Transformation of State and Society in Turkey – From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic

Açıklama

Turkey is probably at the heart of the ‘modern Islamic problem’. Together with that of Japan, Turkish history constitutes one of the most worthwhile to study experiment of coping with the problem of living in a ‘West’ dominated world as ‘non Westerner’. The Turkish ‘modernising’ reforms which started in early 18th century and gained momentum in the 19th century, culminated in the so called ‘Kemalist’ political and cultural ‘revolution’ that established a ‘West oriented’ Republic. Many faithful Muslims in Turkey and other parts of the Islamic world saw this process as blasphemy. Turkey of our days makes a thrilling reading because the fate of this ‘radical cultural revolution’ is still uncertain. If it settles as a success case in the sense of a stable political and cultural consensus which integrates, ‘democratically’, a nation of about 70 million people, it will permanently influence the fate of the rest of the Islamic world. For an ‘outsider’ wishing to ‘read’ the puzzling complexities of contemporary Turkish society, the ‘story’ of the Ottoman-Turkish venture of attempt at ‘transformation’ in order to cope with the problem of ‘living’ in a ‘West dominated’ world can be interesting and rewarding. This book tells the story of this ‘transformation’.

Yahya Sezai Tezel retired in 2008 as the chair professor of International Economics and Economic Growth in Ankara University. He took his Ph. D. from Cambridge University (Faculty of Economics and Politics and Sidney Sussex College). He worked as a visiting scholar at Harvard University (Harvard Institute for International Development) with a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Advanced Development Studies. He worked on the ‘genealogy’ of the state tradition in Turkey at the Middle East Centre of Cambridge University. Besides his long term teaching at Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, he thought undergraduate and post-graduate courses at the Middle East Technical University and Bilkent University. He was the founding director of the Graduate School for Social Sciences and Humanities of the Middle East Technical University. He also worked as chief economic advisor to the Presidency of the Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and as the head of the Department of European Unions Department of the Ministry of Finance and Customs. He is currently a member of the Governing Board of the Balkan Political Club, established by Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev, first transition period President of Bulgaria. Turkey is probably at the heart of the ‘modern Islamic problem’. Together with that of Japan, Turkish history constitutes one of the most worthwhile to study experiment of coping with the problem of living in a ‘West’ dominated world as ‘non Westerner’. The Turkish ‘modernising’ reforms which started in early 18th century and gained momentum in the 19th century, culminated in the so called ‘Kemalist’ political and cultural ‘revolution’ that established a ‘West oriented’ Republic. Many faithful Muslims in Turkey and other parts of the Islamic world saw this process as blasphemy. Turkey of our days makes a thrilling reading because the fate of this ‘radical cultural revolution’ is still uncertain. If it settles as a success case in the sense of a stable political and cultural consensus which integrates, ‘democratically’, a nation of about 70 million people, it will permanently influence the fate of the rest of the Islamic world. For an ‘outsider’ wishing to ‘read’ the puzzling complexities of contemporary Turkish society, the ‘story’ of the Ottoman-Turkish venture of attempt at ‘transformation’ in order to cope with the problem of ‘living’ in a ‘West dominated’ world can be interesting and rewarding. This book tells the story of this ‘transformation’.