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Since the nationalist Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) administration in the early 20th century, the modernist elite in Turkey have tried to create a homogenous and “harmonious” Turkish national identity. The process of building a national identity in Turkey has been controversial and, at times, cruel. Mass deportations of Ottoman Armenian and Rumelian Muslim populations, and also the exchange of the Muslim population in Greece with the Greek population in Anatolia, created a religiously homogenous society. Although ethnic, linguistic and sectarian diversity had been preserved to a certain extent during the early Republican era, there were moments when this diversity was considered a potential threat to national security and unity.
There were moments, after 2000, when the identity-related diversity and multicultural legacy of the Ottoman Empire was celebrated. The AK Party government initiated an Alevi Opening, in 2007, and pioneered two important initiatives, one in 2009 and one in 2013, to resolve Turkey’s century-old Kurdish Question. These initiatives were important steps towards identity-related reconciliation in Turkey. Unfortunately, the crisis in Syria has stimulated the identity-related fault lines in Turkey, increasing the risk of social contention, whereby the escalating civil war in Syria has posed the threat of identity-oriented polarization in Turkey.
Efforts to create a homogenous society during the early Republican era failed several times due to the resurgence of ideological and ethnic identities. Nonetheless, the top-down Turkish national-identity-building project of Mustafa Kemal is still regarded as a “successful” policy due to its immense defects. Ongoing developments in the region have drawn attention, once again, though unenthusiastically, to the harmonizing aspect of national identity. Ethnic and sectarian fragmentations in the Middle East, primarily ethnic terrorism and Salafist Jihadism, have become a serious threat to Turkey’s national security. The ongoing war in Syria has complicated the identity puzzle in Turkey, leading to the dangerous potential of triggering identity-related radicalizations.
The risk of ideological and political polarization in Turkey constitutes a serious challenge. In addition, the civil wars and uncertainties in Syria and Iraq could become a source of tension and polarization within Turkish society. The increasing material costs of the civil wars in Turkey’s neighboring countries, the presence of more than 3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkish territories and the mounting security risks are further fueling the concerns of the Turkish people. The Turkish government feels that the country’s Western allies are not taking these security worries seriously; in addition, the Western allies have proved unwilling to shoulder Turkey’s economic burden. Once ardent supporters of EU integration, the Turkish people are disappointed and feel abandoned by the country’s Western allies as Turkey faces the uncertainties of the spillover effects of the Syrian crisis.
- See more at The New Turkey
http://thenewturkey.org//the-impact-of-the-syrian-civil-war-on-identity-groups-in-turkey/
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