https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5869-512X
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
While the dominant narrative of Turkey's secularism process is discussed in terms of the Kemalist leadership’s regulation of social life in a top-down manner, this article focuses on the practices of religious organizations in the early Republican era by examining secularism through the everyday practices of the ‘ordinary’ people and relying upon oral history. In recent years, studies considering the social dynamics of this era have included more critical approaches that challenge the dominant understanding by focusing on practices excluded from centralized power control. This has allowed for a more critical approach to the arguments claiming that Kemalist cadres successfully achieved social transformation. With this impetus, this study aims to demonstrate the flexible appearances of power struggles and develops an approach examining both social relations and local dynamics by considering micro and macro perspectives.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Mardin, “Center-Periphery,” and Heper, The State Tradition.
2 Gourisse, Nizam Vermek, 8.
3 Berkes, The Development, and Lewis, The Emergence. Examining history with linear understanding creates both the risk of ignoring the diversity of social life and tends to reproduce state-based prevailing approaches with a macro-scale perspective. For a critique of linear history, see Kracauer, History.
4 For the local conditions’ impact on political dynamics, see Meeker, A Nation of Empire.
5 Bauberot, Dünyada Laiklik, 64.
6 Maclure and Taylor, Secularism and Freedom, 23.
7 Gauchet, Demokrasi.
8 Casanova, Public Religions. See also Asad Genealogies, and Dole, Seküler Yaşam.
9 Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures.
10 Durkheim, Dinsel Yaşamın, 293, 312.
11 Asad, Genealogies.
12 Cangızbay, “Çok Hukukluluk,” 281.
13 Toprak, Cumhuriyet ve Antropoloji, 349–51, and Tuna, “The Missing.”
14 Mustafa Kemal, Nutuk, 336.
15 Zengin-Arslan, “State and Turkish Secularism.”
16 Borak, Atatürk’ün, 244.
17 Bein, Ottoman Ulema, 55.
18 Yakut, Şeyhülislamlık, 63.
19 Yurdakul, Osmanlı İlmiye, 54.
20 Varol, “Osmanlı Devleti’nin,” 50; Yurdakul, Osmanlı İlmiye, 211.
21 Zengin-Arslan, “State and Turkish Secularism,” 212.
22 The Kemalist citizen-construction attempt is suited to explain in the context of Charles Tilly's determination on modern nation-states, which aims to homogenize the masses by standardizing social elements, see Tilly, The Formation, 78.
23 Zengin-Arslan, “State and Turkish Secularism,” 222.
24 The Law on Closure of Dervish Lodges and Shrines, Law no 677, Number: 243, Volume 3/7, p. 113. 13.12.1925.
25 Trouillot, Silencing the Past; Harootunian, History’s Disquiet; and Maza, Thinking about History.
26 Migdal, State in Society, 23.
27 Gupta, Blurred Boundaries, 384.
28 Ibid., 384, 390, 392.
29 Migdal, State Power, 17.
30 For his criticism of approaches that assume the state as separate from society, see Mitchell, The Limits, 77–96.
31 Ferguson and Gupta, Spatializing the State, 995.
32 See Migdal, State in Society; Ferguson and Gupta, Spatializing the State; and Gourisse, Nizam Vermek for approaches that consider the state not as an arbitrator or decision-maker but as a field where various conflicts manifest.
33 Yow, Recording Oral History, 12.
34 Thompson, The Voice, 5, 18.
35 Neyzi, Ben Kimim?, 10, and Abrams, Oral History Theory, 193.
36 Neyzi, Ben Kimim?, 2.
37 See Adak and Lamprou, Tek Parti, for a compilation of contributions from a few scholars with this perspective.
38 On 4 December 2020, after the approval granted by Kilis 7 Aralik University Ethics Committee, the interviews were started. Participants were informed verbally, and their written consent forms were obtained. The interviewees approved the statements in the article. The Ethics committee approval document is available from the author.
39 Patton, Qualitative Evaluation.
40 From the interview transcript of interviewee twelve on December 27, 2020.
41 Interviewee eleven on 26 December 2020.
42 Interviewee one on 5 December 2020.
43 Interviewee nine on 2 February 2021.
44 Interviewee ten on 8 December 2020.
45 Interviewee thirteen on 20 February 2021.
46 Interviewee fourteen on 4 February 2021.
47 Interviewee two on 12 December 2020.
48 Interviewee five on 13December 2020.
49 Interviewee seven on 14 December 2020.
50 Two weeks before the proclamation of the Republic, the Kemalist government declared Ankara the capital instead of Istanbul to get rid of the remnants of the old regime. For further information, see Şenol-Cantek, Yabanlar ve Yerliler.
51 Interviewee six on 5 January 2021.
52 Interviewee eight on 29 April 2021.
53 Interviewee eleven.
54 Interviewee three on 1 February 2021.
55 Interviewee four on 2 April 2021.
56 Er, Hatıralarım, 11; and Düzdağ, Üstad,145.
57 Interviewee fourteen.
58 Interviewee nine.
59 Yorulmaz, Bir Neslin, 87.
60 Ergin, Gönül Ufkunda, 86.
61 İz, Yılların İzi, 303.
62 Interviewee six.
63 Interviewee fifteen on 21 February 2021.
64 Köksal, İlim, 67.
65 Interviewee ten.
66 For further information about Hat Reform, see Metinsoy, Everyday Resistance.
67 Interviewee fifteen.
68 Ibid.
69 Karaömerlioğlu, The People’s House, and Tuna, The Missing.
70 Yılmaz, Becoming Turkish.
71 For studies that examine the early Republican era by considering the multi-layered structure of social relations, see Akın, Reconsidering State.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ilbey C. N. Ozdemirci
Dr. Ilbey Özdemirci received his Ph.D. from Ankara University in 2020, with his thesis titled ‘Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde Sekülerliğin İnşasına Taşradan Bakmak’ (Approaching the Construction of Secularism in the Early Republican Era from the Province) He is an assistant professor at Kilis 7 Aralik University. In 2019, he worked with Prof. Armando Salvatore at McGill University for one academic year with the scholarship awarded by TUBITAK. His research interests are anthropology, the sociology of religion, and Turkish political life. His publications focus on modernization, secularism in the early Republican era, and orientalism and occidentalism.