Pan-Turkism in the context of "Nationalist Movement Party"

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⭐ Core Definition: Pan-Turkism

Pan-Turkism (Turkish: Pan-Türkizm) or Turkism (Turkish: Türkçülük or Türkizm) is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), South Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim being the cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples. Turanism is a closely related movement but it is a more general term, because Turkism only applies to Turkic peoples. However, researchers and politicians who are steeped in the pan-Turkic ideology have used these terms interchangeably in many sources and works of literature.

Although many of the Turkic peoples share historical, cultural and linguistic roots, the rise of a pan-Turkic political movement is a phenomenon of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ottoman poet Ziya Gökalp defined pan-Turkism as a cultural, academic, and philosophical and political concept advocating the unity of Turkic peoples. Ideologically, it was premised on social Darwinism. Pan-Turkism has been characterized by pseudoscientific theories known as Pseudo-Turkology.

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👉 Pan-Turkism in the context of Nationalist Movement Party

The Nationalist Movement Party, or alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party (Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), is a far-right, ultranationalist political party in Turkey. The party is neo-fascist and has been linked to violent paramilitaries and organized crime groups. The party's youth wing is the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar) organization, which is also known as the "Nationalist Hearths" (Ülkü Ocakları) which played one of the biggest roles during the political violence in Turkey in the 1970s.

The party was formed in 1969 by former Turkish Army colonel Alparslan Türkeş, who had become leader of the Republican Villagers Nation Party (CKMP) in 1965. He founded the party after criticizing the Republican People's Party (CHP) for moving too far away from the nationalist principles of their founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, claiming that he would not have founded the MHP had the CHP not deviated from Atatürk's ideology. The party mainly followed a Pan-Turkist and Turkish nationalist political agenda throughout the latter half of the 20th century. The MHP won enough seats in the 1973 and 1977 general election to take part in the "Nationalist Front" governments during the 1970s. The party was banned following the 1980 coup, but reestablished with its original name in 1993. After participating in a coalition government, in the 2002 general election, the MHP fell below the 10% election threshold and lost all of its parliamentary representation after the newly formed Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a plurality.

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Turkish nationalism

Turkish nationalism (Turkish: Türk milliyetçiliği) is nationalism among the people of Turkey and individuals whose national identity is Turkish. Turkish nationalism consists of political and social movements and sentiments prompted by a love for Turkish culture, Turkish language and history, and a sense of pride in Turkey and Turkish people. While national consciousness in Turkish nation can be traced back centuries, nationalism has been a predominant determinant of Turkish attitudes mainly since the 20th century. Modern Turkish nationalism rose during the Tanzimat era. It also has a complicated relationship with Muslim identity, Pan-Turkism, and Turanism.

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Pan-nationalism

Pan-nationalism (from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân) 'all' and French nationalisme 'nationalism') in the social sciences includes forms of nationalism that aim to transcend (overcome, expand) traditional boundaries of basic or historical national identities in order to create a "higher" pan-national (all-inclusive) identity, based on various common denominators. In relation to classical state nationalism, pan-nationalism manifests itself through various political movements that advocate the formation of "higher" (pan-national) forms of political identity, based on a regional or continental grouping of national states, such as Pan-Africanism, Pan-Americanism, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Asianism, Pan-Slavism, and Pan-Turkism. In terms of ethnic nationalism, pan-nationalism can also manifest itself through specific ethnic movements that advocate setting up "higher" (pan-national) forms of common identity that are based on ethnic grouping (for example: Pan-Germanism or Pan-Slavism). Other forms of nationalism also have their pan-national variants.

Some forms of pan-nationalism, such as Pan-Germanism, manifest themselves on two levels: wider - relating to the unity of all Germanic peoples - and narrower - relating to the unity of all ethnic Germans, also including (on either of those two levels) German-speaking Austrians and German-speaking Swiss people, many of who may not self-identify as strictly "German", while still belonging to the wider family of contemporary Germanic peoples.

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Ziya Gökalp

Mehmet Ziya Gökalp (born Mehmed Ziya, 23 March 1876 – 25 October 1924) was a Turkish sociologist, writer, poet, and politician. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution that reinstated constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire, he adopted the pen name Gökalp ("celestial hero"), which he retained for the rest of his life. As a sociologist, Ziya Gökalp was influential in the negation of Islamism, pan-Islamism, and Ottomanism as ideological, cultural, and sociological identifiers. In a 1936 publication, sociologist Niyazi Berkes described Gökalp as "the real founder of Turkish sociology, since he was not a mere translator or interpreter of foreign sociology".

Gökalp's work was particularly influential in shaping the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; his influence figured prominently in the development of Kemalism, and its legacy in the modern Republic of Turkey. Influenced by contemporary European thought, particularly by the sociological view of Émile Durkheim, Gökalp rejected both the Ottomanism and Islamism in favor of Turkish nationalism. He advocated a Turkification of the Ottoman Empire, by promoting Turkish language and culture to all Ottoman citizenry. He found Greeks, Armenians and Jews to be an undesirable foreign body in the national Turkish state. His thought, which popularized Pan-Turkism and Turanism, has been described as a "cult of nationalism and modernization". His nationalist ideals espoused a de-identification with Ottoman Turkey's nearby Arab neighbors, instead advocating for a super-national Turkish (or pan-Turkic) identity with "a territorial Northeast-orientation [to] Turkic peoples".

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Basmachi movement

The Basmachi movement (Russian: Басмачество, romanizedBasmachestvo, derived from Uzbek: Босмачи, romanized: Bosmachi, lit.'bandits') was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs and Pan-Turkism. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rule in Central Asia".

The movement's roots lay in the anti-conscription violence of 1916 which erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service in World War I. In the months following the October 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks seized power in many parts of the Russian Empire and the Russian Civil War began. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form an autonomous government in the city of Kokand, in the Fergana Valley. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a general massacre of up to 25,000 people. The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi who waged a guerrilla and conventional war that seized control of large parts of the Fergana Valley and much of Turkestan. The group's notable leaders were Enver Pasha and, later, Ibrahim Bek.

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Demokratik Cümhuriyyəti), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti; آذربایجان خلق جمهوریتی‎), was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds. The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and ceased to exist on 28 April 1920. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the Republic of Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. It had a population of around 3 million. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control.

Under the ADR, a government system was developed in which a Parliament elected on the basis of universal, free, and proportionate representation was the supreme organ of state authority; the Council of Ministers was held responsible before it. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister. Besides the Musavat majority, Ahrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social Democrats as well as representatives of Armenian (21 out of 120 seats), Russian, Polish, German, and Jewish minorities gained seats in the parliament. Many members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas.

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Sociology in Turkey

Sociology in Turkey has gone through several stages of development beginning with proto-sociologies in the 16th and 17th century. In the mid-19th century, sociology was taught within philosophy departments, and it uncritically adopted Western social theories and neglected research. In reaction to the rise of Western liberalism among several intellectuals, the Sultan supported sociology and opened the Dârülfünûn. The resulting division between Western liberalism and Pan-Islamism ultimately resulted in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Following the 1908 revolution, sociological thinkers attempted to discern the foundations of Europeanization so as to graft Western social organization onto Ottoman institutions and Turkish culture. The sociologists of the time were heavily influenced by European, mainly French, sociologists. During and after the events leading to the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), the purported father of Turkish sociology, Ziya Gökalp, argued for a break from Ottoman and Western ideologies. Instead he contended that Pan-Turkism was the appropriate basis of the new nation-state, which influenced the Kemalist foundation of modern Turkey. This connection between sociology and the development of the nation-state continues to be a strong theme in contemporary sociological thought in Turkey. Sociology in Turkey was again influenced heavily by the influx of German thinkers during the Second World War and later by American sociology. Today, Turkish sociology is taught as the study of social problems using scientific research methods.

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Pan-Turkism in the context of Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan

The Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan were a series of insurgencies by local Muslims against the administration of the First Republic of Armenia, beginning on 1 July 1919 and ending 28 July 1920. The areas of uprising were persuaded into insurrection by the sedition of Turkish and Azerbaijani agents who were trying to destabilise Armenia in order to form a pan-Turkic corridor between their nations.

Following the withdrawal of the Ottoman army from the South Caucasus, local Muslims in the formerly occupied areas were armed and assisted in establishing political states with the aim of resisting reincorporation into Armenia. In the spring of 1919, the British command in the Caucasus assisted Armenia in defeating these statelets; however, some months later due to the efforts of Turkish and Azerbaijani emissaries, Armenian administration collapsed and the region fell under local control again until the Armenian counteroffensive in the summer of 1920. The Armenian campaign to reabsorb the Nakhichevan region was halted by the forces of Soviet Russia who had invaded Azerbaijan earlier in the year. The Kars region was briefly reincorporated into Armenian governance until it was conquered by Turkish forces by the end of the Turkish–Armenian war in December 1920.

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