Modern Turkey 

I realised very early on in my researches, that in order to make sense of my material I would need to learn simultaneously all that I could about modern Turkey and its foundation. For this reason, this formed a parallel study alongside my specifically village researches. There have been many books written about the Republic, both since and before I began to live in Turkey. However, eventually I came to several conclusions that are not usually reflected in the literature.

 

One of the most important of these is that, though it is quite right to present Turkey and the Republic as having secular foundations which were clearly imposed by the Republican state, the subsequent decades after the Second World War have shown a different relationship between the state and its citizens. In this regard, there has been a gradual transformation whereby religion has assumed a much stronger place in public life than before. When this is understood, it is possible to trace the way that the political process in the second half of the twentieth century facilitated this change, and indeed the way that the Turkish state has accommodated the rise in religious sentiment in the public sphere. It is all the more fascinating that this change occurred at the same time as Turkey was modernising and a contemporary consumer culture was being inculcated. In other words, it may be said that there were simultaneously occurring processes which led to greater secularisation, and to a religious revival. This phenomenon was the subject of my first monograph, Religion and Society in Turkey. 

 

Nevertheless, as is well known, the modernisation of Turkey has not been entirely smooth; there have been military coups, and periodic high inflation punctuated by economic crises. As well as this, there have been international complications, such as those attendant upon the still unresolved question of Cyprus and Turkey’s intervention in 1974. These resulted in Turkey’s application to the European Union being placed, in effect, on hold. Yet, in global terms Turkey’s position is stronger at present, rather weaker. Her currency, in spite of high inflation, has revalued considerably. In the hundred years since the establishment of the Republic, there has been a Turkey is playing an active role globally, as well as regionally. She may well yet have a crucial say not only in the Middle East, but also in the conflicts in the Ukraine. In other words, it is easy to see the problems, but one equally has to appreciate the underlying shifts which may result in Turkey being a highly significant international actor. Again, there are multiple processes taking place that are all important, but it is easy to concentrate one to the exclusion of others that are of equal relevance.

 

References

Shankland, D. 1993 Simple Etiquette in Turkey, Paul Norbury publications, Kent, 48pp. (Three editions).

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Shankland, D. 1999a Islam and Society in Turkey, Huntington: Eothen.

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Shankland, D. 1999b. (Editor) The Turkish Republic at Seventy-Five Years: Progress - Development - Change, Huntingdon: Eothen Press.

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Shankland, D. 2006 Structure and Function in Turkish Society, Istanbul: Isis Press. (essays: 100,000 words).