The Kurdish Identity of Turkish Nationalist Thinkers: Ziya Gökalp and Ahmet Arvasi between Turkish Identity and Kurdish Ethnicity

Abstract

This article purports to study the national identity of two influential ideologues of Turkish nationalism, Ziya Gökalp and Ahmet Arvasi, their approach to Kurds and their rejection of such affiliations regardless of their background in a predominantly Kurdish milieu. Their worldviews were strikingly different regarding social matters but they both shared a common view regarding the hegemonic position of Turkish identity even in a Kurdish-majority region.

Notes

For conservative nationalism see Uzer, “The Genealogy of Turkish Nationalism,” 124–30.

Fındıkoğlu. Sosyalistler XIII Ziya Gökalp, 132 and Ülken, Ziya Gökalp, xii–xiii.

Göksel, Ziya Gökalp’ın neşredilmemiş Yedi Eseri ve aile mektupları, 37, 75.

Fındıkoğlu. Sosyalistler XIII Ziya Gökalp, 132.

Ibid., 132.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 23–4.

Ülken, Ziya Gökalp, xii.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 26.

Ibid., 32.

Şapolyo, Ziya Gökalp, 41–2.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 36, 38–9, 185.

Şapolyo, Ziya Gökalp, 54, 59–60.

Ülken, Ziya Gökalp, xii–xiii.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 43, 45, 53.

Göksel, Ziya Gökalp’ın neşredilmemiş Yedi Eseri ve aile mektupları, 74.

Gökalp, Limni ve Malta Mektupları, 7, 19, 79.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 57–8.

Fındıkoğlu, Ziya Gökalp için yazdıklarım ve söylediklerim, 38.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 71, 73, 75.

Fındıkoğlu. Sosyalistler XIII Ziya Gökalp, 64.

Ibid., 83.

Baltacıoğlu, Ziya Gökalp, 208.

Ülken, Ziya Gökalp, xiv.

Ibid., xv–xvi and Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 102.

Şapolyo, Ziya Gökalp, 223, 230–1 and Gökalp, Türk Medeniyeti Tarihi.

Ibid., 232–3.

Ibid., 33. Letter dated September 15, 1919.

Erişirgil, Bir Fikir adamının Romanı, 53 and Berkes, Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization, 44.

Heyd, Foundations of Turkish Nationalism, 21. The poet Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı was also a member of the Pirinççizade family.

Üngör, “Family Matters”.

Berkes, Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization, 43.

Gökalp, Kürt, 36, 39, 41 48–9, 52.

Parla, The Social and Political Thought of Ziya Gökalp 1876–1924, 86.

Fındıkoğlu, 16.

Berkes, Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization, 314.

Ibid. and Ali Kemal, an anti-nationalist journalist, was later to be lynched in Izmit in 1922 by a group organized by General Sakallı Nurettin Paşa because of his opposition to the national movement.

Ibid., 136–8.

Ülken, Ziya Gökalp, 80–1.

Berkes, Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization, 62–4, 175.

Ibid., 176.

Arvasi, Doğu Anadolu Gerçeği, 5.

Ibid., 6.

Ibid., 7, 13–14.

Ibid., 15–16, 18, 20–1.

Ibid., 27–8, 40, 43.

Ibid., 57–9.

Arvasi, Doğu Anadolu Gerçeği, 59, 81, 84.

Arvasi, Türk İslam Ülküsü, 61.

Arvasi, Doğu Anadolu Gerçeği, 50.

Ibid., 37–8.

Arvasi, Doğu Anadolu Gerçeği, 33.

Ibid., 53, 56.

Ibid., 63, 66.

Ibid., 64–5.

Ibid., 69.

Arvasi, Türk İslam Ülküsü, 278, 281–3, 285.

Ibid., 39.

Arvasi, İleri Türk milliyetçiliğinin İlkeleri, 5–6.

Ibid., 6–7.

Ibid., 13–15.

Arvasi, Türk–İslam Ülküsü, 7, 9–10.

Ibid., 97, 152.

Ibid., 65.

Ibid., 136–9.

Ibid., 136–9, 142.

Ibid., 332, 342, 347, 349.

Ibid., 93–5, 100.

Ibid., 396–7. The English translation of this sura is taken from The Quran, Translation. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, 69.

Arvasi, Türk İslam Ülküsü, 23, 33, 37, 39, 42.

Ibid., 51, 59.

Ibid., 91.

Ibid., 390–1.

Ibid., 96.

Ibid., 195–6.

Ibid., 296, 302, 306, 311–12, 315.