Nationalism and territoriality: the conception of homeland in the communities of Turkish origin in Bulgaria and the Netherlands

Download

index.pdf

Date

2014

Author

Şenses, Ahu

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

242
views

104
downloads

Territoriality has been a long neglected issue in international relations and nationalism studies. This thesis aims to draw attention to the significance of territorial relations in defining modes of human political organization and identity formation and to help establish linkages between international studies and the disciplines of geography and anthropology that problematize territoriality. It questions how territoriality can be conceptualized within the framework of particularly migrant and minority groups with hyphenated ethno-cultural identities and multiple territorial/homeland ties. In order to address this question, this thesis devises a three-layered model of territoriality. This model differentiates between the cultural, instrumental and normative aspects of territorial identification which denote the local, national and transnational levels of analysis respectively. The thesis applies this model to the communities of Turkish origin in Bulgaria and the Netherlands and attempts to reveal their peculiarities and commonalities with regard to their members’ territorial experiences and homeland attachments, basing its analysis on a field research that involves open-ended and in-depth interviews with selected community members. It argues that, despite certain differences between their territorial practices and perceptions, the members of these two communities cannot yet be claimed to have transcended their usually parochial ethno-cultural loyalties or to be moving towards a state in which their embeddedness in their original societies and national territories are being undermined by the allegedly deterritorializing and emancipatory effects of transnationalism. Ethno-cultural and national ties as embodied in homeland identification are still relevant for understanding the political allegiances and practices of individuals and collectivities.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12616981/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/23401

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Nationalism and identity in the former Soviet Union Light, Margot (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi (Ankara, Turkey), 2000-12-2) Nationalism is useful in consolidating state identity and bolstering state-building, but in the form of ethnic nationalism, it can undermine the integrity of the state. This paper examines the effect of non-Russian and Russian nationalism in the former Soviet Union. It finds that although Russian nationalism evokes more fear outside Russia than non-Russian nationalism, the violent conflicts in the former Soviet Union have been caused by the latter rather than the former. Non-Russian nationalism also threate...
Systemic-structural approaches, world-system analysis and the study of foreign policy Tayfur, M.Fatih (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi (Ankara, Turkey), 2000-12-1) This article aims to review and compare the systemic-structural approaches to international relations, and their impact on the study of foreign policy. Yet, the specific objective of this essay is to discuss, ‘The Modern World-System Approach’ which has been, mostly, less well understood or misunderstood, or misinterpreted by the students of international relations and foreign policy analysis. In the era of ‘globalisation’, re-visiting the systemic-structural approaches, and especially ‘the modern world-sys...
EU citizenship and Europeanness: national challenges and postnational prospects towards political integration Salkaya, Fatma Elif; Yurdusev, Ahmet Nuri; Department of European Studies (2004) The issue of political integration has been one of the most contentious subjects in terms of the academic studies concerning European integration. Despite many researches have been conducted in the areas concerning institutional problems, enlargement or European security, the researches concerning the socio-political diemnsion of the politcal integration are still very rare. This thesis approaches to the issue of political integration from a socio-political perspective.The problematic of the EU citizenship,...
Theories of Revolutions and the Arab Uprisings Göçer Akder, Derya (2013-01-01) The recent Arab Uprisings will lead to significant rethinking of critical issues in the region as well as important topics in social theory. Social movements, the role of militaries, the politicization of the youth, and social media networks are among these issues. These rethinking efforts will also have implications for the theories of revolutions. The media as well as some of the actors involved were quick to label these uprisings as the last contemporary wave of revolutions. This article explores whether...
Nationalism and the ‘inter-national’: a critical survey of internalist thinking within theories of nationalism Özeniş, Çağdaş; Yalvaç, Faruk; Department of International Relations (2015) This thesis aims to critically survey the role of the “international” in theories of nationalism. It will be argued that even though a great majority of theories of nationalism have emphasized the causality between international factors and social dynamics, these two domains still remain as analytically distinct categories within their theoretical frameworks. This in turn serves the reproduction of the internalist thinking which prevails within social sciences, through the dichotomization of internal (socio...

Citation Formats

A. Şenses, “Nationalism and territoriality: the conception of homeland in the communities of Turkish origin in Bulgaria and the Netherlands,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2014.