From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic

by Hakan Ozoglu Ph.D.

Overview

This insightful analysis looks at the power struggles of 1920–1926, a time during which the Ottoman Empire was replaced by a secular and modernist Turkish nationalist regime.

Covering a short but eventful period in Ottoman/Turkish history From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic focuses on three major political and judicial maneuvers to demonstrate how opposition to and within the emerging Turkish regime was addressed during those pivotal years, and how the resulting power struggle contributed to the form of the new state that arose.

The analysis begins in 1918 when the Ottoman Empire, having lost World War I, was waiting for its fate to be determined by the Allied Powers. The book examines the original intentions and vision of Mustafa Kemal (later known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk), as well as the effects of the Kurdish uprising in 1925, which helped the new regime silence its critics. The ongoing power struggles and their consequences are examined through 1927, after which the new regime quashed any and all opposition, enabling the new Turkish Republic to emerge as a staunchly secular, modernizing Western state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313379567
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/24/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Hakan Özoglu is associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL.

Table of Contents

Preface
1 Introduction
2 Opposition to Ankara: The Case of the 150ers
3 Opposition in Ankara: Transition to the Single-Party System
4 Opposition at Large: The Izmir Assassination Plot and the Conspiracy Trials
5 Concluding Remarks
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Mete Tunçay

"Dr.Özoğlu has written a very interesting account of the transition to a single-party autocracy in Turkey in the early 20s. As the historiography of that period in our past is laden with an uncritical appraisal, his meticulous approach is to be highly appreciated."

Hamit Bozarslan

"Thanks to his careful reading of original documents, testimonies and memoirs, Prof. Hakan Özoğlu sheds a new and critical light on the formative-years of the Kemalist Republic in Turkey. This brilliant volume shows that the power struggle between the still fragile Kemalist regime and opposition groups which reached its acme in 1926, went hand-in-hand with a real power-building process. There is no doubt that this highly important contribution to the study of the modern Turkey will also interest many scholars working on the dynamics of authoritarian regimes throughout the 20th Century."

Mete Tunçay

"Dr.Özoğlu has written a very interesting account of the transition to a single-party autocracy in Turkey in the early 20s.
As the historiography of that period in our past is laden with an uncritical appraisal, his meticulous approach is to be highly appreciated."