Language, Identity and Politics in Turkey: Nationalist Discourse on Creating a Common Turkic Language

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze ever growing trend among Turkish nationalist toward creation of a
common literary language for all Turkic peoples. The issue is not indeed new. It may trace
back to the nineteenth century, but got a great acceleration during the establishment of
Turkish Republic in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Although the modernization
movement led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his comrades had a different agenda excluding
and/or ignoring Turkic elements of Central Asia, this policy faced severe resistance from
traditionalists, that is, from both Turkist-nationalists and Islamists since the very
beginning of the modernist reform movement

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