'Allahu Ekber', we are Turks: Yearning for a different homecoming at the periphery of Europe

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 17, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 503-524

  Helvacioglu, Banu ^a  

^a RYERSON UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 5344227660     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599615489     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. From Jacques Chirac's speech in the European Parliament concerning Turkey's acceptance of the Customs Union. Quoted as headline news in the daily Yeni Yuzyil, 17 July 1995.
2. Mehmet Akif Ersoy was a devout Muslim. In March 1921 the National Assembly, under Mustafa Kemal's leadership, decided to use Mehmel Akif Ersoy's poem 'To Our Heroic Army' as the national anthem. In translating the verses from Turkish, I benefited from Dankwart Rustow's translation in 'Politics and Islam in Turkey 1920-1955', in Richard Frye (ed), Politics and Islam in Turkey, S'gravenage: Mouton, 1957, p 74. Rustow's translation, however, misses many different meanings of the Arabic word, 'Hak', which Ersoy uses to denote justice, right, righteousness and God all at once. Another subtle reference by Ersoy is the Arabic word, 'millet', which means nation, people, as well as a religious community.
3. Serif A Mardin, 'Ideology and religion in the Turkish revolution', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2, 1971, p 238.
4. Howard Reed, 'Revival of Islam in Secular Turkey', The Middle East Journal, Summer 1954, p 267.
5. Rustow, 'Politics and Islam in Turkey', p 70.
6. G H Jansen, 'Turkey: the Need for Roots', Middle East Forum, 37(9), 1961, p 15.
7. Serif Mardin, 'Religion in Modern Turkey', International Social Science Journal, 29, 1977, p 579.
8. The secular election campaigns for the parliamentary election in December 1995 coincided with Turkey's acceptance of the European Customs Union which has been viewed as the first step towards membership of the European Union. In both instances the secular bloc targetted the Welfare Party as a threat to the European identity of the Turkish Republic.
9. Binnaz Toprak examines the secularisation process under four headings: symbolic, institutional, functional and legal. Symbolic secularisation included changes in alphabet from Arabic to Latin script, and in language, eg substituting new words derived from Turkish roots in place of Arabic and Persian derivatives. 'The sacred quality attached to Arabic as the language of God had made the use of the Arabic script laden with religious symbolism'. Institutional secularisation put religion under the control of the state. Functional secularisation brought changes in the judical process and in education. Legal secularisation brought changes in favour of women, such as compulsory civil marriage ceremony, as opposed to religious ceremony, the adoption of the principle of monogamy, freedom of inter-religious marriage for Muslim women, equal inheritance and parenthood rights. See Binnaz Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey, Leiden, Netherlands: E J Brill, 1981, pp 41, 42-55.
10. For a brief historical summary of the opposition between Republican, modern, secular, European and Islamic, Ottoman heritage see Metin Heper, 'Islam, polity and society in Turkey: a Middle Eastern perspective', The Middle East Journal, 35(3), 1981, pp 350-351; and Mardin, 'Religion in Modern Turkey', p 580.
11. For a brief historical summary of the opposition between Republican, modern, secular, European and Islamic, Ottoman heritage see Metin Heper, 'Islam, polity and society in Turkey: a Middle Eastern perspective', The Middle East Journal, 35(3), 1981, pp 350-351; and Mardin, 'Religion in Modern Turkey', p 580.
12. Ayse Oncu, 'Small Worlds and Grand Projects', in Metin Heper, Ayse Oncu & Heinz Kramer, (eds), Turkey and the West: Changing Political and Cultural Identities, London: IB Tauris, 1993, pp 260-261.
13. Binnaz Toprak, 'Islamist Intellectuals: Revolt against Industry and Technology', in Heper et al. Turkey and the West, p 240.
14. Toprak, Islam and Political Development, p 42.
15. Ayse Kadioglu, 'Women's Subordination in Turkey: Is Islam really the Villain?', Middle East Journal, 48(4), 1994, p 659.
16. The ground-breaking work in this regard is by Serif Mardin, 'Center-periphery Relations: a Key to Turkish politics?', Daedalus, 102, 1973 pp. 291-312. For an elaboration of this duality on the question of the politicisation of Islam see, also by the same author, 'The Just and the Unjust', Daedalus, Summer 1991 pp. 113-129; and 'Islam in mass society: harmony versus polarisation', in Metin Heper & Ahmet Evin (eds), Politics in the Third Turkish Republic, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994. For an analysis of the organisation of state power on the principle of bipolarisation see Metin Heper, 'Center and periphery in the Ottoman empire', International Political Science Review, 1(1), 1980 pp. 81-105. For field work on the polarisation between urban and rural, between modern and traditional cleavages see Richard Tapper & Nancy Tapper, 'Religion, education and continuity in a provincial town', in Tapper & Tapper (eds), Islam in Modern Turkey: Religion, Politics and Literature in a Secular State, London: IB Taurus, 1991.
17. The ground-breaking work in this regard is by Serif Mardin, 'Center-periphery Relations: a Key to Turkish politics?', Daedalus, 102, 1973 pp. 291-312. For an elaboration of this duality on the question of the politicisation of Islam see, also by the same author, 'The Just and the Unjust', Daedalus, Summer 1991 pp. 113-129; and 'Islam in mass society: harmony versus polarisation', in Metin Heper & Ahmet Evin (eds), Politics in the Third Turkish Republic, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994. For an analysis of the organisation of state power on the principle of bipolarisation see Metin Heper, 'Center and periphery in the Ottoman empire', International Political Science Review, 1(1), 1980 pp. 81-105. For field work on the polarisation between urban and rural, between modern and traditional cleavages see Richard Tapper & Nancy Tapper, 'Religion, education and continuity in a provincial town', in Tapper & Tapper (eds), Islam in Modern Turkey: Religion, Politics and Literature in a Secular State, London: IB Taurus, 1991.
18. The ground-breaking work in this regard is by Serif Mardin, 'Center-periphery Relations: a Key to Turkish politics?', Daedalus, 102, 1973 pp. 291-312. For an elaboration of this duality on the question of the politicisation of Islam see, also by the same author, 'The Just and the Unjust', Daedalus, Summer 1991 pp. 113-129; and 'Islam in mass society: harmony versus polarisation', in Metin Heper & Ahmet Evin (eds), Politics in the Third Turkish Republic, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994. For an analysis of the organisation of state power on the principle of bipolarisation see Metin Heper, 'Center and periphery in the Ottoman empire', International Political Science Review, 1(1), 1980 pp. 81-105. For field work on the polarisation between urban and rural, between modern and traditional cleavages see Richard Tapper & Nancy Tapper, 'Religion, education and continuity in a provincial town', in Tapper & Tapper (eds), Islam in Modern Turkey: Religion, Politics and Literature in a Secular State, London: IB Taurus, 1991.
19. The ground-breaking work in this regard is by Serif Mardin, 'Center-periphery Relations: a Key to Turkish politics?', Daedalus, 102, 1973 pp. 291-312. For an elaboration of this duality on the question of the politicisation of Islam see, also by the same author, 'The Just and the Unjust', Daedalus, Summer 1991 pp. 113-129; and 'Islam in mass society: harmony versus polarisation', in Metin Heper & Ahmet Evin (eds), Politics in the Third Turkish Republic, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994. For an analysis of the organisation of state power on the principle of bipolarisation see Metin Heper, 'Center and periphery in the Ottoman empire', International Political Science Review, 1(1), 1980 pp. 81-105. For field work on the polarisation between urban and rural, between modern and traditional cleavages see Richard Tapper & Nancy Tapper, 'Religion, education and continuity in a provincial town', in Tapper & Tapper (eds), Islam in Modern Turkey: Religion, Politics and Literature in a Secular State, London: IB Taurus, 1991.
20. The ground-breaking work in this regard is by Serif Mardin, 'Center-periphery Relations: a Key to Turkish politics?', Daedalus, 102, 1973 pp. 291-312. For an elaboration of this duality on the question of the politicisation of Islam see, also by the same author, 'The Just and the Unjust', Daedalus, Summer 1991 pp. 113-129; and 'Islam in mass society: harmony versus polarisation', in Metin Heper & Ahmet Evin (eds), Politics in the Third Turkish Republic, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994. For an analysis of the organisation of state power on the principle of bipolarisation see Metin Heper, 'Center and periphery in the Ottoman empire', International Political Science Review, 1(1), 1980 pp. 81-105. For field work on the polarisation between urban and rural, between modern and traditional cleavages see Richard Tapper & Nancy Tapper, 'Religion, education and continuity in a provincial town', in Tapper & Tapper (eds), Islam in Modern Turkey: Religion, Politics and Literature in a Secular State, London: IB Taurus, 1991.
21. As a starting point for this rich, diverse area of regional differentiation, see Nur Yalman, 'Islamic reform and the mystic tradition in Eastern Turkey', Archives of European Sociology, 10, 1969 pp. 41-60. Yalman examines 'some Alevi and Bektashi (Kurdish- and Turkish-speaking) villages in the provinces of Malatya and Elbistan' and the relationship between Kemalist reforms, Kemalist intellectuals and the mystic Islamic traditions. Lale Yalcin-Heckmann, 'Ethnic Islam and nationalism among the Kurds in Turkey', in Tapper & Tapper, Islam in Modern Turkey. Yalcin-Heckmann examines the relationship between ethnicity and Islam in the south eastern province of Hakkari. Also, for further research, see Serif Mardin 'The Naksibendi order in Turkish history', in Tapper & Tapper, Islam in Modern Turkey.
22. As a starting point for this rich, diverse area of regional differentiation, see Nur Yalman, 'Islamic reform and the mystic tradition in Eastern Turkey', Archives of European Sociology, 10, 1969 pp. 41-60. Yalman examines 'some Alevi and Bektashi (Kurdish- and Turkish-speaking) villages in the provinces of Malatya and Elbistan' and the relationship between Kemalist reforms, Kemalist intellectuals and the mystic Islamic traditions. Lale Yalcin-Heckmann, 'Ethnic Islam and nationalism among the Kurds in Turkey', in Tapper & Tapper, Islam in Modern Turkey. Yalcin-Heckmann examines the relationship between ethnicity and Islam in the south eastern province of Hakkari. Also, for further research, see Serif Mardin 'The Naksibendi order in Turkish history', in Tapper & Tapper, Islam in Modern Turkey.
23. As a starting point for this rich, diverse area of regional differentiation, see Nur Yalman, 'Islamic reform and the mystic tradition in Eastern Turkey', Archives of European Sociology, 10, 1969 pp. 41-60. Yalman examines 'some Alevi and Bektashi (Kurdish Turkish-speaking) villages in the provinces of Malatya and Elbistan' and the relationship between Kemalist reforms, Kemalist intellectuals and the mystic Islamic traditions. Lale Yalcin-Heckmann, 'Ethnic Islam and nationalism among the Kurds in Turkey', in Tapper & Tapper, Islam in Modern Turkey. Yalcin-Heckmann examines the relationship between ethnicity and Islam in the south eastern province of Hakkari. Also, for further research, see Serif Mardin 'The Naksibendi order in Turkish history', in Tapper & Tapper, Islam in Modern Turkey.
24. In Turkey, a radical, revolutionary Islamic group, called IBCA-C recently send a life threatening letter to Fethullah Gulen, the leader of a religious-political community. The reason for the life threatening letter is because Gulen 'has been co-opted into the mainstream media and that he looks down on "ignorant" radical, militant Islamic groups who do not even know who Pablo Picasso is'. In response, IBDA-C made sure to include in its letter an erroneous reference to Gaugin who is claimed to have lost his ear. 'IBDA-C, Fethullah Gulen'i Tehdit Etti', Yeni Yuzyil, 13 July 1995. According to Binnaz Toprak's survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of some of the leading Islamic intellectuals and political leaders, they have all been exposed to western, modern European education. See Toprak, 'Islamist intellectual' also by the same author see Islam and Political Development in Turkey, pp 107-108. Serif Mardin notes the influence of American intellectual history and French literature on Ismet Ozel who is one of the most articulate, analytical and politically vocal Islamic intellectuals in Turkey. Mardin, 'Islam in mass society', p 167.
25. In Turkey, a radical, revolutionary Islamic group, called IBCA-C recently send a life threatening letter to Fethullah Gulen, the leader of a religious-political community. The reason for the life threatening letter is because Gulen 'has been co-opted into the mainstream media and that he looks down on "ignorant" radical, militant Islamic groups who do not even know who Pablo Picasso is'. In response, IBDA-C made sure to include in its letter an erroneous reference to Gaugin who is claimed to have lost his ear. 'IBDA-C, Fethullah Gulen'i Tehdit Etti', Yeni Yuzyil, 13 July 1995. According to Binnaz Toprak's survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of some of the leading Islamic intellectuals and political leaders, they have all been exposed to western, modern European education. See Toprak, 'Islamist intellectual' also by the same author see Islam and Political Development in Turkey, pp 107-108. Serif Mardin notes the influence of American intellectual history and French literature on Ismet Ozel who is one of the most articulate, analytical and politically vocal Islamic intellectuals in Turkey. Mardin, 'Islam in mass society', p 167.
26. In Turkey, a radical, revolutionary Islamic group, called IBCA-C recently send a life threatening letter to Fethullah Gulen, the leader of a religious-political community. The reason for the life threatening letter is because Gulen 'has been co-opted into the mainstream media and that he looks down on "ignorant" radical, militant Islamic groups who do not even know who Pablo Picasso is'. In response, IBDA-C made sure to include in its letter an erroneous reference to Gaugin who is claimed to have lost his ear. 'IBDA-C, Fethullah Gulen'i Tehdit Etti', Yeni Yuzyil, 13 July 1995. According to Binnaz Toprak's survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of some of the leading Islamic intellectuals and political leaders, they have all been exposed to western, modern European education. See Toprak, 'Islamist intellectual' also by the same author see Islam and Political Development in Turkey, pp 107-108. Serif Mardin notes the influence of American intellectual history and French literature on Ismet Ozel who is one of the most articulate, analytical and politically vocal Islamic intellectuals in Turkey. Mardin, 'Islam in mass society', p 167.
27. On the question of paradoxical convergence between Islamic feminism and a critique of ethnocentricism within the Western feminist movements see Deniz Kandiyoti 'Introduction' and 'End of Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey', in Kandiyoti (ed), Women, Islam and the State, London: Temple University Press, 1991. On the question of the pervasive influences of the histories of colonialism and nationalism on women in Egypt and Turkey also see D Kandiyoti, 'Identity and its Discontents,: Women and the Nation', in P Williams et al (eds), Colonial Discourse and Colonial Theory, NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.
28. On the question of paradoxical convergence between Islamic feminism and a critique of ethnocentricism within the Western feminist movements see Deniz Kandiyoti 'Introduction' and 'End of Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey', in Kandiyoti (ed), Women, Islam and the State, London: Temple University Press, 1991. On the question of the pervasive influences of the histories of colonialism and nationalism on women in Egypt and Turkey also see D Kandiyoti, 'Identity and its Discontents,: Women and the Nation', in P Williams et al (eds), Colonial Discourse and Colonial Theory, NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.
29. Yasar Demirbulak, 'Refahli Belediyelerin 14 Aylik Icraatlari', Yeni Yuzyil, 3 July 1995.
30. J Szyliowicz, 'Education and political development', in Heper & Evin, Politics in the Third Turkish Republic p 158.
31. In 1991 a particular clause of the Turkish Republic Law of Associations (no 163) has been changed so as to lift the ban on the organisation of anti-secular groups. Bulent Tanor, 'Laiklik,Rejim, ve 24. Madde', Yeni Yuzyil, 23 June 1995.
32. Galip Ridvanoglu, 'The state is the biggest supporter of the Islamic organisations', Turkish Daily News, 9 January 1995, p A 3.
33. Rusen Cakir's journalistic account of the Islamicist youth movement, IBDA-C and directory of the editorial boards of some Islamicist journals confirms this rumour. Rusen Cakir, Ayet ve Slogan, Istanbul: Metis Yayinlari, 1990.
34. Reeva S Simon, The Middle East in Crime Fiction, New York: Lilian Barber Press, 1989, p 49.
35. 'Turbanci Katilin Oglu: Boyle bir Sey lazimdi!', Yeni Yuzyil, 27 July 1995. The title of this article is another example of fuelling resentment among secularists. It reads 'The son of the murderer: this was needed!'. The title silences its own story, whereby one son and some close relatives of the assassin were saddened and surprised by the incident.
36. 'Istanbul'da Dev Bosna Konseri', Yeni Yuzyil, 2 August 1995, p 7.
37. Dankwart Rustow, p 76.
38. Deniz Kandiyoti "End of Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey" in Kandiyoti (ed.), Women, Islam and the State, London: Temple University Press, 1991, pp 39-40.
39. Rustow, 'Politics and Islam in Turkey', 1957, pp 75-76.
40. Ibid, p 70.
41. Ibid, p 78.
42. Ibid, pp 106-107.
43. This list is compiled for informative purposes and is by no means a complete documentary of politicised Islam.
44. Within the Sunni community there are four schools - Hanefis, Shafis, Malikis and Hanbalis. Most Sunnis in Turkey belong to the Hanefi school. One of the main distinguishing features of Sunnis from both Alevis and Bekthasis is that, while the Sunni traditions are based on the Quran, the latter two are not based on a written script. Alevi and Bektashi groups have affinity with the oral history, local traditions, beliefs and rituals in Anatolia which pre-date the history of Islam. Language differentiation is another factor that needs to be taken into account. Given the official state policy and the educational system, the mother tongue of Sunnis, as the predominant Islamic tradition, is Turkish.
45. Alevis make up of about 30% of the Kurdish population, and some of the Kurdish Alevis speak Kurdish only or both Kurdish and Turkish depending on their level of schooling and gender. Women as a rule do not do military service, which is one way for Kurdish-speaking men in remote villages to be introduced to Turkish. Rural women who do not participate in the public realm, including formal education, do not learn Turkish.
46. The National Order Party was 'proscribed following a ruling of the Turkish Constitutional Court, to the effect that the Party had improperly published materials which violated the fundamental provision of the Constitution concerning laicism'. Mardin, 'Religion in modern Turkey', p 593. The National Salvation Party, like all political parties, was banned by the military regime which remained in power between 1980-1983.
47. For a complete party programme see Rusen Cakir, Ayet ve Slogan, Istanbul: Metis Yayinlari, 1990, pp 226-230.
48. Ibid, pp 175-176.
49. For a survey of these journals and their impact on female university students see Feride Acar, 'Turkiye'de Islamci Hareket ve Kadin' in Sirin Tekeli (ed), Kadin Bakis Acisindan 1981'ler Turkiyesinde Kadin, Istanbul: lletisim Yayinlari, 1990.
50. There is much confusion about the theological and political configuration of tarikats since the Ottoman period. Two of the overlapping contexts in which tarikats are analysed are the Sufi order, which is a mystical branch of Islam predominantly within the Sunni tradition, and the Dervish order, which is also mystical but sometimes Bektashis are included in dervish orders. Bektashis' relationship with the Sunni tradition is complicated by local traditions and rituals.
51. Binnaz Toprak, 'The state, politics, and religion in Turkey', in Heper & Evin, State, Democracy and the Military, p 130.
52. For sources on this issue see, Mardin, 'Religion in Modern Turkey', pp 594, 599.