The formation of Turkish national identity: the role of the Greek “other”

Date

2009

Author

Ergül, Feride Aslı

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This dissertation analyzes the role of the Greek “other” in the process of Turkish national identity formation. Addressing the transformation of Turkish identity from multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious imperial character into a homogeneous and unitary national form, this thesis mainly focuses on the changing attitude of the Ottoman elites of the last period and the modern Turkish state elites towards the Greeks in domestic and foreign affairs. In fact, this change can be evaluated as a part of constructing a Turkish nation which had been long carried out as break from the plural Ottoman inheritance. Within this context, this dissertation aims to understand the importance of Greek culture in Turkish identity, the stimulating role of the Greek existence in Anatolia during the Turkish War of Independence, neglect of the Turkish history writing about the Greek background or the Rumi identity and besides, the fragile relations between Turkey and Greece via questioning the overlapping aspects of Turkish nationalism and Greek “otherization”.

Subject Keywords

Greeks, International relations

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12611204/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/18917

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis