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Therefore, the second sub-chapter will be divided into three sub headings where each of them will examine each level of identity construction within the
mystical stages of Sufism. By doing so, this chapter is expected to show how Pamuk offers new framework and understanding of identity formation in
Turkey’s identity quest portrayed in each of these novels and how his interpretation can be
understood in the framework of Sufism.
A. From the Late Ottoman Millet to the Early Republic
Turkey possesses a unique location on two different continents Europe and Asia and the political center of the Empire Istanbul was located where two of
these continents meet. This geographical in-betweenness encourages cultural meeting that is constant in nature since the Ottoman time even before during and
after the Byzantine, simply because the empire was one of the main world trade routes.
In the present day, Turkey has undoubtedly become the most secular country in the world. What makes Turkey even more distinctive in this regard is
its function as the successor of predominantly Islamic culture. Islamic law
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was used as the rule in society life, but then with the establishment of the Turkey
Republic by the army commander in-chief, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, the Ottoman legacy that was based on Islamic code was attacked and replaced with
secularism, Westernization, and nationalism.
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181
Islamic law is known as sharia, a legal framework within which the public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islam.
182
Soner Cagaptay, Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey Who is A Turk? London: Rouledge, 2005, 2.
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In the early period of Kemalism
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wanted to create a new Turkish identity in opposition to the Ottoman identity with its roots in Islam
and they obsessed to radically transform the Ottoman Islamic structure into a nation-state within the framework of ideological positivism.
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Ataturk was a firm believer in Turkey’s European destiny and in the theories that attributed to Islam
as the greatest part of the responsibility for the economic and military backwardness of Muslim countries.
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In McCarty ’s words:
The Turks rejected Ottoman traditions so that they could more completely become part of the West. It was the fundamental ideology of the new
Turkish state that the Republic had begun anew and owed little to the Ottoman.
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Ataturk’s leadership worked on the comprehensive transformation of Turkification and Westernization, and secularization that transformed politics,
religion, language, and history. As Lewis observes: During the 1930s the pressure of secularization in Turkey became very
strong indeed. Although the regime never adopted an avowedly anti Islamic policy, its desire to end the power of organized Islam and breaks its hold on
the minds and hearts of the Turkish people was clear. The prohibition of religious education, the transfer of mosques to secular purposes, reinforced
the lesson of the legal and social reforms. In the rapidly growing new capital, now new mosques were built.
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183
The word Kemalism was first used by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu to refer to the new nation building state ideology; this word is also used to define the revolutionary ideology between 1923
and 1935. See Meliz Ergin, East-West Entanglements: Pamuk, Özdamar, Derrida, Unpublished Dissertation Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2009, 17.
184
Aysu Gelgec Gulpinar, Women in the Twentieth Century: Modernity, Feminism, and Islam in Turkey, Unpublished Master Thesis Arlington: University of Texas in Arlington, 2006, 8.
185
Shireen T. Hunter, The Future of Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful
Coexistence? Westport, CT, and London: Praeger with the Center for Strategic and International Students Washington DC, 1998, 85.
186
Justin McCarty, The Ottoman Peoples and The End of Empire London: Arnold, 2001, 216.
187
Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey London: Oxford UP, under the auspices of the Royal institute of International Affairs, 1961, 406.
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As a result of the sentiment towards Ottoman Islam, several features that have marked
Turkey’s distinctiveness as Muslim society were abolished. Blindy possessed by the lure of Western’s civilization, it was easy for Atatürk to discard
Islam and its legacy that he considered as an obstacle to catch up with globalization and the modernization. Atatürk established a series of reforms to
secularize Turkey during the 1920s.
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On January 2, 1924 he changed the Muslim Sabbath, Friday, into Sunday and replaced the lunar calendar and clock with
Gregorian calendar and solar clock.
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The capital was moved from Istanbul as the center of Ottoman golden time to Ankara, the mosques were transformed into museums, dervish lodges were shut
down, and traditional outfits were abolished. A secular civil code regulating
matters of marriage, inheritance, divorce, and adoption was approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on February 17, 1926.
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In the following eight months, the sharia court was annulled on October 4, 1926, declaring Islamic law
null and void. The declaration of Islam as Turkey’s state religion was removed
from the constitution by the parliament on April 10, 1928.
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Finally, Ankara
188
Robert Shannan Peckam, “Frontier Fictions,” in National Histories, Natural States Nationalism and the Politics of Place in Greece London: I.B. Tauris, 2001, 40.
189
Kemal H. Karpat, “Ottomanism, Fatherland and the ‘Turkishness’ of the State,” in The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman
State 2001: 341-345.
190
Hakan M. Yavuz, “Islam and Nationalism: Yusuf Akçura, Üç Tarz-I Siyaset,” Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies 42 1993: 190-92, 207.
191
Hakan M. Yavuz, “The Pattern of Islamic Identity: Dynamics of National and Transnational Loyalties and Identities.” Central Asian Survey 14. 3 1995, 360.
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declared that the Latin alphabet would replace Arabic script, the alphabet of Quran, effective from January 1, 1929.
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All of these policies show that: The establishment of an officially secular state, any idea that Turkey should
act primarily, or even partially, as a Muslim state was definitely abandoned. Atatürk
’s clear aim was to establish Turkey as a respected nation, on the Western model.
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The roots of this Westernization reform can be traced back from the Tanzimat era which began in 1839. This era was characterized by attempts to
modernize the Ottoman Empire and to forestall foreign intervention. In this period, several westernizing reforms, especially in military forces and cultural life,
were reinforced to save the empire that was weakened by the increasing nationalist rebellions among the ethnic communities by strengthening its relations
with Europe. Much of the Ottoman system was reorganized along largely French lines.
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However, during this era Ottoman culture continued to rely on Islamic tradition and the Westernization reforms in this period were a controlled
translation of Western cultural elements into the Eastern tradition.
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192
Kemal H. Karpat ”Transformation of the Ottoman State: 1789-1908,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 3 1972: 266.
193
William Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774-2000 London and Portland: Frank Coss 2000, 332.
194
Cem Emrence. “Three Waves of Late Ottoman Historiography 1950-2007,” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 41. 2 2007: 137-151.
195
Melitz Ergin East- West Entanglements: Pamuk, Ozdamar, Derrida, Unpublished Dissertation Vancouver: University of British Columbia 2009, 16.
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B. The Mystical Stages in Turkey’s Identity Quest.
