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The Kurdish Question, which dates back to the Ottoman Era, has been a constituent element of narratives of Turkish nationalism for the past 30 years. The Kurdish Question stands as the most prominent “other” of Turkish nationalism. The members of two groups, Kurds and Turks, became highly politicised throughout 30 years of internal conflict and through their daily encounters, giving way to a constant redefinition of the understanding of nationalism and ethnicity. The encounters and experiences of these two groups have facilitated the development of various narrative forms of personal nationalism in daily life. Accordingly, the daily manifestations of the Kurdish Question and Turkish nationalism have grown as an object of academic interest. The question of how ordinary people produce – and are produced in – personal narratives of nationalism is a subject that still needs to be addressed, and this thesis aims to fill this gap by examining the notion of “personal narratives”. Analysing nationalism through personal narratives enables us to see how hegemonic nationalist ideology is reproduced and practiced by individuals through various dynamics. The thesis finds that the determining theme in the personal narratives of Turks and Kurds follows fundamentally the official ideology of the state about the Kurds, which is based principally on „a strategy of denial‟. The macro political transformations of the 2000s and the increased potential of encountering the “other” in daily life underline the challenging nature of this ideological strategy of denial. Herein, while the Turkish participants define themselves as the benevolent party in their nationalist narratives, they mark Kurdish people as terrorists, separatists and primitives. In contrast, the narratives of the Kurdish participants are characterised by the adoption of a “self-defence” strategy against the dominant negative perceptions of Turkish society about their culture: they assert that they are in fact not ignorant; not terrorists; not disloyal citizens, and so on. The narratives of the Turkish participants about the ethnic “other”, the Kurds, generally follow a strategy of contempt and accusation; yet personal experiences give them the opportunity to politicise the problem on different grounds by empathising or humanising. On the Kurdish side, the subjects of the personal narratives are more often the state and the army than Turkish individuals, and again they construct a narrative that endeavours to reverse the dominant negative perceptions about Kurds. They attempt to negate the denial strategy through both collective and personal stories of the discrimination they have experienced over the years and generations. Vital questions such as through which mechanisms of resistance do ordinary people construct and practice their ethnic identities, again become visible through their personal narratives.

Thesis advisor: Natana DeLong-Bas / Throughout history, the idea of “hidden wisdom” and “primordial truth” has been a perennial fixture of innovative or heterodox beliefs. Repeatedly, novel methods of thought, be they religious, political, or social, have been introduced as a product of a vaunted time and space: lost secrets of the Persian magi, rediscovered wisdom of Solomon, uncovered Egyptian mysteries, etc. This persistent trope begs examination, and highlights one of the oldest trends in human thought: to find legitimacy in tradition, imagined or otherwise. Furthermore, the literature seems to always point towards a land in the greater Middle East as the font of wisdom - even in the writings of people from the Middle East, who simply attribute works to peoples and lands different from their own. Finally, in more modern times, there is a tendency to lean upon the narrative of a lost past for purposes of cultivating a new national identity, especially by peoples grappling with the overbearing mantle of Arabness or the struggles of a stateless people. Overall, the lost golden ages of the Middle East serve as the ideal wellspring of legitimacy for unorthodox ideas regarding the divine, the state, and the nature of a people. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Middle Eastern Studies.

This thesis aims to examine the development of inter-communal fighting in Cyprus between 1948 and 1974. It focuses on the domestic factors of inter-communal fighting by analyzing the gradual evolution of Greek and Turkish Cypriot stances. The thesis argues that the inter-communal fighting of Cyprus is rooted in the historical and domestic factors. This thesis analyzes the continuities and changes in Cyprus politics. This work accordingly will examine the articulation of various political and social factors in Cyprus. Contrary to the prevailing dominant perspective, this thesis mentions that the inter-communal fighting was not the product of only external forces but their articulation with domestic factors as they evolved historically. Therefore, the issue of &bdquo / &bdquo / ethnic polarization

This thesis is an attempt to analyze the discourse of &ldquo / Valley of Wolves&rdquo / , a television serial which gained a significant popularity in recent years. To understand the serial&rsquo / s discourse I have first analyzed the general aspects of the narrative and approached to it as a televisual text. Concerning the political discourse two arguments, both connected to nationalism, is provided. First one concerns the psychology of the serial. Psychological mechanisms that the serial make use of is similar to Adorno&rsquo / s insights concerning fascism which may be formulated as &ldquo / acknowledgement of the weakness, identification with the victor&rdquo / . The serial interpellates weak ordinary citizens who are impotent in front of powerful conspirators, and invites him to identify with the hero who is able to save him from these malicious uncontrollable forces. Nationalism constitutes the kernel of this psychology. Nation is the community of simple-minded ordinary people free of conflict: its inner harmony is disturbed only by external forces through conspiracies. In that respect, the serial depends on the logic of conspiracy and xenophobia. Secondly, the serial overtly advocates &ldquo / deep state&rdquo / , that is the break-down between legality and legitimacy as far as &ldquo / the survival of the state&rdquo / is concerned. It has sympathy for traditional mafia, but it essentially backs up illegal activities on behalf of state. Thereby, irt articulates a nationalist mentality and carries some important features of the Turkish Nationalism.

The period from 1930 to 1946 constitutes one of the most important episodes of the history of Turkish Republic. It is the period in which the new regime was consolidated through a series of radical secularizing reforms, which aimed at weakening the role of religion in politics and society and confining it to the private sphere. In this period, the Kemalist regime tried to replace an identity based on religion by one based on the Turkish nation. It has generally been argued that the transition to multi-party regime and the subsequent coming to power of the Democratic Party in 1950 constitutes a serious break with the previous period by opening a greater space for religion in society. This thesis will try to study the construction of Turkish national identity through a comparison of the high school textbooks of the 1930 &ndash / 1950 period and 1950 &ndash / 1960 era.

This thesis investigates the construction of the &ldquo / Turkish side&rdquo / in the Cyprus conflict in connection with the emergence and rise of Turkish nationalism in the island. In this line, with regard to the development of Turkish Cypriot nationalism and its historical background, this study focuses on the period between 1948 and 1955 in which the political propaganda for making Turkey part of the conflict was carried out by the Turkish nationalist cadres of Cyprus and Turkey. This study attempts to analyze this propaganda by focusing on the newspapers Halkin Sesi and H&uuml / rriyet. In this study, it is assumed that the mentioned period in which the ground for getting Turkey involved in the Cyprus conflict was prepared can reveal the roots of the current relations between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots. For this aim, this study attempts to specify the positions of the Republic of Turkey and Turkish Cypriots in the historical process of Cyprus politics through an analysis of the nationalist discourse of Halkin Sesi and H&uuml / rriyet.

IDEOLOGICAL AMBIVALANCE OF MOTHERHOOD IN THE CASE OF &ldquo / MOTHERS OF MARTYRS&rdquo / IN TURKEY Gedik, Esra M.S. Department of Political Science and Public Administration Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycioglu Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Deveci February 2008, 169 pages The main objective of this thesis is to understand how mothers who lost their sons during the conflicts in East and Southeast of Turkey articulate martyrdom of their sons with nationalism, religion and motherhood / how these women who lost their sons, as a woman and a mother define and express themselves and their experiences after martyrdom. Before their sons are martyrized, these women were ordinary housewives, with the death of their sons, they get a new identity: being a mother of a martyr. In this thesis, it is examined that what being a mother of a martyr means for these women. Moreover, this study attempts to examine certain perceptions and assumptions of these women about nationalism, the state, religion, war and peace after martyrdom. For this aim, this study is based on interviews with mothers who do not realize that they virtually live in a war, on motherhood, war, politics, and peace. Therefore, this research is the study to grasp how discourses of nationalism and religion shape this new identity: being a mother of a martyr. While these women were ordinary housewives before martyrdom, after their sons&rsquo / death, their narratives as mothers of martyrs are cultivated by discourses of nationalism and religion. Consequently, is it possible for these mothers to develop an anti-war discourse as happened for examples in the world?

This study analyzes the discourse of Cevat Rifat Atilhan, a leading anti-Semite figure and a conspiracy theorist in Turkish politics. The principal aim of this analysis is to shed light on Atilhan&rsquo / s conspiratorial mindset which has a considerable influence on anti-Semitism in contemporary Turkey. To this aim, conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism, two main components of Atilhan&rsquo / s discourse are examined in relation to each other from the perspective of nationalist discourse. This study argues that conspiracy theories in Atilhan&#039 / s discourse which explain social antagonism as a Jewish plot can be considered as instruments to the reproduction of anti-Semitism. Accordingly, the inherent mechanisms of conspiracy theories which rest on the racist and xenophobic brand of nationalism represent the society on the basis of dichotomies. In Atilhan&rsquo / s discourse, this dichotomization is based on the positioning of the Jews vis-&agrave / -vis Turkish nation. To the extent that the Jews are represented as enemies vis-&agrave / -vis Turkish nation, anti-Semitism becomes likely to be reproduced. The theme of Jewish conspiracy in Atilhan&rsquo / s discourse is better explained by his different positions within Turkish nationalism ranging from Kemalism to racism, from racism to Islamism and conservative tones of nationalism. When his changing positions is examined in relation to the theme of Jewish conspiracy in his discourse, it is realized that Atilhan&rsquo / s discourse have a considerable influence on the discourse of ultra-nationalist, conservative nationalist and Islamist circles whose way of thinking is dominated by conspiracy theories.

ABSTRACT Katirci, G&uuml / ldeniz M. S., Department of Political Science and Public Administration Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Okyayuz December 2006, 157 pages The main purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate whether or not the rapid rise and decline of radical nationalism between 1999 and 2002 elections may be related to an ideological identity crisis of the Nationalist Action Party. In this context, the focus will be on the transformation of the nationalist ideology, &ldquo / nationalisms&rdquo / in the Ottoman Empire, Kemalist/official nationalism, and transformation of Turkish nationalism to a political party ideology and its further transformation in Turkey. The reason for drawing such a framework is related to the fact that the developmental line of the nationalist phenomenon shows a three dimensional historical continuity line in influencing Turkish nationalism as a political party ideology. The possible ideological identity crisis in the NAP ideology, which has been visible between the 1999 and 2002 general elections, should be searched in the genetic categorical paradoxes and in the transformation of nationalism as a modern phenomenon, which have been influential upon all nationalism types emerged after it. The complex structure of the nationalist phenomenon, which started to be influential on the Ottoman Empire had influenced the developmental periods of &ldquo / nationalisms&rdquo / appeared in their original structure. Turkish nationalism, which had developed on the same line with Ottomanism, Islamism and Turkism, had inherited both the categorical paradoxes of nationalism and the emergence of &ldquo / original&rdquo / Turkish nationalism. Thus, Turkish nationalism, as a nation-state ideology, had been the carrier of these categorical inconsistencies, which had remained until the multi-party period and which were transformed to a political party ideology with the NAP in the 1960s. Therefore, throughout the thesis, the possible ideological identity crisis of the NAP ideology will be searched in its complex relation with the transformation history of political nationalism and its specific transformation in Turkey. At the end, the ideological statute of nationalism in the political spectrum will be questioned.