Fear, Superiority, Self-Identification and Rejection: Turks' Different Attitudes to Europe since the Late Ottoman Era. Issue 5 (2nd September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ruacan, Ipek Z.
• Is Part Of: Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern studies. Volume 22:Issue 5(2020)
• Page Start: 684
• Page End: 700
• Publication Date: 2020-09-02
• Subjects: Balkan Peninsula -- Periodicals; Balkan Peninsula -- Statistics -- Periodicals; Middle East -- Periodicals; 949.6
• DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2020.1799298
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1944-8953

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This contribution identifies four Turkish attitudes towards Europe from the late nineteenth century onwards: self-identification with Europe, fear of Europe, superiority over Europe and becoming local/national which implies a rejection of Europe. It then links these four attitudes to four types of forgetting the Ottoman past. The main argument is that the peculiar rise of neo-Ottomanism in Turkey today is evidence of a conservative trauma that follows the fourth type of forgetting—a painful and permanent trauma where the conservative cannot achieve closure with the past. The current Turkish government's use of neo-Ottomanism utilizes the superiority over Europe and becoming local/national attitudes especially and attempts to maintain an anachronistic identity as the conservatives in Turkey fail to achieve closure with the Ottoman past.