White Turks

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White Turks ( Turkish Beyaz Türkler ) is a political catchphrase used in Turkey for the urban republican elite . White Turks stand in an imaginary contrast to the so-called Black Turks ( Kara Türkler or Siyah Turkler ), which is used to describe Turks of Anatolian origin who are influenced by Islam .

The pair of terms is related to the development of a middle class since the end of the 20th century and is an expression of an elite consciousness and also a despicability of a section of the population that is perceived as backward. Efforts to civilize have been part of the imagination of all Turkish elites since the Tanzimat reforms. The journalist Ufuk Güldemir is considered to be the inventor of the term in his book “Teksas Malatya” from 1992. With the term “White Turks”, he wanted to describe an old elite , analogous to the American White Anglo-Saxon Protestant , who because of the then Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal whose Kurdish origin, religiosity and lack of military service rejected. The term was subsequently taken up by the sociologist Nilüfer Göle , popularized by Turkish columnists and used by journalists and political scientists to denote various social milieus in Turkey.

In an ironic approach to the pair of terms, Mümin Sekman wrote in his book Türk Usulü Başarı from 2001, among other things, Black Turks listened to arabesque music , but white Turks listened to Western music. The marriages of Black Turks would be arranged , White Turks chose their partners themselves. White Turks were found at airports, Black Turks preferred bus stations. The editor-in-chief of Hürriyet , Ertuğrul Özkök , counts himself among the White Turks and describes them as follows: “They live mainly in coastal regions and are sensitive when it comes to secularism. They drink alcohol, have a high purchasing power, a Western lifestyle and the women do not wear headscarves. ”The then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described himself as a Black Turk.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kerem Çalışkan: Beyaz Türkler - Kara Türkler . ntvmsnbc.com. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  2. ^ Kulturkampf - “White Turks” against “Maganda” By Tanil Bora, inamo issue 67 - autumn 2011
  3. ↑ Ufuk Güldemir: Teksas Malatya. Tekin Yayınevi Publishing House, 1992. ISBN 978-9754781038
  4. ↑ White Turks, Black Turks and gray debate ( Memento from June 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Özgür Ögret, Hürriyet Daily News November 22, 2010
  5. ^ La troisième génération de la grande bourgeoisie turque David Behar, Cahiers de la Méditerranée 82 | 2011
  6. ↑ Yavuz, M Hakan, "Cleansing Islam from the Public Sphere and the February 28 Process." Journal of International Affairs (Columbia University Press), Vol. 54, no. 1 (Fall 2000), pp. 21-42. ( Cleansing Islam from the public sphere ( Memento from November 10, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ))
  7. ^ Europe's Encounter with Islam: What Future? (PDF; 99 kB) Nilüfer Göle, Constellations Volume 13, No 2, 2006
  8. ^ Rainer Hermann: Where is Turkish society going ?: Kulturkampf in Turkey. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, September 2008. ISBN 978-3423246828
  9. ↑ Farewell to Efendi ( Memento from August 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) By Jürgen Springer, Christ in the present CIG 50/2009
  10. ^ Mümin Sekman: Türk Usulü Başarı. Alfa Yayınları, 2001. ISBN 9753167180
  11. ↑ How Erdogan is seen by "white Turks" by Ertugrul Özkök. Turkey's most famous journalist writes in BILD , October 31, 2011
  12. ^ Election campaign in Turkey: The answer of the black Turks ( Memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) By Rainer Hermann. FAZ , July 17, 2007