Pan-Turkism
Pan-Turkism (Turkish: Pan-Türkizm) or Turkism (Turkish: Türkçülük or Türkizm) is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim being the cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples.[5][6][7][8][9] Turanism is a closely related movement but it is a more general term, because Turkism only applies to Turkic peoples. However, researchers and politicians who are steeped in the pan-Turkic ideology have used these terms interchangeably in many sources and works of literature.[10]
Although many of the Turkic peoples share historical, cultural and linguistic roots, the rise of a pan-Turkic political movement is a phenomenon of the 19th and 20th centuries.[11] Ottoman poet Ziya Gökalp defined pan-Turkism as a cultural, academic, and philosophical[12] and political[13] concept advocating the unity of Turkic peoples.[14][15][16]
Name
In research literature, "pan-Turkism" is used to describe the political, cultural and ethnic unity of all
Proponents use the latter as a point of comparison, since "Turkic" is a linguistic, ethnic and cultural distinction rather than a citizenship description. This differentiates it from "Turkish", which is the term which is officially used in reference to citizens of Turkey. Pan-Turkic ideas and reunification movements have become popular since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asian and other Turkic countries.
History
Development and spread
In 1804, the
After they joined the Wäisi movement, the Jadids advocated national liberation. After 1907, many supporters of Turkic unity immigrated to the Ottoman Empire.
The newspaper Türk in Cairo was published by exiles from the Ottoman Empire after the suspension of the
In 1908, the
The Türk Yurdu Dergisi (Journal of the Turkish Homeland) was founded in 1911 by Akçura. This was the most important Turkist publication of the time, "in which, along with other Turkic exiles from Russia, [Akçura] attempted to instill a consciousness about the cultural unity of all Turkic peoples of the world."[20]
In 1923, Ziya Gökalp, famous poet and theorician of Turkism ideology, wrote his book The Principles of Turkism and idealized the unity of Turkic peoples by calling Turan as a goal of Turkism.[21]
A significant early exponent of pan-Turkism was Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Ottoman Minister of War and acting commander-in-chief during World War I. He later became a leader of the Basmachi movement (1916–1934) against Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia. During World War II, the Nazis founded a Turkestan Legion which was primarily composed of soldiers who hoped to establish an independent Central Asian state after the war. The German intrigue bore no fruit.[10]
When the Turkish Republic was established under the leadership of
Pan-Turkists were not supported by the Turkish government during this time and on 19 May 1944, İsmet İnönü made a speech in which he condemned Pan-Turkism as "a dangerous and sick demonstration of the latest times" going on to say that the Turkish Republic was "facing efforts hostile to the existence of the Republic" and those who advocate these ideas "will only bring trouble and disaster". Nihal Atsız and other prominent pan-Turkist leaders were tried and sentenced to imprisonment for conspiring against the government. Zeki Velidi Togan was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and four years in internal exile, Reha Oğuz Türkkan was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison and two years in exile, Nihal Atsız was sentenced to six years, six months and 15 days in prison and 3 years in exile. Others were sentenced to prison terms which only ranged from a few months to four years in length.[30][31] But the defendants appealed the convictions and in October 1945, the sentences of all the convicted were abolished by the Military Court of Cassation.[32]
While Erkilet discussed military contingencies, Nuri Pasha told the Germans about his plan to establish independent states which would be allies (not
Criticism
Pan-Turkism is often perceived as being a new form of Turkish imperial ambition. Some view the young Turk leaders who believed that they could reclaim the prestige of the Ottoman Empire by espousing the pan-Turkist ideology as racist and chauvinistic.[33][34]
Pan-Turkist views on Armenian history
Clive Foss, professor of ancient history at the University of Massachusetts Boston, critically notes that in 1982: The Armenian File in the Light of History, Cemal Anadol writes that the Iranian Scythians and Parthians are Turks. According to Anadol, the Armenians welcomed the Turks into the region; their language is a mixture with no roots and their alphabet is mixed, with 11 characters which were borrowed from the ancient Turkic alphabet. Foss calls this view historical revisionism: "Turkish writings have been tendentious: history has been viewed as performing a useful service, proving or supporting a point of view, and so it is treated as something flexible which can be manipulated at will".[35] He concludes, "The notion, which seems well established in Turkey, that the Armenians were a wandering tribe without a home, who never had a state of their own, is of course entirely without any foundation in fact. The logical consequence of the commonly expressed view of the Armenians is that they have no place in Turkey, and they never did. The result would be the same if the viewpoint were expressed first, and the history were written to order. In a sense, something like this seems to have happened, for most Turks who grew up under the Republic were educated to believe in the ultimate priority of Turks in all parts of history, and ignore the Armenians all together; they had been clearly consigned to oblivion."[36]
Pan-Turkist views in Azerbaijan
During the existence of the
Nationalist political elites in post-Soviet Azerbaijan, being the inheritors of this mentality created during the Soviet rule, forwarded this "mission" for achieving a "united Azerbaijan" as a political goal of utmost importance.
Ahmad Kazemi, the author of the book Security in South Caucasus, told Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations in a 2021 interview that "Azerbaijan is seeking to establish the so-called pan-Turkish illusionary Zangezur corridor in south of Armenia under the pretext of creating connectivity in the region", arguing that "this corridor is not compatible with any of the present geopolitical and historical realities of the region".[53]
Russian views on pan-Turkism
In
In the United States and the rest of the New World
Pan-Turkists like Reha Oğuz Türkkan have openly claimed that pre-Columbian civilizations were Turkic civilizations and they have also claimed that modern-day Native Americans are Turkic peoples, and activities which Turkish lobbying groups have conducted in order to draw Native Americans into the service of the wider Turkic world agenda have drawn criticism and triggered accusations that the Turkish government is falsifying the history of Native Americans in the service of Turkish imperialist ambitions.[56][57][58][59][60] According to an article by Polat Kaya which was published by the Turkish Cultural Foundation, the exact origins of Native Americans remain unclear and while they are widely believed to have migrated from Asia, the exact connection between Native Americans and other Turkic peoples remains disputed, although linguistic coincidences between Turks and Native Americans are noticeable.[61]
The idea has also been discussed in the francophone world, noting that as victors in the First World War, England and France "dismembered the Arab portion" of the Ottoman Empire and shared it amongst themselves, further alienating Turkey. The loss of the Arabian oil fields limited Turkey becoming a petroleum power on the world stage; called "le panturquisme" in French, authors argue that it arose as a way of reclaiming some of the lost glory after the Ottoman defeat in the war and the loss of prestige in the region.[62]
Pseudoscientific theories
There is no such thing as the Kurdish people or nation. They are merely carriers of Turkish culture and habits. The imagined region proposed as the new Kurdistan is the region that was settled by the proto-Turks. The Sumerians and Scythians come immediately to mind.[63]
— Orhan Türkdoğan - Professor of Sociology at Gebze Technical University
Pan-Turkism has been characterized by pseudoscientific theories known as Pseudo-Turkology.
Philip L. Kohl notes that the above-mentioned theories are nothing more than "incredible myths".[69] Nevertheless, the promotion of these theories have "taken on large-scale proportions" in countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan.[70] Often associated with Greek, Assyrian and Armenian genocide denial, pan-Turkic pseudoscience has received extensive state and state-backed non-governmental support, and is taught all the way from elementary school to the highest level of universities in such countries.[71] Turkish and Azerbaijani students are imbued with textbooks which make "absurdly inflated" claims which state that all Eurasian nomads, including the Scythians, and all civilizations on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, such as Sumer, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Byzantine Empire, were of Turkic origin.[79] Konstantin Sheiko and Stephen Brown explain the reemergence of such pseudo-history as a form of national therapy, helping its proponents cope with the failures of the past.[66]
Notable pan-Turkists
- Abulfaz Elchibey[80][81]
- Ahmet Ağaoğlu
- Alimardan Topchubashov
- Alparslan Türkeş[82][83]
- Ali Suavi
- Askar Akayev
- Djemal Pasha
- Enver Pasha
- Fuat Köprülü
- Isa Alptekin
- Ismail Gaspirali
- Mammad Amin Rasulzade
- Mehmet Emin Yurdakul
- Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev
- Mustafa Shokay
- Munis Tekinalp
- Nejdet Sançar
- Nihal Atsız
- Nuri Killigil
- Ömer Seyfettin
- Rıza Nur
- Sadri Maksudi Arsal
- Talaat Pasha
- Reha Oğuz Türkkan
- Yusuf Akçura
- Zeki Velidi Togan
- Ziya Gökalp
Pan-Turkist organizations
Azerbaijan
- Azerbaijan National Democrat Party
- Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement (SANAM)
- Azerbaijan National Resistance Organization (ANRO)
Kazakhstan
- National Patriotic Party
Turkey
Uzbekistan
See also
- Altaic languages
- Chauvinism
- Ethnic nationalism
- Eurasianism
- Division of the Mongol Empire
- Historic states represented in Turkish presidential seal
- Hungarian Turanism
- Idel-Ural
- Inner Asia
- Jobbik
- Nationalist Movement Party
- Neo-Ottomanism
- Pan-nationalism
- Turya (Avesta)
- Turanid
- Turanism
- Turkic Council
- Turkism Day
- Turkic languages
- Turco-Mongols
- Tartary
- Ural–Altaic languages
Notes
- ^ According to Book of Zhou and Book of Sui (later repeated by History of the Northern Dynasties), Göktürks erected a tuğ banner decorated with a wolf's head made of gold to show that they had not forgotten their origin from a she-wolf ancestress.[1][2][3] A tuğ is a banner made of horse-hairs and based on Chinese banners made of yak-hairs (纛 standard Chinese dú < Middle Chinese *dok)[4]
References
- ^ Zhoushu vol. 50. quote: "旗纛之上,施金狼頭。…… 蓋本狼生,志不忘舊。"
- ^ Suishu Vol. 84 text: "故牙門建狼頭纛,示不忘本也。"
- ^ Beishi vol. 99: section Tujue text: "故牙門建狼頭纛,示不忘本也。"
- ^ Clauson, Gerard (1972). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-13th Century Turkish. Oxford University Press. p. 464
- ISBN 978-0-19-539245-6.
It is commonly acknowledged that pan-Turkism, the movement which aimed to politically and/or culturally unify all Turkic peoples, emerged among Turkic intellectuals who lived in Russia as a liberal-cultural movement in the 1880s.
- ^ "Pan-Turkism". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Retrieved 19 Jul 2009.
Political movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which had as its goal the political union of all Turkish-speaking peoples in the Ottoman Empire, Russia, China, Iran, and Afghanistan.
- ISBN 978-0-253-20960-3.
- ^ Jacob M. Landau, "Radical Politics in Modern Turkey", BRILL, 1974.
- Robert F. Melson, "The Armenian Genocide" in Kevin Reilly (Editor), Stephen Kaufman (Editor), Angela Bodino (Editor) "Racism: A Global Reader (Sources and Studies in World History)", M.E. Sharpe (January 2003). pg 278:"Concluding that their liberal experiment had been a failure, CUP leaders turned to Pan-Turkism, a xenophobic and chauvinistic brand of nationalism that sought to create a new empire which would have been based on Islamand Turkish ethnicity."
- ^ a b Iskander Gilyazov, "Пантюрκизм, Пантуранизм и Германия Archived 2006-10-04 at the Wayback Machine", magazine "Татарстан" No 5-6, 1995. (in Russian)
- ^ "Pan-Turkism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ISBN 9789004007314.
Turkism is not a political party but a scientific, philosophic and aesthetic school of thought.
- ISBN 978-1-84511-141-0.
- ISBN 978-9756176504.
- ISBN 978-0-7658-0367-2.
- S2CID 229463301.
- ^ Mansur Hasanov, Academician of Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan Republic, "Великий реформатор", in magazine "Республика Татарстан" № 96–97 (24393-24394), 17 May 2001. (in Russian)
- ^ Rafael Khakimov, "Taklid and Ijtihad Archived 2007-02-10 at the Wayback Machine", Russia in Global Affairs, Dec. 2003.
- ^ N.N., "Полтора Века Пантюрκизма в Турции", magazine "Панорама". (in Russian)
- ^ ISBN 9789637326615. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ^ Türkçülüğün Esasları pg.25 (Gökalp, Ziya)
- ^ Pan Turkism, Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ISBN 9781139486583.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Jacob M. Landau. Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation. India University Press, 1995. 2nd Edition. pp 112–114.
- ^ Jacob M. Landau, "Radical Politics in Modern Turkey", BRILL, 1974. pg 194: "In the course of the Second World War, various circles in Turkey absorbed Nazi propaganda; these were pro-German and admired Nazism, which they grasped as a doctrine of warlike dynamism and a source of national inspiration, on which they could base their pan-Turkic and anti-Soviet ideology"
- ^ John M. VanderLippe , "The politics of Turkish democracy", SUNY Press, 2005. "A third group was led by Nihal Atsiz, who favored a Hitler style haircut and mustache, and advocated racist Nazi doctrines"
- ^ John M. VanderLippe, The Politics of Turkish Democracy: Ismet Inonu and the Formation of the Multi-Party System, 1938-1950, (State University of New York Press, 2005), 108;"A third group was led by Nihal Atsiz, who favored a Hitler style haircut and moustache, and advocated Nazi racist doctrines."
- ^ Peter Davies, Derek Lynch, "The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right", Routledge, 2002. pg 244: "Alparslan Türkeş: Leader of a Turkish neo-fascist movement, Nationalist Action Party(MHP). During the war, he adopted a pro-Hitler position and was imprisoned after a 1960 coup attempt against his country's ruler.
- ^ Berch Berberoglu, " Turkey in crisis: from state capitalism to neocolonialism", Zed, 1982. 2nd edition. pg 125: "Turkes established close ties with Nazi leaders in Germany in 1945 "
- ISBN 9780791483374.
- ISBN 9786052221068.
- ISBN 978-0-253-32869-4.
- ^ Jacob M. Landau. Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation. India University Press, 1995. 2nd Edition. pg 45: "Pan-Turkism's historic chance arrived both shortly before and during the First World War, when it was adopted as a guiding principle of state policy by an influential group among the Young Turks"
- ^ Robert F. Melson, "The Armenian Genocide" in Kevin Reilly (Editor), Stephen Kaufman (Editor), Angela Bodino (Editor) "Racism: A Global Reader (Sources and Studies in World History)", M.E. Sharpe (January 2003). pg 278: "Concluding that their liberal experiment had been a failure, CUP leaders turned to Pan-Turkism, a xenophobic and chauvinistic brand of nationalism that sought to create a new empire based on Islam and Turkish ethnicity ... It was in this context of revolutionary and ideological transformation and war that the fateful decision to destroy the Armenians was taken."
- ^ Clive Foss, “The Turkish View of Armenian History: A Vanishing Nation,” in The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics, ed. by Richard G. Hovannisian (New York: St. Martins Press, 1992), pp. 261–268.
- ^ Clive Foss, “The Turkish View of Armenian History: A Vanishing Nation,” in The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics, ed. by Richard G. Hovannisian (New York: St. Martins Press, 1992), p. 276.
- ^ Karabekir, Istiklâl Harbimiz/n.2/, p. 631
- ^ "Present-day Armenia located in ancient Azerbaijani lands – Ilham Aliyev". News.Az. October 16, 2010. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015.
- ^ Tofig Kocharli, "Armenian Deception"
- ^ Ohannes Geukjian, "Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy"
- ^ "Nagorno Karabakh: History". Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ^ "Рауф Гусейн-заде: 'Мы показали, что армяне на Кавказе - некоренные жители'". Day.Az. 27 December 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ^ "Professor Firidun Agasyoglu Jalilov 'How Hays became Armenians'". Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2014-11-11.
- ^ ISBN 978-0190869663.
- ^ ISBN 978-0190869663.
- ^ S2CID 233889871.
- ISBN 9781135796693.
Elchibey's anti-Iranian rhetoric and the subsequent deterioration of Azerbaijani-Iranian relations to below freezing point...
- ISBN 9780275964542.
Characterized by its anti-Iranian, anti-Russian, pro-Turkish outlook, the Elchibey government's pursuit of pan-Turkism...
- ^ Grogan, Michael S. (2000). National security imperatives and the neorealist state: Iran and realpolitik. Naval Postgraduate School. pp. 68–69.
Elchibey was anti-Iranian, pan-Azeri
- ISBN 9789004178557.
radically pro-Turkish and anti-Iranian President Elchibey in June made Iran unacceptable to Azerbaijan as a mediator.
- ISBN 978-0190869663.
- ISBN 978-0190869663.
- ^ "Strategic dimensions of the recent tension in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan". 27 August 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-3422-8.
- ^ Mansur Hasanov, Academician of Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan republic, in "People's Political Newspaper" № 96–97 (24393-24394) 17 May 2001 http://www.rt-online.ru/numbers/public/?ID=25970
- ^ "The Turkish Apaches mysteries part 1". Mashallah News. 2011-06-23. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
- ^ "The Turkish Apaches mysteries part 2". Mashallah News. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
- ^ Fink, Marc J. "Stunner: Turkey Infiltrating Native American Tribes – and May Get Congressional Help". Islamist Watch. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
- ^ Sassounian, Harut (24 July 2012). "DNA Study Busts Myth that One Million Appalachians are of Turkish Descent". Asbarez.
- ^ "Turkish Language and the Native Americans". www.turkishculture.org. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
- JSTOR 41941814. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1135140632.
- ^ a b Frankle, Elanor (1948). Word formation in the Turkic languages. Columbia University Press. p. 2.
- ^ ISBN 978-0230297326.
- ^ ISBN 978-3838265650.. Zakiev and his colleagues claim to have discovered the Tatar roots of the Sumerian, ancient Greek and Icelandic languages and deciphered Etruscan and Minoan writings.
According to Adzhi, Alans, Goths, Burgundians, Saxons, Alemans, Angles, Langobards and many of the Russians were ethnic Turks.161 The list of non-Turks is relatively short and seems to comprise only Jews, Chinese, Armenians, Greeks, Persians, and Scandinavians... Mirfatykh Zakiev, a Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Tatar ASSR and a professor of philology who has published hundreds of scientific works, argues that proto-Turkish is the starting point of the Indo-European languages
- ^ ISBN 1889480002.
Discredited hypotheses – widespread in the 1920s and 1930s – about the Turkic origin of Sumerians, Scythians, Sakhas, and many other ancient peoples are nowadays popular
- ^ ISBN 0765612828.
M. Zakiev claims that the Scythians and Sarmatians were all Turkic. He even considers the Sumerians as Turkic
- ^ ISBN 0521558395.
Apparently innocuous were other contradictory and/or incredible myths related by professional archaeologists that claimed that the Scythians were Turkic-speaking
- ^ ISBN 978-0230297326.
Thus, ethnic groups or populations of the past (Huns, Scythians, Sakas, Cimmerians, Parthians, Hittites, Avars and others) who have disappeared long ago, as well as non-Turkic ethnic groups living in present-day Turkey, have come to be labeled Turkish, Proto-Turkish or Turanian
- ^ ISBN 978-9993069744.
Claims that many Iranian figures and societies starting from the Medes, Scythians and Parthians were Turks), are still prevalent in countries that adhere to Pan—Turkist nationalism such as Turkey and the republic of Azerbaijan. These falsifications, which are backed by state and state backed non—governmental organizational bodies, range from elementary school all the way to the highest level of universities in these countries.
- ^ Lynn Meskell, Archaeology Under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, Routledge, 1998.
- ^ "Мустафа (Кемаль) Ататюрк Мустафа Ататюрк". Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ^ К.Закирьянов. Я вполне допускаю мысль, что в жилах Обамы течет тюркская кровь (Russian)
- ^ Esin, Emel (1986). "The Culture of the Turks: The Initial Inner Asian Phase" Publisher, Atatürk Culture Centre. p. 435, 439.
- ^ Koçsoy, Şevket (2002). "Türk Tarihi Kronojojisi", Türkler, C. I., Yeni Türkiye, Ankara, p. 73.
- ^ İzgi, Özkan (2002). "Orta Asya'nın En Eski Kültürleri ve Çin Medeniyeti ile İlişkileri", Türkler, C. I., Yeni Türkiye, Ankara, pp. 685-687.
- ^ Esin, Emel (2002). "İç Asya'da Milattan Önceki Bin Yılda Türklerin Atalarına Atfedilen Kültürler", Türkler, C. I., Yeni Türkiye, Ankara, p. 733-734.
- ISBN 978-1351816489.
Violent flirtation with PanTuranism had a lasting effect on kemalist Turkey and its historical ideology: Turkish pupils are imbued by history textbooks even today with a dogma of absurdly inflated PanTurkish history—Turkish history comprises all Eurasian nomads, Indo-European (Scythian) and Turk-Mongol, plus their conquests in Persia, India China, all civilizations on the soil of the Ottoman Empire, from Sumer and Ancient Egypt via Greeks, Alexander the Great to Byzantium.
- ^ Balci, Bayram (2014). "Between ambition and realism: Turkey's engagement in the South Caucasus". In Agadjanian, Alexander; Jödicke, Ansgar; van der Zweerde, Evert (eds.). Religion, Nation and Democracy in the South Caucasus. Routledge. p. 258.
...the second president of independent Azerbaijan, Abulfaz Elchibey, was a prominent pan-Turkist nationalist...
- ISBN 9781135182441.
Naturally, they were associated with Elchibey's pan-Turkist aspirations...
- ISBN 9780714650715.
Within Turkey, the pan- Turkist movement led by Alparslan Türkeş...
- ISBN 9780833034045.
The late Alparslan Turkes, the former head of the MHP, actively promoted a Pan-Turkic agenda.
Further reading
- Jacob M. Landau. Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation. Hurst, 1995. ISBN 1-85065-269-4