Keyboard shortcuts

/ or ⌘/Ctrl K
Find a note
j / k
Next / previous section or linked note
h / l
Collapse or go to parent / expand or enter
e or Alt-click
Read a linked note here
o
Open focused note on its own
g g / G
First / last section or linked note
g h / g a
Home / all notes
g b / g t
Backlinks / table of contents
t
Cycle System, Light, Dark
? / Esc
Show / close this reference

Search: ↑/↓ or Ctrl N/P, Enter to open. Shortcuts pause while typing.

Danforth: A Ottoman Empire from 1923 to Today [ffc8dc1c]

Tags: papers, Post-Ottoman Near East, turkey

Turkish politics hold contradictory viewpoints of Ottomanism, esepcially with the AKP. Before 2010 even Western pundits cited Erdogan's rapprochement with Syria as neo-Ottomanism, but then after said it was neo-Ottomanism to support the Sunni anti-Assad opposition.

  • The empire's rise and fall were used to justify the founding principals of the republic
  • Turkey "reconnected" with the Ottoman "roots" in the 1990's

  • Ataturk's uncomprising views arose during 1922-1923, where the Sultan still presented a political threat

    • By 1927 Ottomanism could be put in service of nation construction

  • 1940 Aziz Sevket Kansu published some bizarre pieces with size of skulls and Ottoman intellectuals as a % of population

  • Historical narratives around the 1930's see golden era and a fatal decline, but the existance of the Golden era allows the Turks to ascribe a specific "turkishness"

1. Fatih (conquest) day 1953

  • 500 anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantiople
  • Greatly emphasized the fatih's (mehmet the conquerer's) turkish national identity, his revolutionary, pro-Western outlook, and his secularism - pg 16

  • Later merging of the republican values with the religious and historical roots of the Fatih

    • Converting of the Hagia Sophia from church to mosque compared to the converting of the Hagia Sophia from mosque to museum

2. Modern day ottomanism

  • Ottomanism made jingoistic nationalism an obstacle to joining the EU

    • Ottomanism then reformed into multi-pluralistic ideas

      • European Capital of Culture contest

  • Usefulness of ottomanism as a capitalist tool to sell things

    • AKP's mercantile class