USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Civic nationalism and ethnocultural justice in Turkey.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
Are civic states culturally neutral? The Turkish model of civic nationalism is often praised as a success, albeit an authoritarian one, in creating a unitary national culture. In fact, Turkey's national identity has come at a steep cultural cost. Civic institutions have homogenized and folklorized minority cultures. Ethnoreligious conceptions of Turkish identity have underpinned immigration and naturalization, internal movement and resettlement, education, language, and cultural policies. Turkish nationalism has weighed heaviest on Kurds, lslamists, religious minorities, and the left. A state-run "Turkish Reformation" of Islam failed in the 1930s; more recent attempts to nationalize Islam have turned the state into a mouthpiece for mainstream Sunni doctrine. The Turkish case suggests that in states with deep societal divisions, the dream of civic nationalism may be a coerced one.
Language
en_US
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
Recommended Citation
Smith, T.W. (2005). Civic nationalism and ethnocultural justice in Turkey. Human Rights Quarterly, 27, 436-470.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Human Rights Quarterly, 27, 436-470. DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2005.0027 Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.