The Remaking of Republican Turkey: Memory and Modernity since the Fall of the Ottoman Empire by Nicholas L. Danforth

The 1940s and 1950s are commonly viewed as a transformative period in Turkish history. The era witnessed Turkey’s transition from an authoritarian single-party regime to a multi-party democratic political system, a shift to a model of rapid capitalist economic modernization, and integration into the U.S.-led Western bloc in the early Cold War. The period ended abruptly with a military coup. Whether interpreted as a reversal of the early republic’s secularizing reforms and secular institutions or as a return to more representative Turkish cultural institutions and practices, scholars have considered the late 1940s and 1950s as a time of intense cultural and ideological contestation about Turkish identity and modernity between secular republicans and Islamist conservatives.In this book, Danforth offers an original perspective on 1950s Turkey, arguing that the mid-century was a time when groups articulated differing visions and new syntheses of Turkish modernity, rather than being stuck in a secular authoritarian vs. religious conservatism divide. In doing so, Danforth draws on a wide range of primary sources such as newspapers, magazines, memoirs, literary works, U.S. government documents, and private documents, including former prime minister Bülent Ecevit’s personal papers at the Ecevit Foundation in Ankara.The book is organized thematically, with each one of the seven chapters focusing on a particular aspect relating to Turkish modernity, such as foreign policy, Turkey’s Ottoman past, Turkey’s Arab neighbors, and religious reform. Danforth seeks to provide new interpretations and correctives to the standard accounts of the 1950s by moving beyond the secular vs. religious and the authoritarian rpp (Republican People’s Party) vs. liberal democratic dp (Democratic Party) dichotomies.Danforth is especially interested in understanding the relationship between ideas and politics in Turkey after World War II. This focus is most evident in the first two chapters, where he discusses Turkish and American visions of democracy and modernization within the context of an evolving Turkish-American alignment and American support for the Menderes government in the 1950s. Danforth argues that Turkish intellectuals and politicians quickly adjusted their ideas about democracy and the West in response to changing internal and global circumstances, paralleling altering views of American diplomats to align with American interests.In Chapter 3, Danforth explores the different conceptions of Turkish modernity as articulated by a number of famous and lesser-known writers, journalists, feminists, diplomats, lawyers, and medical doctors in a broad spectrum of publications. Danforth finds a common effort among these authors to overcome and reconcile East-West and similar divides, striving to attain a new synthesis of Turkish modernity. This effort is evident in the alternative visions of modernity expressed by these authors, whether in embracing American modernity over the European model, criticizing the early Republic for its wholesale Westernization, or in comparing Turkey to its Arab neighbors in a hajj travel account.Danforth examines how Turkey’s perception of its Ottoman past changed over time, from an effort to distinguish the Republic from the Ottoman Empire in the 1930s, to a reappropriation of the Ottoman period in national history in the 1950s, and finally to the recent wave of popular nostalgia for the Ottoman era. A detailed analysis of the 500th anniversary commemoration of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople reveals how the conquest was remembered and celebrated as a Turkish nationalist victory, turning Mehmet the Conqueror into a secular Turkish hero. Although Danforth does not discuss Turkish citizens’ commemoration as early as 1950 of the life of Ertuğrul Ghazi—the father of Osman, the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire—as a founder of the Turkish nation, the two commemorations together, one official, the other popular, indeed suggest a major reconciliation with the nation’s Ottoman past.Although Turkish leaders and intellectuals remained concerned about Western perceptions of Turkey’s modernity in the 1950s, efforts to portray Turkey as a modern country continued alongside efforts to transform Turkey’s infrastructure and economy. Danforth offers an original argument about how tourism, in addition to strategies like urban renovation projects that demolished old Istanbul neighborhoods while preserving historic monuments, was instrumentalized by the dp governments to convey an image of a modern Turkey. Danforth’s fascinating discussion about tourism in connection with the internal and external perceptions of Turkey’s modernity should serve as an invitation for further research.Regarding Turkey’s relations with the Arab world, it is intriguing to see how dp policy makers like Foreign Minister Fuat Köprülü privately displayed a deep concern for pro-Arab and anti-British positions, while supporting American and Western policies publicly. Danforth concludes that the regional and global geopolitical realities rather than cultural and historical affinities determined the dp foreign policies in the early Cold War years.The final chapter considers the question of Islam’s compatibility with modernity as discussed by journalists and Islamic scholars in the 1950s. After a careful examination of popular Islamic journals and magazines such as Serdengeçti and İslam’ın Nuru, Danforth argues that the Islamist intellectuals attempted to demonstrate Islam’s compatibility with modernity, aiming for a new synthesis and reconciliation, rather than a wholesale rejection of the secular republic. It is, of course, the actual terms of that synthesis and reconciliation that has kept the Islamist vs. secular ideological debates alive into the twenty-first century.The holistic treatment of domestic and foreign policies, as well as politics and ideas, is enormously helpful in rethinking Turkey in the 1950s, free from the constraints of a narrow focus on politics, economics, or ideology alone. The clear writing style, the colorful anecdotes, and the carefully selected illustrations make the book a pleasure to read, while also making it more accessible to students and general readers.The author reveals important insights about Turkish leaders after World War II, such as Menderes and Ecevit, and their personalities and political ideas. Danforth’s treatment of Ecevit as an emergent politician and intellectual is particularly commendable. This book is essential reading for scholars interested in questions of modernity, national identity, and foreign policy in the twentieth century, not only in Turkey, but across the globe.