Reading the Inheritance of the Unforgivable with Derrida: ‘One Nation, One Language, One State’ and ‘One Religion’

PDF
Published: Dec 30, 2024
Keywords:
Latin alphabet Turkey Jacques Derrida inheritance autoimmunity cultural amnesia nationalism Kurdish identity language policy Republican ideology AKP (Justice and Development Party) Turkification monolingualism modernity collective memory secularism ethnic homogenization cultural transformation Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Turkish nationalism alphabet reform Kurdish assimilation
Ebru Öztürk
Mid Sweden University
Abstract

This article explores the consequences of the Latin alphabet’s implementation in Turkey in 1928 and the imposed homogenisation processes that underwent through the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish nation-state in Turkey. Jacques Derrida’s ‘quasi-concepts’ of inheritance, autoimmunity, democracy to come, forgiving and the mondialatinisation (globalatinisation)—adding depth in discerning Turkish politics—are being discussed. The prevailing political position of AKP, Turkey’s ruling party, is scrutinised to deconstruct the Republican heritage. This paper argues that AKP ‘reaffirms’ the Republican ideology from which it inherits its legacy.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The copyright for articles in this journal is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution. Synthesis retains the worldwide right to reproduce, display, distribute, and use published articles in all formats and media, either separately or as part of collective works for the full term of copyright. This includes but is not limited to the right to publish articles in an issue of the Journal, copy and distribute individual reprints of the articles, authorize reproduction of articles in their entirety, and authorize reproduction and distribution of articles or abstracts thereof by means of computerized retrieval systems.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Author Biography
Ebru Öztürk, Mid Sweden University

Ebru Öztürk is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Mid Sweden University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of religious conversion, ontological security, and the dynamics of populism and nationalism, with a particular focus on the interplay between religion, ethnicity, and gender. She holds a doctoral degree from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris.

References
Altuğ, Seda. “New Turkey: Regional Aspiration and National Anxiety.” Journal of Genocide Research, vol. 24, no. 2, 2022, pp. 182-194.
Badiou, Alan. “Homage to Derrida.” Adieu Derrida, edited Costas Douzinas, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 34-46.
Balibar, Etienne. “Racism and Nationalism.” Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities, edited by Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Verso, 1991, pp. 37-67.
Beardsworth, Richard. Derrida and the Political. Routledge, 1996.
Bernstein, Richard J. “Derrida: The Aporia of Forgiveness?” Constellations, vol. 13, no. 3, 2006, pp. 394-406.
Boudou, Benjamin. “La traversée du politique: Derrida et Ricœur entre pureté de la philosophie et tragique de l’action.” Raisons Politiques, vol. 45, 2012, pp. 211-233.
Cherif, Mustapha. Islam and the West: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida. Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan, University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Derrida, Jacques. “Faith and Knowledge.” Religion, edited by Jacques Derrida and Gianni Vattimo, translated by David Webb, Stanford UP, 1998, pp. 1-78.
—. “Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority.’” Translated by Mary Quaintance. Cardozo Law Review, vol. 11, no. 5-6, 1990, pp. 920-945.
—. Monolingualism of the Other; or, the Prosthesis of Origin. Translated by Patrick Mensah, Stanford UP, 1998.
—. Rogues: Two Essays on Reason. Translated by Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas, Stanford UP, 2005.
—. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International. Translated by Peggy Kamuf, Routledge, 1994.
—. “Politics of Friendship.” American Imago, vol. 50, no. 3, 1993, pp. 353-391.
—. Voyous: deux essais sur la raison. Galilée, 1996,
Derrida, Jacques and Michel Wieviorka. Foi et savoir. Suivi de Le Siècle et le Pardon, Seuil, 2001.
Derrida, Jacques, and Élisabeth Roudinesco. For What Tomorrow: A Dialogue. Translated by Jeff Fort, Stanford UP, 2004.
Demirel, Ahmet. Birinci Meclis’te Muhalefet “İkinci Grup.” İletişim Yayınları, 2011.
Fishman, Joshua A. Language and Ethnicity in Minority Sociolinguistic Perspective. Multilingual Matters Ltd., 1988.
Gaunt, David. “The Long Assyrian Genocide.” Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, edited by S. H. Astourian and R. H. Kévorkian, Berghahn Books, 2021, pp. 56-96.
Göle, Nilüfer. The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. University of Michigan Press, 1996.
Haddad, Samir. Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy. Indiana UP, 2013.
Kogacioglu, Dicle. “The Tradition Effect: Framing Honor Crimes in Turkey.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, vol. 15, no. 2, 2004, pp. 119–151.
Malabou, Catherine and Jacques Derrida. Counterpath: Travelling with Jacques Derrida. Translated by David Wills, Stanford UP, 2004.
McDowall, David. A modern History of the Kurds. 1997. I. B. Tauris, 2004.
McHoul, Alec, and Wendy Grace. The Foucault Primer: Discourse, Power and the Subject. Melbourne UP, 1993.
Naas, Michael. “‘One nation…indivisible’: Jacques Derrida on the Autoimmunity of Democracy and the Sovereignty of God.” Research in Phenomenology, vol. 36, no. 1, 2006, pp. 15-44.
Rancière, Jacques. “Does Democracy Mean Something?” Adieu Derrida, edited by Costas Douzinas, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 84-100.
Simsir, Bilal. Kürtçülük – I: 1787–1923, Vol. II. Bilgi yayinevi, 2007.
Sungun (Öztürk), Ebru. “Language as a Means of ‘Civilizing’ Kurdish Women in Turkey.” Social Inequality & the Politics of Representation: A global Landscape, edited by Pascale Celine-Marie, Sage, 2013, pp. 229-242.
White, Paul. Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?: The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey. Zed Books, 2000.