What is True Nationalism?

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk concludes his address to the youth at the end of his speech, "O children of the Turkish future! Even under these circumstances and conditions, your duty is to save Turkish independence and the Republic! The strength you need is in your noble blood!" (Atatürk, p. 607). It can be argued that the last sentence of Atatürk's address refers not to race-based nationalism but rather to the youth establishing a sublime bond with the nation to which they belong and taking pride in their Turkishness. For his understanding of nationalism is entirely devoid of extremism and chauvinism. In his speech, he describes the imperialist idea of keeping communities from different nations together ‘under equal rights and conditions’ as deceptive, and ‘uniting all Turks in the world into one state’ as ‘an impossible goal’. ‘There is no historical precedent for Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism achieving success and becoming a reality in the world. The consequences of ambitions to establish a single world state encompassing all humanity, regardless of race, have also been recorded in history (ibid., p. 299).’ The fact that he ended his Tenth Year Speech with the phrase ‘How happy is he who says, “I am a Turk”!’ indicates that he saw Turkishness not as an ethnic affiliation but as a sentiment, an emotional identity distilled from the high Turkish culture accumulated over centuries.

As an Ottoman officer who was directly involved in the struggle to prevent the collapse of the Empire, Atatürk had witnessed all the weaknesses of a multi-ethnic structure, and the situation of the Turks, the founding and original element, had deeply affected him. In his work Zeytindağı, Falih Rıfkı Atay compares the Turks in the Ottoman Empire to the Muslim teacher who holds the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which cannot be shared by the congregations: "We are performing the duty of this teacher across all these continents. Trade, culture, farms, industry, buildings, everything belonged to the Arabs or other states... Only the gendarmerie was ours; not even the gendarmerie, but the gendarmerie's uniform." (Atay, p. 44). According to Ziya Gökalp, in the Ottoman Empire, ‘Turkishness meant being a farmer’ (Gökalp, p. 24). Atatürk, during his staff officer training in Haifa, describes the impact made on him by the behaviour of a Turkish corporal towards Arab soldiers, who was reprimanded by the Company Commander, Captain, with the following words: "In the poem by the poet Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, which I first read when I was a student at the Manastır Military High School, beginning with the line “I am a Turk, my religion and my race are great”, I found the first expression that made me feel the pride of my national identity. But I truly saw and felt this in the tears of an Anatolian child during my first days in the army. From then on, Turkishness became my deepest source of confidence and my greatest source of pride. I never succumbed to the feeling of inadequacy instilled by the Ottoman Empire, which praised other nations and looked down on Turkishness (5).”

Therefore, Atatürk's awareness of Turkishness did not emerge from an ideology adopted for political motives, but from the realisation of a phenomenon that had been pushed into the background in order to preserve the Empire. The impact of the situation in which the Turks, the founding nation within the elements that constituted the Empire, found themselves was an important factor in the formation of the nationalist ideology on which the Republic would be based. He expressed his thoughts on nationalism with the following words: ‘We are directly nationalists and Turkish nationalists; the foundation of our Republic is the Turkish community. The more the individuals of this community are imbued with Turkish culture, the stronger the republic based on that community will be (5).’

Following the abolition of the sultanate and caliphate, it was envisaged that the newly established Republic would be built on nationalism based on the principles of national sovereignty and secularism, as well as the Turkish language and culture. Turkish culture has been enriched by many cultural elements that have nourished it throughout its flow from the depths of Central Asia to the heart of Europe. Turkish nationalism, based on high Turkish culture, became one of the founding principles of the last Turkish state, reborn from its ashes in Anatolia. However, within the historical flow, the identification of nationalist thought with certain political ideologies led one segment of society to embrace and champion this idea, while another segment distanced itself from it. Like any idea attributed with sanctity, the idea of nationalism is also open to abuse. Nationalist rhetoric, which easily stirs up spiritual feelings, can be readily used for political gain. A nationalist understanding reduced to symbols and slogans can easily mobilise the masses by playing on certain sensitivities of the people. Indeed, in our history, there have been many instances where our material and spiritual resources have been squandered for the sake of unrealistic, idealistic approaches and unattainable promises.

In his Nutuk, Atatürk expresses the principle he will apply in putting his ideas into practice as ‘national politics,’ without fitting it into any international intellectual mould: "Given the current global conditions, there can be no greater mistake than to be idealistic in the face of the realities that centuries have established in minds and characters. This is what history tells us, this is what science, reason and logic tell us.‘ (Atatürk, p.299), thus basing his approach on a realistic framework grounded in ’reason, science and logic". Atatürk defines national policy as follows: "Within our national borders, first and foremost, to preserve our existence by relying on our own strength, to work for the true happiness and prosperity of the nation and the country... Generally, not to exhaust the nation in pursuit of long-term goals and cause it harm... To expect civility, humanity and mutual friendship from the civilised world (ibid., p. 299).

The most sublime reward for a person taking pride in their nation, living with honour among the nations of the world, and striving to rise to the highest levels is found in the idea of nationalism. However, it is thought that the conceptual content of nationalism, one of the founding principles of our Republic, being emptied of meaning and used for political gain poses a threat to the survival of the state. For this state emerged as ‘...the result of the vigilance created by the national disasters suffered for centuries and the price paid by the blood that watered every corner of this sacred homeland...’ (ibid., p. 607). In line with the ‘national policy’ based on ‘reason, science and logic’ pursued by the will that established the Republic, true nationalism that will sustain and advance the Republic must also be realistic nationalism based on reason, science and the realities of life.

References:

(1) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Nutuk, Atatürk Culture, Language and History Higher Council Atatürk Research Centre, 2004, Adapted to Modern Language by Prof. Dr. Zeynep Korkmaz.

(2) Tenth Year Speech, https://www.ktb.gov.tr/TR-96294/10-yil-nutku.html

(3) Falih Rıfkı Atay, Zeytindağı, Pozitif Publications, 2012.

(4) Ziya Gökalp, Becoming Turkish, Becoming Islamic, Becoming Modern and The Right Path, İnkilâp and Aka Bookshops, 1976.

(5) https://atam.gov.tr/milliyetcilik-milli-birlik-ve-beraberlik/