Uluslaşma ve Modernleşme Süreçlerinde Bir Zemberek: Türk Dil Kurultayları

Abstract

This study aims to examine the role of Turkish Language Conventions in Turkish nation-building process. The dissertation focuses specifically on the first three Turkish Language Conventions, which were held during the lifetime of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and are thematic inventories of an intense nationalization motivation, though the Conventions held between 1942 and 1960 are also included. Since nation and nationalization are narratives of the modern period, the study is based on modern nationalism theories. The afore-mentioned language conventions served as operating manuals in the implementation of the language reform, which was initiated as a state policy with the establishment of the Turkish Language Research Society (TDTC) in 1932; the building of the Turkish nation was tried to be established under the guidance of these conventions. The historical consequence and concept cartography of the phenomenon of nation, the development of the nation-state, the main characteristics of the nationalism movement and the dimensions of the nation-building process are discussed respectively at the beginning of the study. Subsequently, the dynamics that reveal Turkish nationalism are mentioned. Then, how and why the language issue was brought to the agenda of the Republic is explained by taking into account the discussions about the simplification of language during the Tanzimat and Constitutional Monarchy periods. The final part of the study discusses that the three Turkish language conventions held between 1932 and 1936 implied a mentality transformation far beyond the idea of language reform; that they were a mainspring in the paradigms of modernization and nationalization.