DISCURSIVE CONTINUITY OF POLITICAL NATIONALISM AS A FORM OF OPPOSITION POLITICS IN MODERN IRAN A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY PINAR ARIKAN SİNKAYA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SEPTEMBER 2015 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bağcı Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. İhsan Dağı (METU, IR) Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık (METU, IR) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zana Çitak Aytürk (METU, IR) Asst. Prof. Dr. Derya Göçer Akder (METU, ARS) Assoc. Prof. Dr. İlker Aytürk (BİLKENT, POLS) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Pınar Arıkan Sinkaya Signature : iii ABSTRACT DISCURSIVE CONTINUITY OF POLITICAL NATIONALISM AS A FORM OF OPPOSITION POLITICS IN MODERN IRAN Arıkan Sinkaya, Pınar Ph.D., Department of International Relations Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık September 2015, 392 pages The dissertation examines political nationalism as a transformative power of modern Iranian politics at the societal level through historical-sociological study of four mass opposition movements, which are the Constitutional Movement (1906-11), National Front Movement (1949-53), Iranian Revolution Movement (1978-79), and Green Movement (2009). The appeal to nationalism by these opposition movements leads to ask why and how nationalism becomes an overarching ideology of political opposition? What are the structural conditions that gave rise to nationalist opposition movements? To answer these questions, the framework of non-Western political nationalism was employed, which helped to identify independence from Western impact of colonialism/imperialism and establishment of modern nation state through constitutionalism and popular sovereignty as the two aims of nationalist movements. However, this framework does not explain the rise of nationalist opposition against a nation state. Thus, the dissertation develops the framework of ‘opposition nationalism,’ which is defined as a modern political movement whose driving force is nationalism and manifests itself in opposition to foreign interventionism and state authoritarianism. Nationalist opposition movements are mass movements with a iv political motivation of obtaining and using state power. They emerge when different political groups are coordinated and mobilized by nationalist ideology. On the basis of this framework, the dissertation argues that despite the state authority shifts to three different polities since the beginning of Iranian modernization, the four nationalist opposition movements display discursive continuity of anti-imperialism and anti-authoritarianism due to the continuity in the structural conditions of the foreign influence and the strong state vis-à-vis the society. Keywords: Non-Western political nationalism, state-society relations in Iran, modernization, anti-imperialism, mass opposition movements. v ÖZ MODERN İRAN’DA SİYASAL MİLLİYETÇİLİĞİN BİR SİYASAL MUHALEFET ŞEKLİ OLARAK SÖYLEMSEL SÜREKLİLİĞİ Arıkan Sinkaya, Pınar Doktora, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi : Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Eylül 2015, 392 sayfa Bu tez siyasal milliyetçiliğin modern İran siyasetinde toplumsal düzeyde dönüştürücü gücünü tarihsel-sosyolojik yöntemle çalıştığı dört milliyetçi muhalefet hareketi çerçevesinde incelemektedir. İncelenen dört hareket Anayasa Hareketi (1906-11), Milli Cephe Hareketi (1949-53), İran Devrimi Hareketi (1978-79) ve Yeşil Hareket (2009)’tir. Muhalefet hareketlerinin milliyetçiliği benimsemesi şu soruları doğurmuştur: Neden ve nasıl milliyetçilik siyasi muhalefet için kapsayıcı bir ideoloji haline gelmiştir? Milliyetçi muhalefet hareketlerini doğuran yapısal durumlar nelerdir? Bu sorulara cevap vermek için tezde Batı-dışı milliyetçilik çerçevesine başvurularak milliyetçi hareketler için iki amaç tanımlanmıştır. Bunlar kolonializm/emperyalizm şeklinde tezahür eden Batı etkisinden bağımsızlık kazanmak ve anayasacılık ve halk egemenliği yoluyla modern ulus devleti kurmaktır. Ancak bu çerçeve ulus devlete karşı ortaya çıkan milliyetçi muhalefeti açıklamamaktadır. Bu nedenle tezde, itici gücü milliyetçilik olan ve yabancı müdahalesi ile devlet otoriteciliğine karşı kendini gösteren modern bir siyasi hareket olarak tanımlanan ‘muhalefet milliyetçiliği’ çerçevesi geliştirilmiştir. Milliyetçi vi muhalefet hareketleri devlet gücünü ele geçirmek ve kullanmak şeklinde siyasi amaçları olan kitlesel hareketlerdir. Bu hareketler farklı siyasi grupların milliyetçi ideoloji ile koordine ve mobilize olmalarıyla ortaya çıkmaktadır. Tezde muhalefet milliyetçiliği çerçevesi temelinde İran modernleşmesinin başlangıcından bu yana devlet otoritesi üç farklı siyasi yapıya kaymasına rağmen dört milliyetçi muhalefet hareketinin yabancı etkisi ve toplum karşısında güçlü devletin varlığı olarak süreklilik gösteren yapısal koşullar nedeniyle emperyalizm karşıtlığı ve otoritecilik karşıtlığı söylemlerini süreklilik içerisinde üretmeye devam ettiği iddia edilmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Batı-dışı siyasal milliyetçilik, İran’da devlet-toplum ilişkileri, modernleşme, anti-emperyalizm, kitlesel muhalefet hareketleri. vii To my family; Bayram Sinkaya, Nazime Gürsoy, Burcu Arıkan, Hülya Söylemez. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık. This study became possible with her endless encouragement and patient support. She always showed me the right path when I lost the way and saved me from darkness with the light of her wisdom. I am her lifetime student. Thank you very much my dear professor. Also, I would like to thank the members of my examining committee, Prof. Dr. İhsan Dağı, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zana Çitak, Assoc. Prof. Dr. İlker Aytürk, and Asst. Prof. Dr Derya Göçer, for their investing time and effort in this study and their informed comments and insightful advices. I owe special gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zana Çitak who always helped me whenever I needed since the beginning of my research. It was in her classes on nationalism and religion at METU where I gained the knowledge to develop the idea of this dissertation. Without her careful listening, to the point questions and valuable advices in the process of writing, this study would not come out. I am also deeply grateful to Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bağcı, who supported me all through my research and facilitated the best circumstances to study as the Head of Department. I also would like to thank all my professor in the Department of International Relations at METU, which is my home since I arrived as an undergrad student years before. I owe my academic and personal development to my professors at METU to whom I express my sincere gratitude. I am glad to be part of METU family both as a student and as a research assistant. I want to thank Özlem, Berna, Aslıgül, Gülşen, Gülriz, Ahu, Ömür, Serdar, Umut, Arıkan, Sait, İnan, Aslı, Funda, Vakur, Murat, Argun, Çağrı, Özgür, Aslıhan, and all other research assistants that our paths crossed at the department for some period of time and the administrative staff that we worked together, especially Mübin Abla. ix I am grateful to research funds provided by the Erasmus-Mundus PhD Exchange scholarship that facilitated the field research in Iran, and by DPT-ÖYP (Faculty Training Program) for the Ph.D dissertation research that partially enabled my stay as visiting researcher in New York, USA. This study would not be possible without the contributions of Iranian scholars during my field research. I would like to thank Dr. Mahmud Sariolghalam, Dr. Hamid Ahmadi, Dr. Mojteba Maqsoudi, Dr. Davood Feirahi, Dr. Gouchani, Dr. Ghadir Nassri, Dr. Sara Shari‘ati, Dr. Homeira Moshirzadeh, Dr. Hermidas-Bavand, Dr. Sajjadpour, Dr. Seifzadeh, Dr. Barzegar, Dr. Kolaee, Dr. Heidari, Dr. Takmil Homayoun, Dr. Hassan-Khani, Dr. Morshadizad, Dr. Javadi, Dr. Seidemami, Emad Afroogh and Kaveh Bayat who patiently answered my questions for long hours in my attempt to understand the subject and guided me in the research. I would also like to Dr. Eslami Nodoushan, Dr. Houshang Tala‘, and Dr. Haddad-Adel for their giving me the opportunity to engage in intellectual conversations about Iranian civilization and identity that enriched my vision. My professor and dear friend in Tehran, Dr. Seyyed Javad Miri deserves special thanks. He not only guided me for my research but also helped me with the appointments he got from prominent scholars that I could never achieve myself. His accompany was precious. I would also like to thank Dr. Mehdi Ahouie for his friendship and invitation for a conference that enabled me to access a broader Iranian academia. Nasser Pourebrahim, Hossein Pashai, Ahmet Yazıcıoğlu, Hossein Yarrokhi, Mohammad Hosseini, Ali Reza Azarpour, Mehdi Jovini, Mehdi Nasrin, Abdullah Rajabi, Peyman Aref, Samira Jamshidi, Marjan Mohamadinezhad,