Kemalist historiography

Kemalist history textbook, used between 1931 and 1941.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, whose cult of personality is the main influence on Kemalist historiography.
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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Kemalism

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's signature

Kemalist historiography (Turkish: Kemalist tarihyazımı) is a narrative of history mainly based on a six-day speech delivered by Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk][a] in 1927,[1][2] promoted by the political ideology of Kemalism, and influenced by Atatürk's cult of personality.[3] It asserts that the Republic of Turkey represented a clean break with the Ottoman Empire, and that the Republican People's Party did not succeed the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).

Kemalist historiography views Ottoman traditions as an obstacle to the introduction of Westernising political reforms, and instead adopts the heritage of pre-Islamic Turks, which it considers to be naturally progressive, culturally pure and uncorrupted. The historiography magnifies Mustafa Kemal's role in the World War I and Turkish War of Independence, and omits or attempts to justify the suffering of religious and ethnic minorities during the late Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, often viewing them as a security threat to the state, or rebels instigated by external powers.

The mainstream historians of this historiography were centrist Kemalists particularly İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı and Enver Ziya Karal, left-wing Kemalists such as Niyazi Berkes and Mustafa Akdağ, right-wing Kemalists like Osman Turan, it was also adopted by Western historians such as Bernard Lewis who took on Kemalist ideas as it is.[4]

Today, Kemalist historiography is embraced and further developed by Turkish neo-nationalism (Ulusalcılık),[4][b] and sometimes by anti-Kemalist conservatism and Islamism, especially in the case of Armenian Genocide denial.[6]


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  1. ^ Toni Alaranta (2008) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Six‐Day Speech of 1927: Defining the Official Historical View of the Foundation of the Turkish Republic, Turkish Studies, 9:1, 115-129, doi:10.1080/14683840701814042
  2. ^ Dogan, G. (2016). "The establishment of kemalist autocracy and its reform policies in turkey". Kansas State University. "Kemalist historiography, which is based on Mustafa Kemal’s six-day speech (Nutuk) in October 1927, emphasizes the foundation of the Republic as central to Turkish history."
  3. ^ Zürcher, E. J. (1992). The Ottoman Legacy of the Turkish Republic: An Attempt at a New Periodization. Die Welt Des Islams, 32(2), 237–253. doi:10.2307/1570835 "Because of Atatürk's stature as saviour of his country and the growing personality cult which surrounded him, this version [of history] assumed the status of absolute truth."
  4. ^ a b Gürpinar, Doğan (2013). "Historical Revisionism vs. Conspiracy Theories: Transformations of Turkish Historical Scholarship and Conspiracy Theories as a Constitutive Element in Transforming Turkish Nationalism". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 15 (4): 412–433. doi:10.1080/19448953.2013.844588. S2CID 145016215.
  5. ^ Doğan Gürpınar. (2020). "Conspiracy Theories in Turkey". Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 16, p. 44
  6. ^ Anderson, Perry (2008-09-25). "After Kemal". London Review of Books. Vol. 30, no. 18. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 2021-11-30.