-+-+-+-+ In his article "Three Styles of Politics" published in Cairo in 1904, Kazan-born Yusuf Akçura saw the continuation of the Ottoman Empire contingent upon unification on either one of three platforms: (1) Ottomanism (that is, the gathering of all Muslim and Christian subjects under the Ottoman identity); (2) Islamism (ie the unity of the Muslim elements of the Ottoman Empire); and (3) Turkism. Akçura gave only the third of them a chance of success. Turkey has been trying to implement one or the other of these three styles of politics since the 19th century. With the upcoming elections, a new style change may come to the fore.
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On Sunday, May 14th, parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in Turkey. This very short post is inspired by this event.
Old World empires reacted differently to the unstoppable rise of Western Europe that started with the discovery of America and the industrial revolution. The Japanese society, homogeneous in race, language and culture, was relatively easy to mobilise towards new targets and the Japanese Empire managed to renew itself through Meiji restoration. The task was harder for others like Russia or the Ottoman Empire, with dozens of languages, religions and races co-existing within their imperial boundaries. The Ottomans, for example, had to achieve technological progress while preserving the unity of their realm, with their realm being a colorful mixture of languages, religions and nationalities.
During the period that started with the Tanzimat Edict of 1839, the Ottoman Palace tried to exercise the first of the 'Three Styles of Politics' articulated by Yusuf Akçura in his 1904 article. This policy aimed for staying united under the Ottoman supremacy regardless of language, religion and nationality. It failed for various reasons.
The reign of Abdulhamid tried Akçura’s second style of politics. This was an attempt to keep at least the Muslim subjects united under the roof of the Empire. The failure of this policy was obvious at the start of the First World War and the team that made the Empire join the war on the German side also pushed Turkism forward as the 'main element of the unity'. This was what Akçura called the third style of politics and it was continued after the War by the new Republic of Turkey.
The 'Turk' in the concept of 'Turkism' included all non-Persian and non-Arab Muslim elements (for example, Circassian, Tatar, Abaza, and Kurdish). This is how the first fifty years of the Turkish Republic passed.
Towards the end of the 1960s, signs of a return to Akçura's second style of politics began to appear. The Erbakan movement and Türkeş's 'Turkish-Islamic Synthesis' were two examples of this. This trend reached its climax with the AKP government.
At the point we have reached today, this policy seems to have failed again.
After the elections, I am hoping for the emergence of a fourth style. This fourth style will hopefully differ from the earlier three that were tried and failed; different in the sense that people will not need to be grouped under this or that identity but they will get together solely and purely to be good and to do good and beautiful things.
🙂