A nation's quest for a modern identity

If we Turks cannot ask ourselves the questions of who we are what is the West and who is the Westerner we will maintain a schizophrenic status for years to come writes Ayse Huru00a0 The Republican era of Turkey began with the rejection of the Ottoman past by those destined to fill the ranks of the civilian and military cadres under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk This new establishment was keen on modernisation and Westernisation with the ultimate goal of creating a modern nationstate from the remnants of an empire With Turkeyrsquos lovehate relationship since the Ottoman times the goal was both to catch up with the West and severe all ties with the East One of their key requirements to see their goal succeed was to transform the mindset of the people They believed that the masses could learn what is lsquogoodrsquo lsquotruersquo and lsquonecessaryrsquo only under the leadership of a new elite The founding cadres therefore believed that modernity could only be achieved by having absolute custody over the whole of the society and were prepared to practice radical methods to see this through Any form of opposition was crushed democracy was never allowed to truly flourish This new Turkish national identity was thus taking form with a conflicting attitude visagravevis the West On the one hand it looked upon it as a role model yet it also felt a sense of rejection and uneasiness brought on by an awareness that it could not attain the levels of advancement already achieved in Western Europe and the United States While political relations with the West were downgraded to a minimum after 1925 major moves to westernise the country were taken in terms of clothing law womenrsquos rights education history geography archeology language with the implementation of a Latin alphabet and architecture With Turkeyrsquos lovehate relationship since the Ottoman times the goal was both to catch up with the West and severe all ties with the East In the end the establishment was to strive for the goal as summed up in Ataturkrsquos famous quote ldquoWe are like usrdquo The cultural revolutions lost momentum with the death of Ataturk in 1938 but the true change came from foreign factors Turkey chose to be a part of the Western Block after World War II joining NATO in 1952 contributing to the Korean War and receiving aid by way of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan within the strategy of fortifying Europe against the Soviet Block The lack of national selfconfidence grew less apparent as Turkey transformed from a largely agrarian nation to one of expanding industry Debates over identity largely died down and a growing bond with the United States began to develop At the same time however the Turkish identity started to clash with Third World interests because good relations with the West demanded turning a deaf ear to the voices of its old colonies The spirit of the lsquonational strugglersquo from the days of the independence war resurfaced in 1968 with the political atmosphere provided by the student protests that shook Europe the Vietnam War and the USrsquos growing lack of respect towards Turkey Events like the 1973 oil crisis and the US banning Turkey from growing opium further added to the disaffection with the West In the eyes of both right and leftleaning movements the West was a lsquosuperiorrsquo but lsquohostilersquo antagonist The bloody 1980 coup increased the hostility for the alleged American role Hostility against the West peaked in the 1990s this time toward the European Union The EU was perceived negatively in Turkey as it was seen as constantly changing its mind about Turkey joining the Union while favoring Greece in the dispute over Cyprus and alleged support for the Kurdistan Workers Party PKK The 1978 book Orientalism by Edward Said which criticized the Western perspective of the East influenced Turkish intellectuals deeply across the political spectrum from Islamists to the liberals Philosophy Professor Hassan Hanafi of Cairo University author of Introduction to the Science of Occidentalism delivered an influential talk in 2002 in Turkey ldquoWhile we are busy looking toward the West in search of a solution the West continues to surpass us In the end what we get is low selfopinionrdquo Today we are trying to join the EU even if we do it halfheartedly We try to be the country that the US can count on the most In short we are still trying to secure a position in the Western World On the other hand whenever we hear the word lsquoWestrsquo we imagine an eternal enemy who tries to divide shatter and destroy us We say that ldquothe Westerners do not like usrdquo but we have yet to answer the question of whether or not we like the West It is clear that the historic crimes of the West and its current questionable politics play a role in this but the antiWestern propaganda used throughout the republican history of Turkey is an even more important factor If we cannot ask ourselves the questions of who we are what is the West and who is the Westerner we will maintain this schizophrenic status for years to come RadikalWorldcrunchu00a0