Beyond biased samples
Statistical-historical evidence on sacrality in Kemalist discourse (1923–1950)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12697172 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sezgin ELBAY (0000-0002-0601-8063, Yalova University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-28 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Turkish Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-3849 • E-ISSN: 1743-9663 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14683849.2026.2636168 |
| OpenAlex | W7134824522 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
Using a genre-stratified corpus of Turkish, French, and Ottoman-Turkish texts from the early Republic (1923–1950), this study tests the “secular religion” thesis amid state-building and reform. A Poisson GLM (with exposure), structural topic modelling, PPMI co-occurrence, and lexicon-based sentiment (BING/AFINN) show that religious imagery concentrates in poetic and oratorical registers, is absent from parliamentary prose, and does not exceed policy–legal writing once genre is controlled. “Kemalism” collocates are chiefly evaluative-modernist, and sentiment is mildly positive and stable. Kemalism is therefore best read as technocratic nationalism with commemorative symbolism, not a sacral doctrine.
Causality (physics · Discourse analysis · Hegemony · Narrative · Cyprus History, Politics, Society · Historical Turkish Studies · Turkey's Politics and Society
Islam and Secularism in Turkey
Faces of the State
Nostalgia for the Modern
Generalized Linear Models
A Secular Age
The Sacralisation of politics
Genealogies of Religion
Revisiting Kemalism as a secular religion
Language Policy and Official Ideology in Early Republican Turkey
Kemal Atatürk
Text as Data
Civil Religion in America
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |