By the XIXth century multi ethnic empires
like Ottoman Empire, with the accelerating impact of the ideology of
nationalism, experienced a process of dissolution which resulted in the
founding of new nation states. These nation states were grounded on a
homogenous social structure and attempted various “demographical engineering”
policies towards the discordant elements. This and also the migrations accelerated
both the sharpening and socialisation of nationalist ideology and ventures of
the ‘naming’ of those who live in their respective countries. Without doubt,
this venture(s) of naming brought up the building of nation on one hand and
with the extensificationing of the consciousness and aspects of “us”,
suppressing and/or assimilation of the “other”, in short making them invisible
on the other. It is a fact that Republic of Turkey, which replaced Ottoman
Empire and which was designed in accordance to understanding of a nation-state,
too were affected from these developments. As commonly known, the Treaty of
Lausanne which was concluded as a result of the Turkish War of National
Independence fought against the imperialist forces and their sub-imperial elements,
sanctioned the lands of the Turkish nation-state before the international arena
and these lands took an unprecedented homogenous appearance. On the other hand,
founding fathers of the Republic, who experienced the imperial administration
and thus could be defined as being partly in empire and partly in nation-state,
with the impact of their witnessing of the process of dissolution in the
empire, tried to homogenise all kinds of differences, turn the remnants of an
empire into citizens and elevate it to the level of modern civilisation.
Attitudes towards the minorities during the homogenisation policies were
closely associated with the past experiences and with the nation desired or
intended to build. This article aims to focus on the background state of mind
of the attitudes towards minorities rather than the policies’ itself.
Nationalism Minorities Nation-state Turkish nation-state Homogenisa-tion
Birincil Dil | İngilizce |
---|---|
Bölüm | Makaleler |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 31 Ocak 2019 |
Gönderilme Tarihi | 15 Ağustos 2018 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2019 Cilt: 2 Sayı: 4 |
Yayının Türü: Uluslararası Akademik Hakemli-Altı Ayda Bir Yayınlanır