PDF Dosyası - Ankara Üniversitesi Kitaplar Veritabanı

hovvever, that Atatürk had his own vision as well as the courage to pursueit. Not only that, but to inspire thousands of others, decades after hisdeath, to continue pursuing his dreara.Today's Kemalist Turkey is an expression of that dream which isnow, as it was in the beginning, attempting to assert itself and to expand.Resistance also is strong and the continuing clash of visions as to whatTurkey should look like deepens the sense of identity crises. It is an experimentin progress whose end result is not yet in sight and may neverbe resolved in a way that will satisfy ali Turks. For one of the most importantingredients of that experiment is that here is a country trying tobreak away from the imperatives of its geopolitical and cultural milieuand heritage.One may ponder vvhether Kemalist secularism can wrench a countrythat is predominantly in Asia not only geopolitically but also in tradition,culture and religion and push it into another cultural dimension and timeframe. The question receives further significance when one comtemplatesa comparison between Turkey and her neighbours, the Arabs and the Iranians.As a revolution from above, it has inspired not only successivegenerations of Turkish leaders but other Middle Eastern leaders as well.Yet it remains a unique experiment whose majör features have survivedits founder.Kemalism survives today in a tradition that continues to insist on distancingTurkey from its regional cultural context and the traditional religiosityof the people. Along with the attempt at this distancing has beenan attempt at the Turkifıcation of islam 6 .Atatürk also introduced the concept that change is an absolute necessityfor survival. "Change or Perish" he advocated, relying on the state asthe instrument to induce change. This in itself was yet another revolutionaryconcept he introduced. The traditional Middle East government keptaloof from any attempt at introducing change or interfering in the lives ofits people: its functions rarely exceeding being that of a policeman maintainingorder and a tax collector replenishing the treasury of the state.Neither function endeared it to its subjects.The Leader dropped a rock in a quiet pool. It is indeed diffıcult toenumerate the many svveeping changes he brought about. In an "other directed"society that received its inspiration from tradition and religioussources, he attempted to introduce western rationalism to the engineeringof life. The national approach, socio-politically and economically speak-6. See the editorial in Hurriyat, stating that "...The Turks are no longer followers of theArabs. They depend on their own interpretation of islam..." quoted in al-Dustur, Amman,January 17, 1998, p. 17.88