Modern Revolutions in Comparative Perspective Jan Plamper

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Week 10: The Turkish Revolutions Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Atatürk and Kemalism Turkish ‘Revolution’ today? Gezi Park

(1) Turkish ‘Revolution’? No single event or set of events (e.g. storming of the Bastille, Terror) associated with Turkish Revolution Turkish Revolutions in the plural Term refers to period that encompasses Young Turk rebellion of 1908, dissolution of Ottoman Empire and Turkish War of Independence, 1919-1923

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Ottoman Empire, 1359-1856

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Ottoman Empire (including dependent territories) at outbreak of WW1 in 1914

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions many national movements in multinational empire (e.g. in Bulgaria  pan-Slavism  Russia) mid-19th c.: Ottoman Empire = ‘sick man of Europe’; constitution of 1876 suspended in 1878 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II who ruled like absolute monarch for next 30 years Young Turk movement: students in Paris etc., influenced by Western European scientism and spirit of nationalism; secret society (later: party) Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions one (of several) catalysts for 1908 Young Turk Revolution: Japan’s victory over Russia in 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War  ‘Eastern’ power (Japan) can beat ‘Western’ power (Russia) Young Turk Revolution was a successful revolt by officers; July 1908: Sultan restores constitution of 1876 and parliament

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Second Constitutional Period, 1908-18: constitutional monarchy with Sultan various setbacks, cataclysms etc., e.g. April 1909 counterrevolution by more conservative and religious old Ottoman government officials power not only concentrated in legislative branch (parliament) or executive (Sultan), but also army  pattern for Modern Turkey: military coups d’état in 1960, 1971, 1980 from 1912-23: almost continuous warfare (1912-13 Balkan War, 1914-18 WW1, 1919-23 War of Independence)  enormous casualties

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Second Constitutional Period, 1908-18: spring-summer 1915: Armenian genocide: Armenian nationalist movement in Eastern Anatolia; ‘relocations’ (= deportations) by Ottoman troops, in the end 600,000-800,000 dead (some Turkish historians: 200,000; some Armenian historians: 1.5 million)  could only take place in conditions of war; some Social Darwinist rhetoric, but no Nazi-type ethnobiological racism and no industrialised extermination; Turkey claims this was inter-communal warfare, not intentional genocide  foretaste of consequences of nationalism applied in revolution-cum-war situation in 20th century

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Second Constitutional Period, 1908-18: January 1913: coup d’état by CUP, other parties suppressed  single-party rule, social, administrative, economic and cultural reforms (e.g. family law partly secularised: right to divorce introduced; this coexists with sharia law)  rights of women advanced in following years  typical general pattern: women engaged in WW1 home fronts, demands for expanded postwar franchise lent credibility  ultimately, birth of mass politics with ‘one person, one vote’ as Archimedean point

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Second Constitutional Period, 1908-18: 4 ideological currents/-isms: Ottomanism, i.e. union of different communities around Ottoman throne Pan-Islamism: regenerate empire on basis of Islamic practices Pan-Turkism: union of Turkic peoples under Ottoman flag Westernism: adopt Western practices

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions Second Constitutional Period, 1908-18:  many Young Turks actually supported several of these, even though independent, post-1923 Turkey claimed to have only supported Turkish nationalism (not Ottomanism, the official ideology of the post-1908 constitutional monarchy, and not pan-Turkism)

(2) Causes and Course of Turkish Revolutions War of Independence, 1918-23: October 1918: Ottoman capitulation, strong interference of Entente powers National independence movement led by Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), granted title ‘Atatürk’ (=‘Father of Turks’) in 1934; personality cult Founder of modern Republic of Turkey, 1923

(3) Atatürk and Kemalism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjG--1XP3J0 (1:04:30)

(3) Atatürk and Kemalism Six pillars (‘arrows’) of Kemalism: republicanism: representative parliamentary democracy (parliament: Grand National Assembly) populism: siding with people  modernisation and gender equality nationalism: rather than multinational (Ottoman) empire secularism statism: state’s strong involvement in economy reformism: adapt European modern institutions/practices to local conditions

(3) Atatürk and Kemalism Also = logo of Republican People's Party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP)

(4) Turkish ‘Revolution’ today? Gezi Park Recep Erdogan elected Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003. Also Chairman of conservative, Islamist, neo-Ottoman Justice and Development Party (AKP). Was Erdogan’s election ‘revolutionary’? Can conservatism ‘revolutionise’ a country built on revolution?

(4) Turkish ‘Revolution’ today? Gezi Park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Uwh971f6w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-O0dwHINc4 (Noam Chomsky, until 2:00)

Please fill in a course evaluation by the deadline tomorrow!