Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

38 islamic political identity in turkeyplace within the conWnes of state-society interactions, the process of reimaginingIslamic identity utilized the instruments of the state to redeWne the society. Thusthe primary aim of modern Islamic movements in Turkey is either to carve newspaces in society or to penetrate the state and reshape it according to their owncounteridentities and perceptions of the Seljuk and Ottoman past.Identities are very much constructed as a result of dynamic interactionsbetween agents of the state and society. To trace the historical and social lineagesof identity discourse, one needs to understand the evolution of these interactions.Print media, education, communications, and the commercializationof social relations were key factors in the expansion and consolidation of thestate in the early Republican era. This, in turn, politicized societal groups byforcing them to construct an alternative Islamic political identity to counter thepressure of the state-led “civilizing” policies. The factors that were instrumentalfor the expansion of the state, paradoxically and simultaneously, also allowedsocietal groups to penetrate the state. Since 1980, Turkey has experienced thegradual Islamization of society, the market, and the state, coinciding with theconstruction of a new oYcial Turkish-Islamic state ideology. The oYcial policy ofpromoting a “Turkish-Islamic synthesis” was meant to co-opt socially powerfulIslamic movements, whose emergence prior to the 1980 military take-over wasevident, and to use them against what in hindsight was a much-exaggerated leftist“threat.” The Republican state was transformed and in the process transformedthose Islamic groups that sought to penetrate its previously oV-limits politicalsphere. The Islamic groups, in the process of gaining access to the state, have transformedthemselves from what once were purely social groups into a complexamalgamation of sociopolitical networks. These interconnections between Islamistsand the state are dynamic and evolutionary. A closer examination of theformation of Islamic political identity and its externalization at the state leveloVers a useful prism for examining the inner dynamics of state-society interactionin contemporary Turkey.The Sources of the Ottoman StateThroughout Ottoman history (1299–1922), religion served as a mediating culturaland political bridge between the state and society. The dominant SunniMuslims of the empire shared a frame of reference based on the Qur’an andthe traditions of the Prophet, which were used to deWne notions of virtue andjustice in society. The most critical period of Ottoman state transformation tookplace in the nineteenth century. The seeds of the modern Republic were sownin this period, when Islamism was mobilized as a form of nationalism, with theaim of constructing a “Muslim nation” out of diverse ethnic groups. The Ottomanimprint on state and society created a peculiar conception of the state inmodern Turkey. The Ottoman political system was notable for its attempt tocreate independent sources of legitimacy outside the strict framework of religion.The autonomous state structure became a battleground for the formulationand implementation of modernizing reforms during the Tanzimat era