Turkey

History

Because Turkey is heir to a multiethnic and multireli-gious empire, the population in Turkey has a highly composite ethnic mixture. Because of the millet (nation) system of the Ottoman Empire, different communities coexisted. They were relatively autonomous in pursuing their own laws, customs, and commercial activities. However, with the Reform Period (1839–1876), this system changed. The 1876 constitution guaranteed civil rights to all subjects of the Empire, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, and introduced various laws and principles to protect their wealth and property. However, the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and the Albanian Revolt fostered separatist and nationalist tendencies within the Empire. By means of settlement and deportation policies, the establishment of a national economy and the construction of a national core in Anatolia (Anadolu) became the main target. The population exchanges and deportation (techir) policies resulted in the migration of thousands of non-Muslims (i.e., Greeks, Armenians, etc.).

Race, Ethnicity, and Religion

At first, Turkish nation had a broad definition: Every citizen within the borders of Turkey was deemed constitutionally a Turk regardless of such differentiations as ethnicity, religion, gender, race, sect, sexual preference, or philosophical beliefs. This broad definition mostly focused on broad civic values such as religion, ethics, aesthetics, and socialization as the common denominator of a nation. Later on, however, Kemalist nationalism (named after the founder of the republic, [Page 1335]Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk) differed from earlier, more united definitions, and in practice an ethnic nationalism ruled instead of a civic notion. The assimilation and integration methods differed in relation to the current economic, political, and cultural integration of these minority groups.

The project of nation building continued after the establishment of the republic, as did the disputes among communities and population exchanges. Nevertheless, the population contained various elements from the imperial period such as Jews and Christians, and other ethnic Muslim minorities such as Kurds, Arabs, Lazes, Muslim Georgians, Greek-speaking Muslims, Albanians, Macedonian Muslims, Pomaks, Serb Muslims, Bosnians, Tartars, and so on.

Today, the major ethnic minority group is the Kurds (approximately 20% of the total population), although they are not officially recognized as a minority by the authorities. This has led to the repression of any expression of unique identity; for example, the use of the Kurdish language is illegal. This exemption has led to several uprisings since 1935, but the Kurdish movement reached its culmination after the emergence of the Kurdish Workers' Party the (PKK) in 1984. During the 1980s and 1990s, clashes between the Turkish army and PKK militants had serious economic, political, and social costs for the country. In 2007, the PKK attacked a Turkish military patrol, further inflaming the region. Also recently, in relation to the European Union (EU) harmonization process, the ban on native languages was voided. Education and music, radio, and television broadcasts in native languages are now permitted, though with restrictions. In this context, a new notion of Turkishness (Turkiyelilik), which aims to encompass all citizens, started to gain popularity among the Turkish academic and intellectual circles.

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