Symbols in the Formation of National Identity: Evaluation on Turkey in the Early Republican Period
Hülya E?k? U?uz () and
Rukiye Saygili
Additional contact information
Hülya E?k? U?uz: Selcuk University
Rukiye Saygili: Selcuk University
No 2805083, Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Abstract:
This study is on the formation of the Turkish national identity throughout the historical process defined as the Early Republican Period and function of the symbols in this formation process. In this study Early Republican Period is used to define the time slice between the years 1923 and 1938 in Turkey. Distinguishing feature of the period in question is redefinition of the state and society. In this redefinition process, symbols such as religion, Ottoman, sultan, flag, Islamic ummah, cult, madrasah, Quran, sharia, rayah, imamah, which are the elements of the symbol repertoire of the Ottoman society and constitute a meaningful whole, are replaced with Republic, nation, civilization, homeland, flag, Turk, hat, citizen, school. In line with the nationalization, civilizing and secularization principles, Republican discourse tried to reform both the symbols, which are the content of the cultural behavior, and the context, in which these symbols are formed and given meaning. In Turkish literature, opposition of the Kemalist nation formation process to the Islam and its symbols is frequently stated. In this study, it will be argued that Islam has played a key role in the formation of the Turkish national identity contrary to the general opinion and that flag and national anthem of the nation state are nourished by the Islamic references.
Keywords: Symbols; National Identity; Turkey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 1 page
Date: 2015-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 19th International Academic Conference, Florence, Oct 2015, pages 274-274
Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/proceedings/19th-international-a ... =28&iid=044&rid=5083 First version, 2015
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805083
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().