70522, Political History of modern Turkey
Department of Turkish Studies and Modern Asian Studies
Course 70522, Political History of modern Turkey, 5 ECTS, 2nd semester.
Tutor: A. Deriziotis, Lecturer
Email: aderiziot@turkmas.uoa.gr
Aims and Objectives
This course explores Turkish modern history, from a political perspective, from the early twentieth century until the present times. Following the 1923 foundation of the republic, Turkey embarked on a series of reforms to modernize the state, and also to reorient it politically and culturally towards the west. The unprecedented changes of this period and the debatable results it produced have put their mark on the political developments of the decades that followed, making Turkey a unique example in the area of the east Mediterranean Sea.
The course will provide the students with a view into the birth and the evolution of political institutions, through the analysis of the political environment, the socio-economic factors, the formation of ideologies in a parliamentary republic political system.
Course contents
1. Introduction
From the late Ottoman period to the Republic
The subject area provides the students with an overview of:
i) The efforts of Sultans Selim III and Mahmud II for the modernization of the Ottoman empire, through reforms.
ii) The Tanzimat period and the changes it brought on the political and social framework of the Ottoman empire, through the reforms of the Hattı Şerif and HattıHümayun decrees.
iii) AbdülhamidII years (1876-1909) and the rise of the concept of pan-islamism and the political developments in the empire.
2. Turkish nationalism and the World Wars
This subject area is focusing on the political developments in the period between 1914 and 1945.
i) Pan-turkism, the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress
ii) World War I and the birth of the Republic
iii) The Interwar period and World War II
3. Kemalism, the kemalist state and multiparty governments
i) Kemalist ideology - the six arrows
ii) The Kemalist state from 1937 until 1982 - the students will study the formation and transformations of the kemalist state, in relation to the transition to a multiparty political system, to global ideological movements and to the political developments of the period.
4. The post-kemalist state
i) The 1980 coup d’etat, the 1982 constitution and the mixture of turkish-islamic synthesis, nationalism and Kemalism
ii) Turgut Özal and the end of the Cold War politics
iii) Political islam and the rise of AKP
Course assessment
Oral midterm exam (30%), written assignement (70%).
Essay subjects are assigned by the lecturer. The essays must be 4000 words long (+/-10%) and comply with the following standards:
Font: Times New Roman
Line spacing: double
Alignment: justified
Use of footnotes and bibliography
The essays will be submitted electronically at a designated date
Further details may be provided during classes, if required.
Bibliography
Bozarslan, H., Histoire de la Turquie contemporaine, La Découverte
Lewis, B., The Emergence of Modern Turkey, Vol I-II, Oxford University Press
Mango, A., Atatürk, (London: J. Murray, 1999)
Shaw, S.J. and Shaw, E.K., History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Reform and Revolution (London: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Zürcher, E.J., Turkey, a Modern History, I.B. Tauris
Zürcher, E.J., The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, I.B. Tauris
Ahmad, F., The Making of Modern Turkey, Routledge
Ahmad, F., The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, 1950-1975, C. Hurst and Co
Harris, G. and N. Bilge Criss, Studies in Atatürk’s Turkey, Brill
Landau, J.M., Pan-Turkism – From irredentism to Cooperation, Hurst and Co
Karpat, K.H., Studies on Turkish Politics and Society, Brill
Deringil, S., The Well-Protected Domains, I.B. Tauris
Ter-Matevosyan, V., Turkey, Kemalism and the Soviet Union, Palgrave – McMillan