Upsurge of the Extreme Right in Turkey: The Intra-Right Struggle to Redefine ‘True Nationalism and Islam’

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Notes

1. For the Eurobarometer poll conducted in April 2006 see ‘Türkiye’de AB’ye destek yüzde 43’e geriledi’[Support for the EU has Declined to 43 per cent in Turkey], Zaman (Istanbul daily), 7 July 2006.

2. The notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code with very wide-ranging and vague terms provides ground for the individual complaints of the alleged denigration of Turkishness.

3. Dink was a well-known human rights activist and courageous defender of the rights of the tiny Armenian minority in Turkey. His recent efforts to initiate a peaceful debate on the organized atrocities against the Armenian population during the First World War made him an open target for the extreme nationalists. This issue is still one of the most sensitive taboos in Turkey.

4. For an account of the recent upsurge of such groups and their pronounced anti-Kurdish stance, see T. Bora, ‘Kitle imhalarla yok etmek lazım: Gelişen anti-Kürt Hınç’[‘They must be Extinguished by Mass Destruction Weapons’: The Rising Anti-Kurdish Resentment], Birikim, Vol.191 (March 2005), pp.36–47. For an historical analysis of the NAP see also T. Bora and K. Can, Devlet, Ocak, Dergah: 12 Eylül’den 1990’lara Ülkücü Hareket[The State, Hearth and Dergah: The Idealist Movement from September 12 to the 1990s] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1991). For the recent developments under Dr. Bahçeli's leadership, see T. Bora and K. Can, Devlet ve Kuzgun, 1990’lardan 2000’lere MHP[The State and Raven: The NAP from the 1990s to the 2000s] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2004).

5. This group traditionally defines its nationalism as Ulusalcılık for which some circles also prefer the term Atatürk Milliyetçiliği (Atatürk nationalism). These terms have been employed to privilege their nationalism's secular content; they also deliberately distance themselves from the Ottoman past and any Islamist interpretation. They were also careful to limit their energies to Turkey by discrediting Turkist nationalists' sympathies with the Turkic groups of Central Asia as dangerous adventurism. Nevertheless, this caution seems to be losing ground with their ideological rapprochement with the Turkist nationalist groups in recent years.

6. Prof. Ümit Özdağ is a well-known nationalist professor. He was the son of Muzaffer Özdağ who was a nationalist member of the National Security Comittee (NSC) which ended Democatic Party rule in 1960. Within the NSC, he was a member of a group known as the Fourteens (14’ler) led by the Colonel Alparslan Türkeş. This group, which was willing to continue military rule, was purged by the other members of the NSC who were in favour of a return to the multi-party politics.

7. Özdağ's membership in the NAP was refused and he was not admitted to the party congress held on 19 Nov. 2006. In this congress Dr. Bahçeli was re-elected to the party leadership as he was the only candidate.

8. The daily Zaman voices the ideas and interests of Fethullah Gülen community.

9. For example, for the term fascism and its variants, see R. Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (London: Routledge, 1993) and L. Cheles (ed.), Neo-Fascism in Europe (New York: Longman, 1991); for the extreme right, see P. Hainsworth, ‘The Extreme Right in Post-War France’, in P. Hainsworth (ed.), The Extreme Right in Europe and the USA (London: Pinter, 1992), pp.44–8; for the radical right, see S.P. Ramet, ‘ Defining the Radical Right: The Values and Behaviours of Organized Intolerance’, in S.P. Ramet, The Radical Right in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), pp.3–27; for radical right-wing populism, see H.-G. Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (London: Macmillan, 1994), For neo-populism, see S. Immerfall, ‘Conclusion: The New Populist Agenda’, in H.G. Betz and S. Immerfall (eds.), The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies (London: Macmillan, 1998), pp.249–63.

10. H.-G. Betz, ‘Introduction’, in Betz and Immerfall (eds.), The New Politics of the Right, p.3.

11. Ibid., p.4.

12. Ibid.

13. For instance, Arslan Tekin frequently employs the term; ‘the people's opponents’ (halk muhalifleri) to denigrate those whom he considers to be acting against the democatic will of the nation.

14. Betz, Introduction, p.5.

15. İ.K. Kumbasar, ‘Yahudi lobisi küresel etkinliğini nereden alıyor?’[Where is the Jewish Lobby Deriving its Global Power?], Yeniçağ (Istanbul daily), 6 Oct. 2006. Kumbasar means the Great Depression of 1929.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid. Yeniçağ columnist Arslan Bulut also frequently refers to the alleged ‘collaboration of the Jewish lobby and Henry Kissinger, the head of the Global Strategic Committee with 12 members which consider itself “the World Government”, and his heir Richard Holbrooke’, see A. Bulut, ‘Erdoğan GAP’ı da Yahudi sermayesine teslim edecek!’[Erdoğan will also Surrender the GAP to the Jewish Capital!], Yeniçağ, 28 Dec. 2006.

18. Ü. Özdağ, ‘AB Faşizmi ve onunla mücadele’[EU Fascism and the Struggle with it], Yeniçağ, 23 Sept. 2006. In a similar articles, Özdağ summarizes his fears for the EU acsession process: ‘This dissolution process led by the EU … would appear tomorrow in the form of the Armenian question, then the withdrawal of the Turkish army from Cyprus, the controlling of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrtae by the EU and finally dividing Turkey into federal parts.’ See Ü. Özdağ, ‘AP Türkiye Raporu ve Ermeni ‘Soykırımı’[The EU Parliamant's Report on Turkey and the ‘Armenian Genocide’], Yeniçağ, 29 Sept. 2006.

19. Ü. Özdağ, ‘Milli Muhalefet’[National Opposition], Yeniçağ, 24 June 2006.

20. A. Bulut, ‘İstanbul ve Anadolu üzerinde eski ve yeni planlar’[The Old and New Plans for Istanbul and Anatolia], Yeniçağ, 17 May 2006.

21. Ibid. Bulut has also a book on the same issue. See A. Bulut, Çift Başlı Yılan: Karadeniz’de Yüzyılın İkinci Rumlaştırma Operasyonu[The Two-headed Serpent: The Century's Second Operation of Hellenization in the Black Sea] (Istanbul: 3OK Yayınları, 2005).

22. A. Bulut, ‘Ulusalcılara ve milliyetçilere Cumhuriyetçilik şemsiyesi!’[The Umbrella of Republicanism to the Ulusalcılar and Nationalists], Yeniçağ, 4 May 2006.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. ‘Bahçeli hükümeti eleştirdi, ülkücü gençleri uyardı’[Bahçeli Criticized the Government and Warned the Idealist Youth], Zaman (Istanbul daily), 5 May 2005.

26. Ü. Özdağ, ‘MHP ve Mozaikçilik’[The NAP and the Discourse of Mosaic Turkey], Yeniçağ Gazetesi, 10 May 2005.

27. Ü. Özdağ, ‘Türk Milliyetçiliği ve “Kürtler”’[Turkish Nationalism and ‘the Kurds’], Yeniçağ Gazetesi, 16 May 2006.

28. Zaman, 22 Nov. 2005.

29. Quoted from Fatih Altaylı's interview with Erdoğan on the ATV channel. Hürriyet (Istanbul daily), 3 Sept. 2003.

30. M. Barlas, Turgut Özal’ın Anıları[The Memoirs of Turgut Özal] (Istanbul: Sabah Yayınları), p.123.

31. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ‘Derin devlete çomağı soktuk, rahatsız olanlar sesini yükseltiyor’[We Drove into the Deep State. Those who Felt Disturbed are Reacting], Zaman, 06 February, 2007.

32. ‘Siyaset, “milliyetçilik” tartışmasına kilitlendi’[Politics has been Locked into the Debate on Nationalism], Zaman, 8 Feb. 2007.

33. Zaman, 11 Dec. 2005.

34. The speech of Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Head of State, given at the Academy of War, Hürriyet, 15 April 2006.

35. Ibid.

36. A. Bulut, ‘Sezer “Türk kimliği” dersini kime verdi?’[To whom Sezer gave the Lesson of the Turkish Identity?], Yeniçağ, 13 April 2006.

37. Turgut Özal championed this mission of transforming Turkey into a regional economic power until his death in 1993. Some nationalist circles which defined themselves as the neo-Ottomanist had given active support to Özal's deliberate efforts. For Özal's related views, see an interview conducted by M. Çalık, ‘Türkiye’nin önünde hacet kapıları açılmıştır’[The Doors of Necessity have been Opened before Turkey], Türkiye Günlüğü 19 (Summer 1992), pp.5–24.

38. For an elaboration of this issue, see Yüksel Taşkın, “Milliyetçi Sivil Toplum Kuruluşlarının Türk Kimliğini, Türk Dünyasıölçeğinde yeniden tanımlama çabaları ve dış politika gündemine etkileri”(The efforts of the nationalist civil society organizations to re-fine the Turkish identity in reference to the ‘Turkish world’ and their impact on the agenda of foreign policy) Erhan Doğan and Semra Mazlum Cerit (ed) Sivil Toplum ve Dış Politika: Yeni sorunlar, yeni aktörler, (Civil society and Foreign Policy: New problems and new actors), İstanbul: Bağlam Yayınları., 2006, pp.281–209.

39. This centre (ASAM) was established in 1999. Prof. Özdağ headed it until 2004 when Gündüz Aktan, a well-known ex-diplomat, replaced him.

40. Ü. Özdağ, ‘Yeniden Türk Milliyetçiliği, Daima Türk Milliyetçiliği’[Turkish Nationalism Again; Turkish Nationalism Forever], Türk Yurdu 169 (July 2003), pp.5–22, at p.6.

41. S. Aydın, ‘30’ların tezlerine geri dönüş: Anadolu’da “proto-Türkler”’[The Return to the 1930s' Theses: ‘The Proto-Turks in Anatolia’], Toplum ve Bilim 96 (Spring 2003), pp.8–35, at p.8.

42. Ü. Özdağ, ‘Türk Milliyetçiliği ve Jeopolitik’[Turkish Nationalism and Geopolitics], in T. Bora (ed.), Modern Türkiye’de Siyasi Düşünce-Milliyetçilik [Political Thought in Modern Turkey–Nationalism], Vol.4 (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2004), pp.168–78, at p.170.

43. Ibid., p.10.

44. T. Kılınç, ‘Türkiye’nin Etrafında Barış Kuşağı Nasıl Oluşturulur’, Sempozyumu’[The Symposium Entitled How to Create a Peace Shelter around Turkey], Organized by Harp Akademileri Komutanlığı, Hürriyet, 8 March 2002.

45. Quoted by Ü. Özdağ, ‘Türk Milliyetçiliği ve Jeopolitik’, p.175.

46. Ibid.

47. Ibid., p.178.

48. Ibid., p.174.

49. A. Tekin, ‘31 yıl öncesi Ayasofya protestosunun versiyonu’[The New Version of the Ayasofya Protest that was Organized 31 Years Ago], Yeniçağ, 30 Nov. 2006.

50. A separate government agency, Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü(the General Directorate for Foundations, GDF), regulates activities of non-Muslim religious groups and their affiliated churches, monasteries, synagogues, and related religious property. The GDF recognizes 161 “minority foundations,” including Greek Orthodox foundations with approximately 61 sites, Armenian Orthodox foundations with approximately 50 sites, and Jewish foundations with 20 sites, as well as Syriac Christian, Chaldean, Bulgarian Orthodox, Georgian, and Maronite foundations.

51. Ü. Özdağ, ‘Ülkücü Uyanış ve Ayasofya Camii’[The Idealist Awakening and the Ayasofya Mosque], Yeniçağ, 17 Nov. 2006. In this article, Özdağ also calls on the nationalists to ‘hold their daily prayers (Namaz) at Ayasofya by creating a de facto situation while refraining from violence’.

52. A. Bulut, ‘Müslüman Türk’e vermediği hakları AKP, azınlıklara ve yabancılara veriyor!’[The JDP Grants those Rights to the Minorities and Foreigners which it will not Grant to the Muslim Turks!], Yeniçağ, 18 Jan. 2007.

53. See A. Kaya and F. Kentel, Euro-Türkler, Türkiye ile Avrupa Birliği Arasında Köprü mü, engel mi?[The Euro-Turks: Are they a Bridge or Obstacle between Turkey and the EU?] (Istanbul: Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2005), pp.72, 73.

54. See B. Balcı, Fethullah Gülen Okulları. Ortaasya’da İslam Misyonerleri[Fethullah Gülen's Schools: The Missionaries of Islam in the Central Asia] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2005).

55. Ruşen Çakır and Fehmi Çalmuk suggest this term in their biography of Erdoğan. See R. Çakır and F. Çalmuk, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Bir dönüşüm öyküsü[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: A Story of Transformation] (Istanbul: Metis Yayınevi, 2001), p.137.

56. Erdoğan's speech at the opening of the Union of European Turkish Democrats (EUTB), Zaman, 6 Oct. 2006.

57. İ.K. Kumbasar, ‘İslamiyete küfreden Papa ve dinlerarası diyalog misyonerleri’[The Pope who Insulted Islam and the Missionaries of Inter-religious Dialogue], Yeniçağ, 15 Sept. 2006.

58. A. Bulut, ‘Ne demekmiş“İbrahimi dinler” duydunuz mu: Yahudileşmek!’[Have you Heard the Meaning of ‘the Abrahamite Religions’: Becoming Jewish!], Yeniçağ, 16 Dec. 2006.

59. The circulation of Zaman passed the threshold of 500,000 towards the end of 2006 and was 627,000 during the week 29 Oct to 4 Nov 2007.

60. There are other figures such as the left liberal Şahin Alpay with a Maoist past and well-known novelist Elif Şafak who is still defining herself as a leftist. She has recently become the target of nationalist groups since, in her novel, she is alleged to mock Turkishness according to the notorious Article 301.

61. M. Türköne, ‘Türk Kanı ve Kangal’[Turkish Blood and the Kangal Dog], Zaman, 6 June 2006.

62. Ibid.

63. İ.K. Kumbasar, ‘Türklüğün sembolü bozkurt ve aynadaki sıska kangal köpeği’[The Greywolf as Symbol of Turkishness and the Thin Kangal Dog in the Mirror], Yeniçağ, 8 June 2006.