 162. 4 Heyd, xi. 5 Taha Parla, The Social and Political Thought of Ziya Gökalp, 1876-1924 (Leiden: Brill, 1985) , 9. 3 pointedly disagrees with Heyd’s characterization of Gökalp’s thought as illogical, though he does not disagree with Heyd’s assertion that Gökalp “should be considered at least as logical in his sociological theory as the European sociologists he emulated, in order for Heyd to be consistent himself.”6 Parla also takes issue with Heyd’s assertion that Gökalp had limited influence on post-war Turkey. To the contrary, Parla argues: Gökalp’s corporatist thinking has provided the paradigmatic worldview for the several dominant political ideologies and public philosophies in Turkey; and that, more specifically, Unionism (1908-1918) and Kemalism (1923-1950) as singular official ideologies, as well as contemporary Kemalism(s) (1960-1980), are but programmatic and, in the narrow sense, ideological variations of his inclusive