White Turks, Black Turks? Faultlines beyond Islamism versus secularism

Bibliographic Data

ID5815134
AuthorsSeda Demiralp (0000-0003-1534-8029, Işık University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume33
Issue3
Pages511-524
Publication date2012-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThird World Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0143-6597 • E-ISSN: 1360-2241
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01436597.2012.657487
OpenAlexW2008006174
LanguageEN
Citations received27

According to popular views, contemporary Turkish politics is defined by the ideological conflict between Islamist and secularist parties. However, the focus on the Islamism versus secularism dichotomy, a common bias in the studies of Muslim countries, disguises a deeper faultline between the old urban elites and the newly rising provincial actors. This article highlights the need to see beyond the 'Islamism-secularism' divide and to consider the complex relations of power between alienated social groups in Turkey. It analyses the intricate and multi-layered forms of 'othering' in the urban secularist discourse, which perpetuates the inequalities and contention in society. Instead of taking the 'Islamism-secularism' divide as given, the article analyses the construction of secularist and Islamic identities and considers how this dichotomous discourse has empowered the urban parties to control the provincial. Finally, implications for the reconciliation of antagonised social groups are presented. Notes I am deeply grateful to Dr Diane Singerman who has been a huge source of support throughout this study with her helpful comments, guidance and encouragement. I also warmly thank Dr Todd Eisenstadt, Dr Saul Newman and Sarah Fischer for their valuable advice and support. 1 T Akbaş & G Ozgan, 'Türkiye'nin Zencileri', Tempo, 23 March 2006. 2 The elitist nature of the republican state and its marginalisation of Islam has been widely addressed by the literature on Turkish modernisation, including F Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey, London: Routledge, 1993; S Mardin, 'Center-periphery relations: a key to Turkish politics?', Daedalus, 102, 1973, pp 169-191; N Gole, The Forbidden Modern, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1999; A Kadıoglu, 'The paradox of Turkish nationalism and the construction of official identity', Middle Eastern Studies, 32, 1996, pp 177-194; and H Yavuz, 'Search for a new social contract in Turkey: Fethullah Gulen, the Virtue Party, and the Kurds', sais Review, Winter-Spring, 1999, pp 114-143. However, the majority of these studies (with the possible exception of Gole) have viewed the cultural conflict between elites and non-elites as a natural outcome of competing world-views rather than analysing the way in which ruling groups have engaged in 'othering' as a political strategy to pursue their interests. This aspect of the conflict needs to be studied further, as even the politicians and scholars who do acknowledge the material aspect of the Islamist-secularist problem view it as a result of different material realities (eg urban-rural, Western-eastern, developed-underdeveloped) without truly analysing the process in which certain actors strategically promote cultural dichotomies in the pursuit of their group interests. For instance, White's influential study on Islamist movements in Turkey suggests that socioeconomic class plays a role in what people 'perceive to be the division of society into Kemalist and secularist camps'. J White, Islamist Mobilization in Turkey, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2003. In a parallel vein, Erman's analysis of urban-rural relations in Turkey shows that 'the rural' has always been the other in the eyes of the urban and the rising power of provincial actors did not change this but only turned the 'rural other' into, first, the 'underserving rich other' and then finally to the 'threatening other'. See T Erman, 'The politics of squatter (Gecekondu) studies in Turkey: the changing representations of rural migrants in the academic discourse', Urban Studies, 38, 2001, pp 983-1002. Both studies make important contributions by highlighting the dramatic socioeconomic divide behind the perceived ideological-cultural conflict in Turkish society, but they do not focus enough on how and why certain actors chose to emphasise the cultural aspect of the social polarisation in promoting their interests. 3 Nevertheless, this strategy further polarised society and gave justification to authoritarian measures against the 'Islamic threat'. These measures include the Supreme Court's shutting down of four Islamic parties consecutively: the National Order Party, the National Salvation Party, the Welfare Party and the Virtue Party. Only later, as Islamists increased their public popularity and economic status, did they slowly move away from culturalist discourses to service-oriented politics. In contrast, the urban secularist groups, who had lost their public support, increasingly emphasised cultural dichotomies. 4 This section is part of a larger study on the formation and transformation of Islamist and Kurdish movements in Turkey. The field research for this study was carried out in six districts of Turkey-Istanbul, Ankara, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Mardin and Diyarbakir-between 2005 and 2006. 5 H Yavuz, 'Introduction', in Yavuz (ed), The Emergence of a New Turkey, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2006; and S Gumuscu, 'Class, status, and party: the changing face of political Islam in Turkey and Egypt', Comparative Political Studies, 43 (7), 2010, pp 835-861. 6 P Bourdieu, Distinction, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. 7 C Spivak, 'The Rani of Simur', in F Barker, P Hulme, M Iverson & D Loxley (eds), Europe and its Others: Proceedings of The Essex Conference on the Sociology of Literature, Vol 1, Colchester: University of Essex, 1985. 8 J Nederveen Pieterse, White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992. 9 J Beverley, Subalternity and Representation, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999, p 92. 10 A Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed and trans Q Hoare & G Nowell Smith, New York: International Press, 1971. 11 N Gole, Melez Desenler, Istanbul: Metis, 2000. 12 Pieterse, White on Black, p 212. 13 Gole, Melez Desenler. 14 Pieterse, White on Black, p 212. 15 N Gole, 'Interview by Ayse Arman', Hurriyet Pazar, 29 July 2007, at http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/6978039.asp?yazarid=12&gid=61; and Yavuz, 'Introduction'. 16 O Egin, 'A short story of white Turkey', Aksam, 1 May 2006, at http://www.aksam.com.tr/yazar.asp?a=38309,10,6&tarih=01.05.2006. 17 Erman, 'The politics of squatter (Gecekondu) studies in Turkey'. 18 Gole, Melez Desenler, p 68. 19 Geographically Turkey is part of both Asia and Europe. Anatolia refers to the Asian hinterlands and includes the area to east of the Bosporus, between the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Seas. In addition, the colloquial meaning of Anatolia, also called taşra, simply indicates the rural parts of this peninsula. 20 Mardin, 'Center-periphery relations'. 21 See Erman, 'The politics of squatter (Gececondu) studies in Turkey', for the representation of domestic migrants and shantytowners in big cities. 22 M Kırıkkanat, 'Halkımız Eğleniyor', Radikal, 25 July 2005; and Kırıkkanat, 'Ümmetin Hikmeti', Vatan, 30 November 2005. 23 Translated from Turkish by Vuslat Eksi. 24 I Berkan, 'Kırıkkanat'ın Yazılarını Neden Yayımlamıyoruz?', Radikal, 20 August 2005, at http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=161894. 25 Anthony Marx argues that explicit racism is better than implicit racism, since in the former actors are more conscious about the problem and are more eager to mobilise against it. A Marx, Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of South Africa, USA, and Brazil, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. In this respect one could talk about the contribution of Kırıkkanat's writing, which may have helped Turks to identify the racist elements in the urban discourse towards the Anatolian population. 26 It is also important to note that the self-other distinction is continuous and relative. While for someone from Istanbul, anything beyond Istanbul belongs to the country and, thus, the other, in the countryside we see that someone from the centre of a rural city may claim an urban (şehirli) identity and alienate a villager for their rural identity. 27 For similar accounts, see W Zeydanlioglu, 'The white Turkish man's burden: orientalism, Kemalism, and the Kurds in Turkey', in G Rings & A Ife (eds), Neo-colonial Mentalities in Contemporary Europe? Language and Discourse in the Construction of Identities, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008, pp 155-174; and S Cagatay, Islam, Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who Is a Turk?, London: Routledge,2006. 28 B Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990. 29 G Creese & E Ngene Kambere, 'What colour is your English?', Canadian Review of Sociology & Anthropology, 40(5), 2003, pp 565-573. 30 Y Arat, 'One ban and many headscarves: Islamist women and democracy in Turkey', Hagar: International Social Science Review, 2(1), 2011, pp 47-60. 31 On the silence of the Turkish state discourse on the Kurdishness of the Kurdish problem, see M Yegen, 'The Kurdish question in Turkish state discourse', Journal of Contemporary History, 34(4), 1999, pp 555-568. 32 For an extensive study on the politics of this period, see E Zurcher, Modernlesen Turkiye'nin Tarihi, Istanbul: Iletisim Yayınları, 2003. 33 Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (tbmm), 'Genel Kurul Tutanagi 22. Dönem 2. Yasama Yılı, 95. Birleşim', 1 June 2004, at http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/tutanak_b_sd.birlesim_baslangic?P4=11985&P5=B&page1=19&page2=19. 34 F Bulut, 'Imam Hatip Gerceği-Gülden Aydın's Report', Hurriyet, 9 August 1997, at http://webarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/1997/08/09/4593.asp. 35 Piar Gallup, Profil.97, Istanbul: Piar Gallup, 1997. 36 The akp government was working on changing this procedure at the time of writing (August 2011). 37 Council of Higher Education (yök), 'Üniversite Giriş Sınavında Meslek Lisesi ve Genel Lise Mezunlarına Uygulanan Farklı Katsayı Nedeniyle Çıkan Durumun ncelenmesi', at http://www.yok.gov.tr/duyuru/oss_uygulama.pdf. 38 See Erman, 'The politics of squatter (Gecekondu) studies in Turkey', for the shifting perceptions of the other in Turkey. 39 On the other hand, this party structure (which includes Islamist, Kurdish and Republican parties in the parliament) increased the impression that the major social divisions in the country were ideational or cultural (secularist-religious or Turkish-Kurdish) and disguised other interests that are at stake. 40 Beverley, Subalternity and Representation, p 92. 41 Gole, 'Interview by Ayse Arman'. 42 D Sevimay, 'akp İki Yasa Çıkarsın Hemen Destek Verelim!', Vatan, 10 October 2005, at http://www.chp.org.tr/index.php?module=news&page=readmore&news_id=2186&sid=1954a081f52a6a9974ed83edf118b72d. 43 M Barlas, 'Erdoğan Dans Etmeyi de Bilseydi', Sabah, 11 October 2005, at http://www.makale.turkcebilgi.com/kose-yazisi-5984-mehmet-barlas-Erdoğan-dans-etmeyi-de-bilseydi.html. 44 Gole, Melez Desenler. 45 Milliyet Newspaper, 'Erdoğan'dan Öymen'e: Horon Tepelim mi?', 12 October 2005, at http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2005/10/12/siyaset/siy03.html

Secularism · White (mutation · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Middle East Politics and Society · Turkey's Politics and Society

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub