Pan-Turkism

Distribution of the Turkic peoples

Distribution of the countries and autonomous subdivisions where a Turkic language has official status.

The flag of the Turkic Council

Pan-Turkism is a movement that emerged in the 1880s among the Turkic intellectuals of Azerbaijan (part of the Russian Empire at that time ) and Ottoman Empire, with the aim of cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples.

Name

In the research literature, the term "Pan-Turkism" is used to describe the idea of political, cultural and ethnic unity of all Turkic-speaking people. Turanism is a closely related movement but a more general term than Turkism, since Turkism applies only to the Turkic peoples. However, researchers and politicians engaged in the field of Turkic ideology have used these terms interchangeably in a multitude of sources and literature. The term "Turkism" started to be used with a prefix "Pan" (from Greek πᾶν, pan = all), for a "Panturkism".

While the various Turkic peoples often share historical, cultural and linguistic roots, the rising of a pan-Turkic political movement is a phenomenon only of the 19th and 20th centuries and can be seen in parallel with European developments like Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism or with Pan-Iranism. Proponents use the latter most often as a point of comparison as the concept of "Turkic" is not a true racial or ethnic description but more of a linguistic and cultural distinction. This is to differentiate it from the term "Turkish" which is more of an ethnic/racial term for the citizens and denizens primarily residing in Turkey. Pan-Turkic ideas and "re-unification" movements have been popular since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asian and other Turkic countries.

History

Pan-Turkic rally in Istanbul, March 2009

In 1804, Tatar theologian Kursavi wrote a treatise calling for Islam’s modernization. Kursavi was a founder of the religious thought of Jadidism (from Arabic 'jadid', which means 'new'). The idea of Jadidism was encouragement of critical thinking, as opposed to insistence on unquestioning loyalty. It supported education for Muslims and promoted equality among the sexes; advocated tolerance for other faiths, Turkic cultural unity, and openness to Europe’s cultural legacy. In 1843 in Kazan the Jadid movement was created. Its aim was a semi-secular modernization and educational reform, and within Jadid for the first time sprout the idea of a national, and not religious identity of the Turks. Before that they were solely Muslim subjects of Russia, and the Empire continued this attitude to its very collapse.

Following the upsurge in Russian colonization of the Volga area in 1880s, the Islamic social movement Jaddidism added motives of national-liberation. However, as a result of the increase of imperial tendencies within the Russian Empire's internal politics after 1907, many partisans of Turkic unity immigrated to the Ottoman Empire.

The newspaper Türk in Cairo was established by exiles from the Ottoman Empire following the suspension of the 1876 constitution and the persecution of liberal intellectuals. It was the first publication to use the ethnic designation as a title. Yusuf Akçura chose this paper to publish his infamous "Three types of policy" (Üç tarz-ı siyaset), anonymously in 1904, and was the earliest manifesto of a truly Pan-Turkic nationalism, not just Ottoman-Turkish nationalism. In it he argues that the supra-ethnic union espoused by Ottomism was unrealistic, as was the "French liberal" model was already outdated by the "German national" model based on race. Lastly, the Pan-Islamic model had its advantages, but supporters would have to face the reality the majority of Muslim populations were currently under colonial rule, which would oppose unification. He concludes that the "Turkish political nation" based on ethnicity is unprecedented and would require active cultivation of cultural history and national identity. Given the territory of the Ottoman Empire at the time, a Pan-Turkish empire would require withdrawal of the Balkans and Eastern Europe and the annexation of much of Central Asia. The first publication of "Three types of policy" was met with negative reactions, and it became much more influential towards its third publication in 1911 in Istanbul. The Ottoman Empire had lost its African territory to Italy and would soon lose the Balkans, an Pan-Turkish nationalism became a more feasible and popular political strategy.

In 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress came to power in Ottoman Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire turned toward nationalistic ideology. This contrasted with the largely Muslim ideology of the Empire dating back to the 16th century, where the sultan was a caliph for the part of the Muslim lands under his control. From Russia, the exiled Enlightenment leaders espousing Pan-Turkism fled to Istanbul, where a powerful Pan-Turkic movement rose. From that time, the Turkish Pan-Turkic movement grew into a nationalistic, ethnically-oriented replacement of the Caliphate by a worldwide state. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire with its multi-cultural and multi-ethnic population, influenced by emerging racial theories and Turkish nationalism of the Young Turks, some tried to replace the lost empire with a new Turkish commonwealth. But leaders such as Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) acknowledged that such a goal was impossible at the time and reluctantly replaced Pan-Turkic idealism with solely Anatolian nationalism aimed at preservation of an Anatolian nucleus instead of global imperial pretenses.

The Türk Yurdu Dergisi or the Journal of the Turkish Homeland was established in 1911 by Yusuf Akçura. This was the most important Turkist publication of the time, "in which, along with other Turkic exiles from Russia, [Akçura] attempted to instill a consciousness about the cultural unity of all Turkic peoples of the world."

One of the most significant early exponents of pan-Turkism was Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Ottoman Minister of War and acting Commander-in-Chief during World War I. He later became one of the leaders of the national-liberation Basmachi uprising (1916–1942) against the Russian Empire and Soviet Russian rule in Central Asia.

The last episode in the history of Pan-Turkism played out during WWII, when the Nazis attempted to undermine Soviet unity under a flag of Pan-Turkism in their fight with the USSR. The German intrigues, however, did not bear any results.

While of little impact during much of the 20th century, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 20th century meant that the majority of the Turkic peoples were suddenly again able to exert considerable independence in business and political endeavours.

The aim of all Turks is to unite with the Turkic borders. History is affording us today the last opportunity. In order for the Islamic world not to be forever fragmented it is necessary that the campaign against Karabagh be not allowed to abate. As a matter of fact drive the point home in Azeri circles that the campaign should be pursued with greater determination and severity.

Today, many new Pan-Turkic movements and organizations are concentrating on economic integration of the 7 sovereign Turkic states, and hope to achieve an economic-political union very similar to the European Union.

Turkey's role

Turkey has become a major business partner to many Central Asian Turkic states, helping with the reform of higher education, the introduction of the Latin alphabet, economic development and commerce. However, these efforts have not met the expectations of either the Turkic states nor the Pan-Turkist sentiment in Turkey. For example:

• Housing projects of modest size promised to the Crimean Tatars have not been completed after many years.
• Although Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan have switched to the Latin alphabet, their new alphabets are not as compatible with the Turkish alphabet as Turkey hoped. Kazakhstan considered switching to the Latin alphabet from Cyrillic, but abandoned the project in December 2007. Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, has never seriously considered adopting the Latin alphabet – although the idea had been mooted among some politicians in the first few years of independence. Additionally, other problems persist, such as lack or delay of the printing and teaching materials.

Criticism

Pan-Turkism is and has tended to be a movement viewed with suspicion by many, often perceived as nothing else but a new form of Turkish imperial ambition. Some view the movement as racist and chauvinistic, especially, because of the Young Turk leaders who saw Pan-Turkist ideologies as a way to reclaim the prestige that the Ottoman Empire once held. Some scholars believe that Pan-Turkism was the guiding principle that led to ethnic cleansing such as the: Armenian Genocide, Greek genocide and Assyrian genocide.

Criticism among Turkic peoples

Some Turkic people consider that Pan-Turkism is a Turkish fascist policy that aimed to settle Turkish migrants in other Turkic-speaking countries and Turkey is a chauvinist country that performed many genocides and forced assimilation of ethnic minorities. They resist Turkish policy to dominate in other Turkic-speaking countries.

Genocide Connection

Pan-Turkism is seen as a possible direct cause for the Armenian Genocide of 1915, in which Enver Pasha was involved, as an attempt to remove non-Muslim minorities from the late Ottoman Empire in order to foster a new Pan-Turkic state. The Greek genocide is a term used by some academics to refer to the fate of the Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during and in the aftermath of World War I and the ensuing Greco-Turkish War from 1914 to 1923. Like Armenians and Assyrians, the Greeks were subjected to various forms of persecution including massacres, expulsions, and death marches by the Ottoman government. George W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office, among other diplomats, noted the massacres and deportations of Greeks during the post-Armistice period. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Greeks may have died during this period as a result of these persecutions. There were population exchanges between Greece and Turkey in 1923 after the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). A majority of the exchange was unofficial, which made Turks and Greeks flee from Greece and Turkey respectively in a chaotic fashion. The chaotic nature of the population exchange left many people unaccounted for, which made some scholars assume a more brutal and ideologically motivated expulsion of Greeks from Turkey. Alongside the Armenian and Greek genocides, the Assyrian genocide took place at the hands of the Three Pashas regime of the Ottoman Empire. By 1922, in a memorandum from the Assyro-Chaldean National Council, an estimate of approximately 275,000 Assyrians were killed.

Nazi Germany and Pan-Turkism

In the 1940s, the Pan-Turkist also absorbed Nazi propaganda. Nihal Atsız, a prominent ideologue, advocated Nazi doctrines while advocating a Hitler-style haircut and mustache. Alparslan Türkeş, a leading Pan-Turkist took a pro-Hitler position during the war and established close connections with Nazi leaders in Germany. Several pan-Turkic groups in Europe seemed to have maintained ties with Nazi Germany or its supporters at the start of the war, if not earlier. The Turco-Tatars in Romania had cooperated with the Iron Guard, a Nazi inspired organization. Although Turkish government archives for the period of WWII have not been released, the level of contact can be ascertained from accurately German archives. During the early days of the War, publicly and officially, the government of Turkey maintained strict neutrality. In practice, however, there has been confidential semi-official contacts between both Germany and in Turkey, since 1941.

There was also great sympathy for Germany in Turkey at the time. A ten-year Turco-German 'Treaty of Friendship' was signed in Ankara on 18 January. A series of official and semi-official meeting of German ambassador to Ankara, Franz von Papen, and several other German officials on one side and Turkish officials including General H.E. Erkilet, himself of Tatar origin and frequent contributor to pan-Turkic journals took place in the second half of 1941 and early months of 1942. Others included from the Turkish were General Ali Fuad Erdem, and Nuri Pasha, the brother of Enver Pasha, who is a romantic figure fore pan-Turkists.

While Erkilet discussed military contingencies, Nuri Pasha offered the Germans his plans for creating independent states which were to be allies but not satellites of Turkey. These states were to be formed from the Turkic speaking population in Crimea, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, northwest Iran and northern Iraq. Nuri Pasha himself offered to assist with propaganda activities to this effect. However, Turkey had also a fear for Turkic minorities of the USSR and told von Papen that it could not join Germany until the USSR was crushed. The Turkish government was possibly apprehensive of the USSR's might. Thus various pressure failed to bring the Turkish government to join the war during the period. At less official levels, emigrants from Turkic groups in the Soviet Union, played a crucial role in some of the negotiations and contacts of Turkey and Germany. Among these were pan-Turkic activists such as Zeki Velidi Togan, Mammed Amin Rasulzade, Mirza Bala, Ahmet CafarOglu, Sayid Shamil and Ayaz Ishaki. Several Tatars, organized military units of Turkic speakers in Turco-Tatar and Caucasian regions from the prisoner of wars and these joined the war against the USSR, generally fighting as guerrillas. Many of them imbued with hopes of independence and several of these units aspired for a pan-Turkic union. The units which were continuously reinforced numbered several hundred thousands of people of Turkic origin. What is clear is that Turkey adopted a cautious approach at the government level, however pan-Turkist groups were exasperated by the Turkish government's inaction and by what they manifestly regarded as the waste of a golden opportunity in the realization of the goals of pan-Turkism.

Historiography

Pan-Turkism and nationalist historiography has been used to deny the identity of Armenians and Kurds. At the same time, various revisionist claims were made on ancient peoples of the region and beyond.

Turkic nationalist historiography and ideology

See also: Turkish nationalism and Azerbaijani nationalism

File:Pan-Turkist map.jpg

Pan-Turkist map

File:Pan-Turkist map of Russia.jpg

Pan-Turkist map

Most of the Turkic peoples settled in presesent-day territories during the Turkic migrations by assimilating or pushing previous settlers and issue of indigeneity is major problem for Turkic nationalist historiography and ideology. Many historical researches of Turkic writeres considered as falsifiactions.

They hold view that all great civilizations—Minoan, Chinese, Indian, Muslim, even ancient Egyptian, and Etruscan—were of Turkic origin". Also US President Barack Obama claimed of Turkic origin by Kairat Zakiryanov, President of Kazakhstan Academy of Tourism and Sport, because Barak sultan of the Kazakh Middle juz and Barack Obama have same name. K. Zakiryanov considers that gene pools among the Japanese and Kazakh populations are same.

The Turkic nationalist writers trying to create another version of the Turkic migration theory and confirm that the Turkic peoples are indigenous population of Anatolia and other regions which later inhabited by the Turkic migrants (see Anatolianism). The essence of propaganda aims to prove that the ancient Turkic peoples arrived in unhabited territories or they continuously living in Anatolia, Central Asia and other regions since prehistoric times.

According to their view, almost whole prehistoric, ancient and medieval Central and Western Asia, and part of Eastern Europe have been inhabited by the Turkic people, from Anatolia to Northeast China and from tundra to Yellow River. Pan-Turkic writers consider that almost all of Central Asian and Southern Siberian archaeological cultures, and number of Eastern European and Western Asian archaeological cultures belong to the Turkic people.

Turkic nationalist writers providing a propaganda that Eurocentrist colonial regime falsificated and divided their history profitably to above mentioned ethnicities so the Turkic peoples must return the "Turkic" territories inhabited by above mentioned peoples and restore historic justness.

The Sun Language Theory that proposed that all human languages are descendants of one proto-Turkic primal language developed by Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the 1930s.

Some Turkic scientists trying to rewrite history of another Turkic people to glorify its nation. For example, in 2013 Kazakhstan's historian, turkologist and archeologist Karjaubai Sartkojauly proposed that Old Turkic alphabet written by the Kipchak language (language of the Kazakh people) but world scientists generally accepted that Old Turkic alphabet written by another Turkic languages. Also in 2012 Kyrgyzstan's site accused Kazakhs and Uzbeks of stealing history of the Kyrgyzs. Kyrgyz author says "If they need anything, they just steal it".

Many Uyghur people believe that Indo-European speaking Tocharians were direct ancestors of the Uyghurs but world scholars do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from them and even the old Uyghur Khaganate. Rather, they consider them to be descendants of a number of people, one of them the ancient Uyghurs because these three ethnic groups are linguistically and genetically very different. Uyghur nationalism assosiates with rights of indigeneity in Xinjiang.

Turkmenistan's scientist O.Odekov suggests that an ancestor of the Scandinavians and Ainu people are Turkmens.

In 2014 Kazakhstan's journalists informed that Kazakhstan's scientists and genealogists going to prove that Buddha has Kazakh origin.

Viewpoint on Armenian history

Clive Foss, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has done extensive archeological work in Turkey and is an expert on ancient Armenian coinage. In his article,"The Turkish View of Armenian History: A Vanishing Nation", he notes that the Turkish government had been "systematically changing the names of villages to make them more Turkish. Any name which does not have a meaning in Turkish, or does not sound Turkish, whatever its origin, is replaced by a banal name assigned by a bureau in Ankara, with no respect to local conditions or traditions". He also notes that the Turkish government: "presented ambiguously, without clear identification of their builders, or as examples of the influence of the superiority of Turkish architecture. In all this, a clear line is evident: the Armenian presence is to be consigned, as far as possible, to oblivion".

Among the books he criticizes, Foss notes that the book written in Turkey by Cemal Anadol and titled 1982: The Armenian File in the Light of History claims that the Iranian Scythians and Parthians as Turks. At the same time, Cemal Anadol claims that Armenians welcomed the Turks in the region, their language is a mixture with no roots, their alphabet is mixed, with 11 characters being from ancient Turkic alphabet. Clive Foss states that to call the Turkish revisionism on Armenian history as "historical revisionism" is an understatement, noting that "Turkish writings have been tendentious: history has been viewed as performing a useful service, proving or supporting a point of view, and so it is treated as something flexible which can be manipulated at will".

He concludes with: "The notion, which seems well established in Turkey, that the Armenians were a wandering tribe without a home, who never had a state of their own, is of course entirely without foundation in fact. The logical consequence of the commonly expressed view of the Armenians is that they have no place in Turkey, and never did. The result would be the same if the viewpoint were expressed first, and the history written to order. In a sense, something like this seems to have happened, for most Turks who grew up under the Republic were educated to believe in the ultimate priority of Turks in all parts of history, and to ignore Armenians all together; they had been clearly cosigned to oblivion."

Western Azerbaijan is an irredentist political concept that is used in the Republic of Azerbaijan mostly to refer to whole territory of the Republic of Armenia. Azerbaijani statements claim that the territory of the modern Armenian republic and Nagorno-Karabakh were lands that once belonged to Azerbaijanis. Its claims are primarily hinged over the contention that the current Armenian territory was under the rule of various Turkic tribes and states from the late medieval period until the Treaty of Turkmenchay signed after the Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828. The concept has received official sanction by the government of Azerbaijan, and has been used by its current president, Ilham Aliyev, who has repeatedly stated that the territory of Armenia is a part of "ancient Turk and Azerbaijani land.

The Turkish and Azerbaijan's historians claim that Armenians are not indigenous but alien in the Caucasus and Anatolia.

Ideologue views on pan-Turkism

Ziya Gökalp redefined pan-Turkism as a cultural, academic, philosophical and political concept advocating the unity and freedom of Turkic peoples.

Tsarist Russia and Soviet viewpoint on pan-Turkism

Generally, the concept of Turkism was interpreted by Tsarist Russian circles as overwhelmingly political, irredentist and aggressive. The term "Turkism" started to be used with a prefix "Pan" (from Greek meaning "all"), to create "Panturkism". The Turkic peoples of Russia began to be threatened with Turkish expansion, I. Gasprinsky and his adherents were labeled "Turkish spies". After the revolution of 1917, the attitude to Türkism did not differ from the attitude of the Imperial powers. At the 10th congress of Bolshevik Communist Party in 1921 was formulated the official doctrine where the party "condemned Panturkism as a sloping to the bourgeois-democratic nationalism". The emergence of a "Panturkism" scare in the Soviet propaganda caused "Panturkism" to become one of the most frightening political labels in the USSR. The most widespread accusation used for fatal repressions in the 1930s of the educated Tatars and other Turkic peoples was the accusation in "Panturkism".

Russia, China and Iran, claim that they perceive Panturkism as nothing else but a new form of Turkish imperial ambition. Some see it as downright racist, particularly when considering the associated racial and historical teachings. Critics also believe that the concept of Pan-Turkism is flawed because of the distinct dialects among each different Turkic people, which sometimes led to problems of understanding between people speaking different Turkic language. There is also concern over religious differences too. Although most Turks follow the Sunni sect of Islam, the Azeris of Azerbaijan are distinct in that they follow the Shi'a school. Some nationalist critics also claim that Pan-Turkists are at the fore front of major historical revisionism regarding Turkic history and world history in general. Still, proponents see Pan-Turkism as a way of increasing regional security, economic growth and as a viable bulwark against Islamist movements, by furthering secular and democratic government in the region.

Notable Pan-Turkists

• Abulfaz Elchibey
• Ahmet Ağaoğlu
• Alparslan Türkeş
• Alimardan Topchubashov
• Enver Pasha
• Fuat Köprülü
• Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız
• Isa Alptekin
• Ismail Gaspirali
• Mammad Amin Rasulzade
• Mehmet Emin Yurdakul
• Mustafa Shokay
• Nejdet Sançar
• Nuri Pasha
• Ömer Seyfettin
• Pál Teleki
• Sadri Maksudi Arsal
• Talat Pasha
• Tekin Alp
• Yusuf Akçura
• Ziya Gökalp

• Mirsaid Sultan Galiev

Quotations

• "Dilde, fikirde, işte birlik" translated "Unity of Language, Thought and Action" by Ismail Gasprinski, 1839 a Crimean Tatar and famous member of the Turanian Society

• "Bu yürüyüş devam ediyor. Türk orduları ata ruhlarının dolaştığı Altay ve Tanrı Dağları eteklerinde geçit resmi yapıncaya kadar devam edecektir." translated "This march is going on. It will continue until the Turkic Armies' parade on the foothills of Altai and Tien-Shan mountains where the souls of their ancestors stroll." Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız, a famous Pan-Turkist.

See also

• Turkic peoples
• Idel-Ural
• Altaic languages
• Chauvinism
• Ethnic nationalism
• Grey Wolves
• Nationalist Movement Party
• Hungarian Turanism
• Jobbik
• List of Turkic states and empires
• Historic states represented in Turkish presidential seal
• Pan-nationalism
• Turanid
• Ural–Altaic languages
• Turkic Council

Further reading

• Jacob M. Landau. Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation. Hurst, 1995. ISBN 1-85065-269-4

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica Entry – Pan-Turkism
• Ildiko Beller Hann – Article on Pan-Turkism
• Alan W. Fisher – 'A Model Leader for Asia, Ismail Gaspirali'
• Amir Taheri – Book Review of Sons of the Conquerors: Rise of the Turkic World
• Article on Pan-Turkism in The Tatar Gazette