International politics in Turkish Islamism during the Cold War, 1947-1964

Date

2022-07-01

Author

Yıldız, Tunahan

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This article will discuss the early discourse of Islamism on international politics in Cold War Turkey. It brings forth four main findings. First, while Islamists bandwagoned onto the discourse of the Turkish state and the Western bloc in presenting the Soviet Union as a national and global threat, they also sought to operationalize their anti-Sovietism for their broader political agenda. Second, Islamists effectively committed to the Western bloc during the period, but this commitment was replaced by anti-Westernism particularly from the mid-1960s onwards. Third, they substantially discussed decolonization with Pakistan, Palestine, and Algeria at the forefront, but their treatment of decolonization oscillated between glorification and devaluation and never paved the way for a Third-Worldist approach. Fourth, while pan-Islamism had an important place in their thinking, it came along with a commitment to the states-system as well as Turkey's Cold War alliance, a retreat from classical Islamic concepts, and a conception of Turkish exceptionalism. In so doing, this article shows how the course of the Cold War shaped Islamism. It also demonstrates the pragmatism and eclecticism of Islamism. It is equally evident that Islamism was developed in interaction with, not in opposition to, nationalism and the discourse of national interest.This article will discuss the early discourse of Islamism on international politics in Cold War Turkey. It brings forth four main findings. First, while Islamists bandwagoned onto the discourse of the Turkish state and the Western bloc in presenting the Soviet Union as a national and global threat, they also sought to operationalize their anti-Sovietism for their broader political agenda. Second, Islamists effectively committed to the Western bloc during the period, but this commitment was replaced by anti-Westernism particularly from the mid-1960s onwards. Third, they substantially discussed decolonization with Pakistan, Palestine, and Algeria at the forefront, but their treatment of decolonization oscillated between glorification and devaluation and never paved the way for a Third-Worldist approach. Fourth, while pan-Islamism had an important place in their thinking, it came along with a commitment to the states-system as well as Turkey's Cold War alliance, a retreat from classical Islamic concepts, and a conception of Turkish exceptionalism. In so doing, this article shows how the course of the Cold War shaped Islamism. It also demonstrates the pragmatism and eclecticism of Islamism. It is equally evident that Islamism was developed in interaction with, not in opposition to, nationalism and the discourse of national interest.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/100655

Journal

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2022.2103545

Collections

Department of International Relations, Article

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Citation Formats

T. Yıldız, “International politics in Turkish Islamism during the Cold War, 1947-1964,” MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, pp. 0–0, 2022, Accessed: 00, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/100655.