Contemporary Turkish historiography on the intellectual heritage of the leaders of political Turkism

The subject of the review is the problem of cultural unity of the Turkic peoples of the Ottoman and Russian Empires in the works of the major ideologists of political Turkism – Yusuf Akcura, Ziya Gekalp, Ahmet-Zaki Validi and Nihal Atsyz – and its coverage in modern Turkish historiography. The article analyzes how contemporary scientists present the ideas of those political figures about the mechanisms for achieving the unity of the Turkic world. It is noted that the topic arouses increased interest of the scientific community in the Republic of Turkey in connection with its currentforeign policy course. Itis concluded that foreign researchers see the cultural and political unity of the Turkic peoples of the Ottoman and Russian Empires as one of the central themes in the works of these ideologists of Turkism, but they differ in their understanding of the mechanisms and the ultimate ideal. It is noted that the imaginary ideal was the Ottoman Empire or the Turkic civilization. The problem is that the works of the Turkists do not propose any holistic mechanisms for the formation of a unified Turkic world. With regard to academic discourse, it is worth noting that the scientific study of the works of these theorists is of an applied nature, related to the formation of modern common Turkic identity. However, some Turkish scientific research does not avoid critical reflection on the debate regarding the authenticity of common Turkic mythology, the competent use of Turkic terminology in the context of common Turkic history and concerning the contradictions identified within the reconstructed discourse of the Turkists.

1. Akarslan, Z. (2022), “Zeki Velidî Togan’ın 1928–1932 Yılları Arasında Yayınlanan Bazı Makaleleri Üzerine İncelemeler [Studies on some articles by Z. Zeki Velidi Togan published between 1928–1932]”, Asya Studies-Academic Social Studies, Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar, vol. 6, no. 19, pp. 215–220.

2. Alieva, S.I. (2016), “The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Mountain Republic in the foreign policy of Turkey (based on Russian archival materials)”, Vestnik Maikopskogo gosudarstvennogo tekhnologicheskogo universiteta, no. 3, pp. 11–20.

3. Arıkan, M. (2017), “Bir Halk Bilimci Olarak Zeki Velidi Togan [Zeki Velidi Togan as a folklorist]”, Türk Dünyası Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi [Journal of Language and Literature of the Turkish World], no. 44, pp. 35–55.

4. Aydıngün, A. and Aydıngün, I. (2004), “The role of language in the formation of Turkish national identity and Turkishness”, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 415–432.

5. Aydoğan, E. (2010), “Ziya Gökalp’in ölümünün türk kamuoyu ve basindaki yansimalari [The reflections of Ziya Gökalp’s death in Turkish public opinion and the press]”, Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi [Journal of the Institute of Social Sciences, Atatürk University], vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 177–190.

6. Avatkov, V.A. and Guzaerov, R.I. (2023), “The construction of social reality in the Turkic space. The ethnolinguistic aspect”, Svobodnaya mysl’, vol. 1700, no. 4, pp. 69–76.

7. Avatkov, V.A. and Sbitneva, A.I. (2022), “New nationalism of Turkish Republic”, RUDN Journal of Political Science, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 291–302.

8. Boza, B. (2022),“Hüseyin Nihal Atsız’ın Romanlarında Evren Tasarimi [The conception of the universe in Hüseyin Nihal Atsız’s novels]”, in VI. Uluslararası Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Öğrenci Kongresi TUDOK, 13–16 Haziran 2021 [6th International Student Congress on Turkish Language and Literature TUDOK, June 13–16, 2021], İstanbul, Türkiye, pp. 1131–1140.

9. Dalgiç, O.K. (2018), Ziya Gökalpin Türk milli kimliği algısı ve Türkçülük anlayışı [Ziya Gökalp’s perception ofTurkish national identity and his understanding ofTurkism], Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Mersin, Turkey.

10. Galiakbarova, N.M. (2008), “Ideology of Pan-Turkism during the Second World War in the works of modern Turkish researchers”, Ural’skoe vostokovedenie, iss. 3, no. 3, pp. 155–164.

11. Gökhan, E. (2017), “Yusuf Akçura’nın “Üç Tarz-i Siyaset” Adlı Eserinin Türk Siyasal Hayatına Yansımaları: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi Örneği [The reflections of Yusuf Akçura’s work ‘Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset’ on Turkish political life: The case of the Nationalist Movement party]”, The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies, vol. 5, no. 58, pp. 421–435.

12. Güngör, B. (2024), “Ziya Gökalp’in Türkçü Estetiği Yahut ‘Bedii Türkçülük’ [Ziya Gökalp’s nationalist aesthetics, or ‘Artistic Turkism’]”, Türk Dili [Turkish Language], no. 874, pp. 100–108.

13. Kaya, Ö. (2017), “ ‘Türk Kahramanı’ nı Yeniden Yazmak: Ziya Gökalp’in Politik Övgü Şiirleri [Rewriting the ‘Turkish Hero’: Ziya Gökalp’s political panegyric poems]”, Monograf, no. 8, pp. 59–81.

14. Kıcıroğlu, N.F. (2019), “Türk Edebiyatını Ne Yana Yaslamalı? Nihal Atsız’ın Milli Kanonu [Against what should Turkish literature be leaned? Nihal Atsız’s national canon]”, Eğitim Bilim Toplum [Education Science Society], vol. 17, no. 66, pp. 31–54.

15. Kınacı, B. C. (2024), “Ziya Gökalp’ın Vefatının 100. Yılı Anısına”, in 5. Uluslararası Türk Dünyası Eğitim Bilimleri ve Sosyal Bilimler Kongresi, 21–24 Kasım 2024 [The 5th International Congress of Educational Sciences and Social Sciences of the Turkic World, November 21–24, 2024], Antalya, Turkey, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 46–55.

16. Köse, S. (2016), “Mitoloji ve şiir: uygulamalı halk bilimi bağlamında Ziya Gökalp’ın şiirlerinde Türk mitik tasarımı [Mythology and Poetry: The Turkish Mythic Conception inZiyaGökalp’sPoemsin the Context of AppliedFolklore]”, in İsmail Çetişli Hatira Kitabı [Book in Memory of İsmail Çetişli], Ankara, Türkiye, pp. 301–311.

17. Özkan, Ö. (2019), “Nihâl Atsiz’in Bilim Insani Kimliği ve Türk Basinin Nihâl Atsız’a Yönelik Yaklaşimi [Nihâl Atsız’s identity as a scientist and the Turkish press’s approach toward Nihâl Atsız]”, Social Sciences, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 937–962.

18. Ryosuke, O. (2016), “Zeki Velidi Togan’ın Viyana’daki İlk Günleri (1932–1933) [Zeki Velidi Togan’s first days in Vienna (1932–1933)]”, in Kırkambar 2013 [Kırkambar 2013], Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, Türkiye, pp. 297–332.

19. Senyutkina, O.N. (2007), Tyurkizm kak istoricheskoe yavlenie (na materialakh istorii Rossiiskoi imperii 1905–1916 gg.) [Turkism as a historical phenomenon (based on the materials of the History of the Russian Empire, 1905–1916)], Medina, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

20. Sertkaya, O.F. (2014), Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız: hayatı ve eserleri [Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız: life and writings], Ötüken, İstanbul, Turkey.

21. Tunjer, B. (1998), Zaki Validi Togan [Zaki Validi Togan], Kitap, Ufa, Russia.

22. Tunçbilek, Ş.S. (2024), “Aksâ-yı Şark Medeniyetinde Ongun, Kut ve Yağma Toyu: Ziya Gökalp’in Türk Harsı Arayışı [Ongun, Kut, and the Yağma Feast in the civilization of the Far East: Ziya Gökalp’s quest for Turkish national culture (Hars)]”, Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi [Afyon Kocatepe University Journal of Social Sciences], vol. 25, pp. 346–360.

23. Türkman, S. (2010), “Yusuf Akçura ve Ziya Gökalp [Yusuf Akçura and Ziya Gökalp]”, Atatürk Dergisi [Ataturk Magazine], vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 135–161.

24. Yılmaz, M. (2015), “Nihâl Atsız’ın Târih Algısı ve Türk Târihi Hakkındaki Görüşleri [Nihâl Atsız’s perception of history and his views on Turkish history]”, Electronic Turkish Studies, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 469–484.