Militarism and Military Discourse in the Creation of a Nation: The Example of Turkish Modernization

Abstract

Nations and nationalisms are, in the modern world, quite a fact. However, the biggest problem for a modern state is to create a nation from its citizens. In order to fulfill this task modern states have used every opportunity and tool. The military is one of these tools. As has its modern counterparts, the Turkish Republic has used its military to indoctrinate its citizens to create a nation. However, the usage of military has never been limited to time, or to the military itself. Both the military and militarist discourse, in modern Turkey, have involved and permeated almost every aspect of social life from the very beginning. This article is not the first attempt to examine the Turkish military and its effects in the country. Nevertheless, the militarist discourse have never been studied in all its complexity. This study intends to examine militarist discourse and indoctrination processes in Turkey from military, political, educational, and media points of view with the context of modernization.

Keywords

• militarism
• democracy
• Turkey
• nationalism
• modernization
• poltics

Militarism and Military Discourse in the Creation of a Nation: The Example of Turkish Modernization

Öz

Uluslar ve milliyetçilikler modern dünyada önemli bir olgudur. Ancak modern bir devlet için en büyük sorun vatandaşlarından bir ulus çıkarabilmektir. Bu görevi yerine getirebilmek için modern devletler her türlü fırsatı ve aracı kullanagelmiştir. Ulusal ordular da bu araçlardan biridir. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti devleti de tıpkı diğer modern emsalleri gibi orduyu bir ulus yaratmak için vatandaşlarına bu fikri aşılamak üzere kullanagelmiştir. Binaenaleyh, ordunun kullanımı zamana yahut ordunun kendisiyle sınırlı kalmamıştır. Hem ordu hem de militarist söylem modern Türkiye’de başından beri toplumsal hayatın hemen her alanına sirayet etmiştir. Bu makale Türk ordusunu ve ordunun ülkedeki etkisini ele alan ilk makale değildir, ancak militarist söylem bütün karmaşıklığı içerisinde çok az çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışma Türkiye’deki askeri söylemin ve endoktrinasyon süreçlerini modernleşme bağlamıyla birlikte ordu, siyaset, eğitim ve medya açısından incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• militarizm
• siyaset
• modernleşme
• Türkiye
• demokrasi
• milliyetçilik

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