Imperialist Turkish political ideology
Neo-Ottomanism
(
Turkish
:
Yeni Osmanlıcılık, Neo-Osmanlıcılık
) is an
irredentist
and
imperialist
Turkish political ideology
that, in its broadest sense, advocates to honor the Ottoman past of Turkey and promotes greater political engagement of the
Republic of Turkey
within regions formerly under the rule of the
Ottoman Empire
, the predecessor state that covered the territory of modern Turkey among others.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Neo-Ottomanism emerged at the end of the
Cold War
with the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
,
[6]
forming two distinct waves of the ideology: the first, in the early 1990s, developed by the Turkish journalist and foreign policy advisor to President
Turgut Ozal
,
Cengiz Candar
; the second, associated with
Ahmet Davuto?lu
and his foreign policy goals of establishing Turkey as an influential power within the
Balkans
, Caucasia and the Middle East.
[7]
[8]
The term has been associated with
Recep Tayyip Erdo?an
's
irredentist
,
interventionist
and
expansionist
foreign policy in the
Eastern Mediterranean
and the neighboring
Cyprus
,
Greece
,
Iraq
,
Syria
, as well as in
Africa
, including
Libya
, and
Nagorno-Karabakh
.
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
However, the term has been rejected by members of the
Erdo?an Government
, such as the former Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davuto?lu
[20]
and the former
Parliament
Speaker
Mustafa ?entop
.
[21]
Overview
[
edit
]
One of the first uses of the term was in a
Chatham House
paper by David Barchard in 1985,
[22]
in which Barchard suggested that a "Neo-Ottoman option" might be a possible avenue for Turkey's future development. It seems also to have been used by the
Greeks
sometime after
Turkey's invasion of Cyprus
in 1974.
[23]
In the 21st century, the term has come to signify a domestic trend in
Turkish politics
, where the revival of Ottoman traditions and culture has been accompanied by the rise of the
Justice and Development Party
(Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, abbreviated AKP founded in 2001) which came to power in 2002. The use of the ideology by Justice and Development Party has mainly supported a greater influence of Ottoman culture in domestic social policy which has caused issues with the secular and republican credentials of modern Turkey.
[24]
[25]
The
AKP
have used slogans such as
Osmanlı torunu
("descendant of the Ottomans") to refer to their supporters and also their leader
Recep Tayyip Erdo?an
(who was
elected President in 2014
) during their election campaigns.
[26]
These domestic ideals have also seen a revival of neo-Ottomanism in the AKP's foreign policy. Besides acting as a clear distinction between them and ardent supporters of
secularism
, the social Ottomanism advocated by the AKP has served as a basis for their efforts to transform Turkey's existing
parliamentary system
into a
presidential system
, favouring a strong centralised leadership similar to that of the Ottoman era. Critics have thus accused Erdo?an of acting like an "Ottoman
sultan
".
[27]
[28]
[29]
History
[
edit
]
Neo-Ottomanism has been used to describe Turkish
foreign policy
under the
Justice and Development Party
which took power in 2002 under Erdo?an, who subsequently became
Prime Minister
. Neo-Ottomanism is a dramatic shift from the traditional Turkish foreign policy of the
Kemalist
ideology, which emphasized looking westward towards Europe. The shift away from this concept in Turkish foreign policy under
Turgut Ozal
's government has been described as the first step towards neo-Ottomanism.
[30]
Ozal
's neo-Ottomanism is characterized by a rediscovery of Turkey's multiple identities, in contrast to the unitary conception of the Kemalist republic, and by a tendency to prioritize economic aspects rather than politico-state and security logics.
[31]
Neo-Ottomanism had a basis in religious circles.
Fethullah Gulen
, an influential
Islamic
leader, looks both to personal transformation and social and political activism, and fully embraces
Turkish nationalism
?the defining characteristic of which is
Islam
, not nationality?and economic
neoliberalism
while stressing continuity with Turkey's Ottoman past.
[32]
His emphasis on the role of the state and neoliberalism are legacies of the changing nature of the late Ottoman state from the vantage point of the east, including conflicts between Muslims and Christians in
Yugoslavia
and, later, the expansion of the
Soviet Union
and the threat it posed.
[32]
The Ottoman Empire was an influential global power which, at its peak, controlled the
Balkans
and most of the modern-day
Middle East
. Neo-Ottomanist foreign policy encourages increased engagement in these regions as part of Turkey's growing regional influence.
[33]
This foreign policy contributed to an improvement in Turkey's relations with its neighbors, particularly with
Iraq
,
Iran
and
Syria
. However Turkey's relations with Israel, once Turkey's ally, suffered, especially after the 2008?09
Gaza War
[34]
and the 2010
Gaza flotilla raid
.
[35]
Ahmet Davuto?lu
, Turkish foreign minister from 2009 to 2014 and "head architect" of the new foreign policy, has, however, rejected the term "neo-Ottomanism" to describe his country's new foreign policy.
[36]
Turkey's new foreign policy started a debate, principally in the Western media, as to whether Turkey is undergoing an "axis shift"; in other words whether it is drifting away from the West and heading towards the
Middle East
and Asia.
[37]
Such fears appear more frequently in Western media when Turkish tensions with
Israel
rise.
[37]
Then-President
Abdullah Gul
dismissed claims that Turkey has shifted its foreign policy axis.
[38]
Davuto?lu
worked to define Turkey's new foreign policy on the principle of "zero problems with neighbours", as opposed to Neo-Ottomanism.
[37]
"
Soft power
" is regarded as particularly useful.
[37]
Focused on the rhetoric of the encounter between civilizations,
Davuto?lu
takes up the approach of former President
Turgut Ozal
, who was the first Turkish president to begin discussions on Turkey's
accession
to the West. The latter put an end to the crisis that arose following the 1974 coup in
Cyprus
in order to move closer to the Western bloc, and thus to look towards
Asia
and extend its area of influence towards the countries of the
Caucasus
.
[39]
Aiming at a policy of national harmony,
Ozal
refuses any denial of specificity among Turkish citizens. He sought in particular to relaunch dialogue with the
Kurds
, wishing to put an end to the permanent state of war between the
PKK
and the Turkish state, a conflict which tarnished Turkey's image in the world.
[40]
As President, Erdo?an has overseen a revival of
Ottoman
tradition.
[41]
[42]
[43]
While serving as the Prime Minister of Turkey, Erdo?an's AKP made references to the Ottoman era during election campaigns, such as calling their supporters 'grandsons of Ottomans'
(Osmanlı torunu).
[44]
This proved controversial, since it was perceived to be an open attack against the republican nature of modern Turkey founded by
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
. In 2015, Erdo?an made a statement in which he endorsed the old Ottoman term
kulliye
to refer to university campuses rather than the standard Turkish word
kampus
.
[45]
Many critics have thus accused Erdo?an of wanting to become an Ottoman
sultan
and abandon the secular and democratic credentials of the Republic.
[46]
[47]
[48]
[49]
The American philosopher,
Noam Chomsky
, said that "Erdogan in Turkey is basically trying to create something like the
Ottoman Caliphate
, with him as
caliph
, supreme leader, throwing his weight around all over the place, and destroying the remnants of democracy in Turkey at the same time".
[50]
When pressed on this issue in January 2015, Erdo?an rejected these claims and told
TRT
that he would aim to fill a role more similar to
Queen
Elizabeth II
of the
United Kingdom
,
[51]
explaining, "In my opinion, even the UK is a
semi-presidency
. And the dominant element is the Queen".
[52]
In July 2020, after the
Council of State
annulled the
Cabinet
's 1934 decision to establish the
Hagia Sophia
as museum and revoking the monument's status, Erdo?an ordered its reclassification as a mosque.
[53]
[54]
The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's
waqf
, endowed by
Sultan Mehmed II
, had designated the site a mosque; proponents of the decision argued the Hagia Sophia was the personal property of the sultan.
[55]
This redesignation is controversial, invoking condemnation from the Turkish opposition,
UNESCO
, the
World Council of Churches
, the
Holy See
, and many other international leaders.
[56]
[57]
[58]
In August 2020, he also signed the order that transferred the administration of
The Chora
to the Directorate of Religious Affairs to open it for worship as a mosque.
[59]
Initially converted to a mosque by the Ottomans, the building had then been designated as a museum by the government since 1934.
[60]
[41]
August 26, 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech, saying that "in our civilization, conquest is not occupation or looting. It is establishing the dominance of the justice that Allah commanded in the region. First of all, our nation removed the oppression from the areas that it conquered. It established justice. This is why our civilization is one of conquest. Turkey will take what is its right in the
Mediterranean Sea
, in the
Aegean Sea
, and in the
Black Sea
.
[61]
[41]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
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Further reading
[
edit
]
- Prasanna Aditya,
‘Neo-Ottomanism’ in Turkish foreign policy
, Observer Research Foundation, 2020.
- Kubilay Yado Arin,
The AKP's Foreign Policy, Turkey's Reorientation from the West to the East?
, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2013. ISBN 9 783865 737199.
- Florian Calian,
The Hagia Sophia and Turkey’s Neo-Ottomanism
, The Armenian Weekly, 2021.
- Stephanos Constantinides,
Turkey: The Emergence of a New Foreign Policy The Neo-Ottoman Imperial Model
,
Journal of Political and Military Sociology
,
1996.
- Graham E. Fuller,
The New Turkish Republic: Turkey as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World
, United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007.
- Marwa Maziad, Jake Sotiriadis,
Turkey’s Dangerous New Exports: Pan-Islamist, Neo-Ottoman Visions and Regional Instability
,
Middle East Institute
, 2020.
- Alexander Murinson,
Turkish Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Neo-Ottomanism and the Strategic Depth Doctrine
. I. B. Tauris, 2020.
ISBN
9781784532406
- Darko Tanaskovi?,
Neo-ottomanism: A Doctrine and Foreign Policy Practice.
Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Southeast Europe-CIVIS, 2013.
ISBN
9788690810352
- ISBN
9781601270191
- Arestakes Simavoryan,
Ideological Trends in the Context of Foreign Policy of Turkey
.
Europe & Orient
, no. 11 (55-62), 2010.
- Milo? Todorovi?,
T?KA’s Heritage Restoration Projects: Examples of Foreign Aid or Proof of Neo-Ottomanism?
.
Insight Turkey
, no. 23/3 (141-156), 2021.
- Hakan Yavuz,
Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism
.
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020.
ISBN
9780197512289
.