Why didn't Turkey become fascist after WW 1?

by hakuna14

When the German Empire was dismantled after loosing ww1 they turned to fascism. The Ottoman empire was also dismantled after loosing ww1 so why didn't they turn to fascism? Did turkey atleast become more nationalist after ww1? Thanks for answers.

abb91

Hi, In my answer I focus on the development of Turkish nationalism, and give brief view of how Turkey were formed after WW1. I'am not going into extreme details and deeper ideological analysis, some of the parts may seem superficial. But all are welcome to ask into the parts you may find interesting, then I can try to explain those parts more detailed and in better contrast.

Nationalistic ideology in the Ottoman Empire had begun in the mid 1800, and started to influence of wide range of ruling military elites. But this early form of nationalistic ideas were mix of pan-turanian and pan-turkic nationalism. Supporters of this type of Ottoman/Turkish nationalism formed the movement Young Turks and later the Committee of Union and Progress. The movement were mainly occupied by people from the military, and had authoritarian views on how the state should be managed. In the 1910's the Unionists were very active in Ottoman politics and they successfully carried out a revolution against the Sultan Abdulhamid II, and forced a constitutional monarchy on the empire. Again in 1913 after the loss of the Balkan Wars the Unionists meant that they could do a better job ruling all by themselves, so they made coup and took over the government, and thus a puppet sultan was set up and the three pashas (generals) ruled the empire until its downfall. They were behind the policies that destabilized the empire, and were one of the main reasons why the Ottoman Empire ended up participated in WW1. So in a way the Ottoman Empire had already been through a period with nationalistic autocrats, whom had carried out atrocities on its minorities and had failed the nation by going into unwinnable wars.

After the the Ottoman Empire lost WW1 some military officers under the leadership of the battle hardened general Mustafa Kemal did not accept the Lousanne Treaty and the participation of Turkish Anatolia. This group then left Istanbul and started the Turkish War of Independence. This development were not acceptable for the Sultan or the government in Istanbul, so Mustafa Kemal and his friends were declared unlawful and some sentenced to death in absentia. This war was mainly fought against invading Greek forces and Ottoman forces whom were loyal to government in Istanbul, and in some smaller instances the French, Italian and Russian forces. Against all the odds Turkish forces defeated the Ottoman army and invading Greek forces. After the war was over between the years 1923 to 1924 the country were reorganized into a republic, and the sultanate were effectively abolished.

The leading figure in the war Mustafa Kemal was elected the first president, and he had his own vision for the future of Turkey. After becoming a politician Mustafa Kemal resigned from the army, and the main reason behind this were demilitarization of the newly founded Turkish government. As former military officer and a on/of member of Unionist circles Kemal had lived through the disadvantages and failed policies of the former Military Autocratic government style. Therefor the Kemalist ideology were supposed to aim for a more democratic and demilitarized government style. In the lifetime of Mustafa Kemal Turkey did not really become a democracy as he had hoped for, as a Muslim majority country the of the people were at some point to conservative to share the secular visions Mustafa Kemal had. This issue made created conflict between the state and religious communities that denied stately imposed progress. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were seen benevolent dictator, whom had laid the fundamental work for later Turkish Democracy. The early republic had autocratic tendencies, but is no way at the same level as fascist regimes used to be. The proportions of the early republics use autocracy is a widely discussed field, and some say the state engaged to much in public religious affairs, while others argue that this engagement were necessary to prevent religious takeover of the state.

But under Kemal Atatürk turkish nationalism developed to be more locally and patriotic oriented, in contrast to earlier pan-turanic and pan-turkic ideas of the Young Turks. Turkish nationalism were not based upon ethnicity but upon Turkishness, because of ethnically the Turks of Turkey were a big mashup of Albanian, Arabs, Armenians, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Georgians , Caucasians, Laz people, Kurds and Tatars whom all happened to Muslims. Many Muslims had sought refugee in Anatolia/Turkey after centuries of war. The aim of Turkish nationalism under Kemal Atatürk was to unite and incorporate these different ethnic groups under the Turkish Nation, this made the Kemalist variant of Turkish nationalism more including than excluding ethnic based nationalism. In retrospect the only ethnicity whom were not fully incorporated into the Turkish nation were parts of the Kurdish communities, they kept their own language and traditions. Besides that most of the other smaller groups is almost fully incorporated in the Turkish nation, and see themselves as Turks. The campaigning for Turkishness and incorporation process were mainly peaceful, smaller conflict with Kurdish forces and some religious communities did occur, but in general it became a uniting factor in Turkish nationalism. The Turks became more nationalist after WW1, but the reason behind that is Turkish nationalism before WW1 was a idea spread in the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire and not the common populace. With the republic literacy rates sky rocketed in the populace, and the general population became more self aware and politically active, and as a result of that the nationalistic ideas and a idea of defining one self as a Turk spread into the public. In the Ottoman Empire Muslims defined themselves as Muslims and Subjects of the Sultans, and being Turk were in many instances a negative thing.

Turkey were ruled by a One-party constitutional republic in between 1923-1950 and after those years as a Multi-party constitutional republic, and at no point did fascists have enough support to take power. Fascism and the Popular Kemalist ideology did not work well correlate well, in many ways Kemalist ideology sought out non-violence and non-expansionist foreign policy. And humanism and international coexistence were key issues for Popular Kemalist ideology. Furthermore fascism were male dominated and women's role in society were predetermined, but Kemalism had women's rights and early feminism as one of its key standpoints. All in all Kemalist and fascist views did not correlate. and in the interwar era when later fascist turn countries lived through politically unstable and economically challenging times Turkey were better of. Politically stability and economical and social recovery was one thing the Kemalist regime is recognized for, and if we take look at the fascist turned unstable European states we clearly see the lack of these key factors. To conclude at last Turkey did become more nationalist, but at same the terminology of Turkish nationalism changed became more patriotic an locally oriented than the earlier expansionist and violent form of nationalism.

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