Nationalism can rear head in crisis
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 24, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - An eerily familiar pattern emerges from reactive protectionism in the face of crisis. A panel of historians remember the Turkish-Greek population exchange of 1923, and the perceived need for demographic homogeneity which may have destroyed ’cosmopolitanism for good’
A panel of Turkish, Greek and British academics has claimed that the strong nationalist sentiments like the one that resulted in the Turkish-Greek population exchange in 1923 poses a risk in times of financial crisis.
At a conference held Friday at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, the represented academics warned that such attitudes were an underlying and dangerous precept in Turkish policy.
"Turkey and Greece would both be very different places today had there been no abrupt change in demographics, said Bruce Clark, the international security editor of the Economist magazine and author of "Twice a Stranger: Greece, Turkey, and the Minorities They Expelled." The book focuses on the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which marked the end of the Turkish War of Independence, the founding of the modern Republic, and the demographic displacement of about 500,000 ethnic Turks from Greece and 1.5 million ethnic Greeks from Turkish territory.
Clark describes the Lausanne Conference as "successful in its own perverse terms." but questions the legitimacy of its basic assumptions, as nearly a century later debates on the importance of a homogenous nation are again at the forefront. In times of crisis, it is particularly easy to turn to ideas of ancient hatred, all the panelists warned. Nationalist feelings and harsh stereotypes are usually fickle and quickly formed, but a nationalism that "deals in eternal truths and almost religious value" is dangerous for the successful development of a healthy national identity, Clark said.
Population exchange
The population exchange was an essential tool in the formation of the young republic, Clark said, as it facilitated the grounding of Turkey’s "self-conscious" secularism in the fertile land of religious uniformity.
With the advance of industrialization inevitably bound to create class division and inequality, he explained, it would be easier for poorer classes to accept domination from groups religiously or ethnically similar to them, rather than foment hatred toward those perceived as foreign.
Clark sees Lausanne as an "overwhelming convergence of state interests at the cost of the lives of ordinary people" and warns that prioritizing government interests over the well-being of the people they govern is still an all-too common reality in politics today.
Harry Tzimitras, the Greek co-director of the Division of Turkish-Greek Studies at Bilgi University, noted that a confederation between Turkey and Greece had been a popular idea among academics at the turn of last century, but that the population exchange managed to turn "states against state, and parts of a nation against itself."
The academics warned against the dangers of historical determinism and short-term collective memory, which impedes people from seeing beyond present prejudices. In divided Cyprus today, the demographic group most opposed to a return to pre-1974 co-habitation are those between the ages of 18-25, the very ones who never lived among the people they have been told are different, Tzimitras explained. The professor mused that "one can’t help but be nostalgicÉ and wonder if cosmopolitanism has been lost for good."
At a conference held Friday at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, the represented academics warned that such attitudes were an underlying and dangerous precept in Turkish policy.
"Turkey and Greece would both be very different places today had there been no abrupt change in demographics, said Bruce Clark, the international security editor of the Economist magazine and author of "Twice a Stranger: Greece, Turkey, and the Minorities They Expelled." The book focuses on the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which marked the end of the Turkish War of Independence, the founding of the modern Republic, and the demographic displacement of about 500,000 ethnic Turks from Greece and 1.5 million ethnic Greeks from Turkish territory.
Clark describes the Lausanne Conference as "successful in its own perverse terms." but questions the legitimacy of its basic assumptions, as nearly a century later debates on the importance of a homogenous nation are again at the forefront. In times of crisis, it is particularly easy to turn to ideas of ancient hatred, all the panelists warned. Nationalist feelings and harsh stereotypes are usually fickle and quickly formed, but a nationalism that "deals in eternal truths and almost religious value" is dangerous for the successful development of a healthy national identity, Clark said.
Population exchange
The population exchange was an essential tool in the formation of the young republic, Clark said, as it facilitated the grounding of Turkey’s "self-conscious" secularism in the fertile land of religious uniformity.
With the advance of industrialization inevitably bound to create class division and inequality, he explained, it would be easier for poorer classes to accept domination from groups religiously or ethnically similar to them, rather than foment hatred toward those perceived as foreign.
Clark sees Lausanne as an "overwhelming convergence of state interests at the cost of the lives of ordinary people" and warns that prioritizing government interests over the well-being of the people they govern is still an all-too common reality in politics today.
Harry Tzimitras, the Greek co-director of the Division of Turkish-Greek Studies at Bilgi University, noted that a confederation between Turkey and Greece had been a popular idea among academics at the turn of last century, but that the population exchange managed to turn "states against state, and parts of a nation against itself."
The academics warned against the dangers of historical determinism and short-term collective memory, which impedes people from seeing beyond present prejudices. In divided Cyprus today, the demographic group most opposed to a return to pre-1974 co-habitation are those between the ages of 18-25, the very ones who never lived among the people they have been told are different, Tzimitras explained. The professor mused that "one can’t help but be nostalgicÉ and wonder if cosmopolitanism has been lost for good."