NYU Press Book, Top Hat, Grey Wolf And Crescent, Examines Turkish Nationalism And The Turkish Republic

In recent years, nationalism has reasserted itself globally as a potent, mobilizing political force. In Turkey, the perilous state of politics – indeed the crisis of identity in the state itself – is a symptom of the rift between the secular and Islamic nationalists, currently the focus of intense and acrimonious debate.

In Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent (300 pages/$35, cloth), published recently by the New York University Press, Hugh Poulton traces the evolution of nationalism in Turkey since the days of the Ottoman empire, through the rule of Attaturk when secularism became the binding force of a new national identity, to the present when a Westernized liberal middle class battles an increasingly powerful Islamic movement.

Poulton begins by examining nationalism as a political ideology, profiling in detail "the main contenders" in the battle for Turkey’s identity: the Top Hat (secular nationalism), the Grey Wolf (the pan-Turkist fringe), and the Crescent (pro-Islamic forces). He examines the apparent symbiosis of Turkish nationalism and Islam, which came to fore in the 1980s with the so-called Turkish Islamic synthesis, and assesses how successful this attempt to reconcile modern Turkish nationalism with Islam has been. He also looks at the rise of radical Islamism within Turkey.

Special emphasis is given to the Kurds and the growth of a militant Kurdish ethnic nationalism, the corresponding rise of the Kurdistan Workers Party of Abdullah Ocalan, and how the state has reacted to this direct challenge. Poulton also sheds light on the nationalist sentiments of Turks outside of Turkey.

Hugh Poulton is the author of Who Are the Macedonians? and the co-editor of Muslim Identity and the Balkan State, also available from the NYU Press.

10/9/97