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| The Grand Turk |
| The legacy of Kemalism/Republicanism |
| 2017-11-13 |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] The commemoration of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s death on Nov. 10 has been very spectacular this year. Anything related to the founder of the republic had become the symbol of secularist "resistance" for some time, against the perceived Islamization under the conservative/Islamist governing party. But more than that, it proved that the power of the republican legacy cannot to be easily challenged even among the ordinary folks who have nothing to do with krazed killer Kemalism. Kemalism, which was once enforced by the state as the official ideology, is being embellished by the civil society nowadays.. Lately, President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... and his party started to endorse Ataturk and his historical legacy, with the president cherishing him by referring to him by his last name "Ataturk," a name adopted after the foundation of the Republic. Before, Erdogan and his party preferred to refer to him by his first name and title, "Gazi," meaning war veteran in Islamists and even most of the moderate conservatives have long perceived the secularist, Western modernization of the republic as a Western plot. They offered a revisionist version that proclaimed Ataturk and his Republican friends sacrificed the gains of the War of Independence by compromising with the British and won the political struggle for power at the expense of denouncing the Moslem entity of ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and by abolishing the caliphate. In this view, the founding fathers of the republic deserved to be regarded as traitors rather than heroes. Besides, since the 1980’s, Kemalism became a dirty word for liberal democrats who have been critical of the legacy left by the republican, authoritarian modernization project as the main obstacle stopping democratization in Turkey. Finally, the political vogue turned out to be a coalition of left liberal anti-Kemalism and Islamist/right-wing anti-Kemalism in search for Turkey’s democratization. Things have changed so much since then that now people from different walks of life came closer to appreciating republican values. More than anything else, it emerged that ordinary people do not very much embrace anti-republicanism as it was assumed the contrary by conservative/Islamist politicians and intellectuals. All attempts to alter the narrative and symbols of the republic and replace them with alternatives have failed. For example, the portrayal of Sultan Abdulhamid II as a historical progenitor and nemesis of Ataturk by conservative/Islamist narratives have so far failed. The revisionist history in general could not achieve popularity despite all efforts. Most recently, although the majority embraced the narrative of popular resistance against the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, the effort of contest with the War of Independence proved futile. Finally, the project of the new Turkey could not engender a strong counter narrative and symbols to compete with the republican, Kemalist ones. I think it was not only the result of the weakness of the counter narratives, but also the power of the Republican-Kemalist legacy that determined the course of the war of narratives and symbols. In the end, it seems that a majority in Turkey have been intimidated by the krazed killer form of anti-Kemalism/republicanism as much as the rigid understanding of secularist/modernist Kemalism created resentment in the past. But so far, there is hope for the future of secularism and liberal values. |
| Posted by:Fred |