The last decade: nostalgia for the past

With the election of the Democratic Party (1946), and the introduction of the multi-party system, the emphasis given by the Kemalists to a national, secular and homogeneous culture, was slowly replaced by the emergence of a multi-focal representation of the Turkish cultural identity.

This process for redefining the nature of identity was accompanied by the re-emergence of the Islamic religion in the public arena.[30]  According to Reşat Kasaba and Sibel Bozdoğan, it was during the last decade that Turkish society went through a rapid change, which affected several aspects of public life (Kasaba and Bozdoğan, 2000). In particular, following the same authors, there are ?three areas? in which 21^st century Turkey is different from that of the 20^th. In particular, those three areas are: ethnic identity, economic development and globalization. For the scope of this analysis, it will be necessary to concentrate on the first topic. As both authors stated:  ?When the modern Republic of Turkey was established, it was assumed that ethnic, linguistic differences would disappear and there would have been an homogenous community of Turks? ((Kasaba and Bozdoğan, 2000).  History proved, on the contrary, that there was a new interest in ethnic issues, and a return of Islamic religion?s visibility in society.

Particularly meaningful was the re-examination and revaluation of the Ottoman past. The cosmopolitan nature of the Ottoman Empire and the magnificence of its capital, envisaged a feeling of nostalgia for the Ottoman era, which led to a phenomenon called ?Ottomania?[31] (Kasaba and Bozdoğan: 2000).[32]  Nonetheless, reaching back to Ottoman cosmopolitanism also served as a political discourse used both by Islamist[33] and nationalist/secularist parties, which in turn gave emphasis to the religious or ethnic component of the Ottoman society (Kasaba and Bozdoğan: 2000; Bartu: 1999; Yenişehiroğlu: 1999).  On the other hand, an essential point of this ?nostalgia? for the past is represented by a gaze back to the multiethnic nature of the Ottoman Empire, a dimension that brings us back to minority issues.[34]

[30]Islamic religion experimented a sort of political rehabilitation during the 1970s and 1980s, because both right-center and left-center secular leaders perceived religion as a potential tool in their political struggle.

[31]The phenomenon of so-called ?Ottomania? consisted of the rediscovery and reproducing of literary, musical, artistic and  architectural works,  which explicitly recalled to the time of the Empire.

[32]As the same authors note, it was after the Balkan War that people started to look at Ottoman Heritage with pride.

[33]See for example the debate that occurred in Istanbul over the Levantine Heritage (Bartu, 1999), or the debate aroused by the proposal of Ankara mayor, exponent of the Islamic party, to change the city logo from a Hittite to an Islamic symbol (Kasaba and Bozdoğan, 2000).

[34]On this topic, see Bozdogan and Kasaba?s statement : ?This growing attention that researches and writers have begun to pay to the multi-ethnic and multi-religious nature of the Ottoman Empire and how it compares with the ethnic nationalism of the modern Turkish State and intolerance of other contemporary modern nationalism? (Kasaba and Bozdoğan, 2000).