Social and Political Thought of Ziya Gokalp, 1876-1924

SOCIAL, ECONOM1C AND POLIT1CAL STUDIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST

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ETUDES SOCIALES, ECONOMIQUES ET POLITIQUES DU MOYEN ORIENT VOLUME XXXV

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TAHA PARLA THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT OF ZIY A GOKALP 1876·1924

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LEJDEN

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BRILL

1985

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THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT OF ZiY A GOKALP 1876-1924 BY

TAHA PARLA

LEIDEN

E.]. BRILL 1985

Comue de nidocflon-Edilonol commfllee

E. GEllNER (London School of Economics), C. ISSAWI (Pnnceton University), S. KliA.t.AF (Amencan Umverslty of Beirut), M. F. Al~KHATlB (Cairo Umversity), S. MARDIN CBogaZ1t;:1 UmversilY. Istanbul), U. STEINBACH tOeutsches Orient instltut, Hamburg), M. ZGHAt (Um· vetslte de Tunis).

RMocleur-Edilor CA. O.

VAN NIEUWENHUI1ZE

Le bUi de la collecllon CSt de radliter la commumcallon entre Ie grand public internallonal et les specwlistes des SCiences socmles etudiant Ie Moyen-Onent, e! nOiammen! ceux qUi y resident. Le~ ouvrages seiecllonnes pOrlent sur les phenomenes el proble-mes contemporams: SOClaux, culturels. economlques et admmlSlralifs. Leurs prmclpales Orlentallons relevent de la IheOrle generale, de problemauQues plus preC1Ses, et de la polilologIe: amenagement des mstitutions et admlOls[ratlOn des affalres publiques. The serles IS designed to serve as a link between the mternallonal reading public and SOCIal SCientIsts studymg the contemporary Middle East, notably those liVing In the area. Works Inclu· ded are charactenzed by their relevance to actual phenomena and problems: whether SOCial, cultural, economiC, political or admmlstrallve. They are theory-onented, problem-Oriented or policY-Oriented.

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\-\\', government depanments, legislative councils, the admimstrallon of Justice and of mumclPal government, deepened the process of centralizatIon. It also introduced a new system of schools for the education of Westernized bureaucrats, institutionalizing the long process of seCUlaflZa110n In

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THE CONTEXT

modern Turkey.b Although no secularizalIon of general public educa[Jon was . 'T[~ken. these developments signified the further eclipse of the tradiuonal religlO1l5 school system tmedreses) aiong WIth the diminution of the political mfluence of the learned clergy (Ulema). \\'hat IS, however, inadequately stressed by historians IS that the TanZI/nor reforms carried out by a WesternIzed upper bureaucracy, often in conJunctlon with European powers, were takmg place In what J. C. Hurewltz has called "modernization m a closed CifCUlI. ,,, They were companmentalized into the military, adminIstrative, legal, and mstitutIona.l spheres, without corresponding modernlzauon in the social and economic fields. The resuJts, if not also the cause, was deepening economIC dependency on European capital and politIcal power as well as eventual financial bankruptcy This aspect of the TanZln1Gl did not go unnoticed by contemporary cntIcs, as It was to be one of the reasons for Ziya Gokalp 1 s condemnalIon of the Tan:'lmal elite's manner of Westernizlng.fA new bureaucratic intelligentsia that {> ~~~;;;b~l;~saresuft-·ot t-he- early TanZImal reforms now started to see the JJa~as as not only too Weststruck at the expense of traditIonal IslamIC values and national (meaning Ottoman) Interests, but also autocratlc and ",Dligarchic. The movement formed Itself into a society of Young Ottomans In (l~, only to be disbanded In 1872. The Young Ottomans, led by Namlk J...: emai and Ziya Pa~a, called f Of politIcal liberalizatIon, consttruttonal checks on the monarchy and Porte-bureaucracy, parliamentansm, and a better ~_a~~nc~ of~estermsm and tradil1onalism./ -·The Shaws correctly observe that the "ConstitutIon and Parliament introduced in 1876 and again In 1908 were the direct results of the agllallon of the '1" oung Ottomans, but one must remember that they couJd not have been achieved without the preparatory reforms carned out through the years by the dedicated Men of the Tanzllnat w110m the Young Ottomans cirllclzed so Vl,?Ofousiy."9 Moreover, the changes m the basic instItutions of Olloman ~overnment were accompamed by significant aIteratIons In the all oman ~ocJaJ struclUre. As the Shaws put 11, the "Old Ruling Class of Ottomans wa5 replaced by a new class of bureaucrats, the memurs, with the Insecurity resullJng from their position as slaves of the Sultan replaced by a new assurance provided by their development mto a secular bureaucratlc hlerarch~' wuh legal ProteClJons that discouraged the rapid shifts of fortune endemic In t he Old Order."" Penetrallon of European capital and consequent development of In~ lermediarv commercial actlvny, coupled wJth the Tanzimatls legal prOleCllon of pnvale property, had also gIven nse to ~ new mercantile midd!~~ "DomInation of Ottoman government and society by the memurs \\'a~ challenged by the new mJddle class, whIch was Just becoming a significant poliucai faclOr In the latter half of the mneIeenth century. With {he bulk of

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l. HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL S~TTING

weaith in traditional Ottoman society commg from the land and with It~ revenues considered the property of the sultan and hls Ruling Class, capnal among the sUbjects could be amassed only through,!trade and indust{~ II But new political and economic factors m the eighteenth and especially mneleenth centunes led to the rise of private landed as well as commercIal wealth m the hands of local notables. The most powerful of these notables (the ayan) used their wealth for politlcai purposes, often building their own local armIes to ; perpetuate theIr power. But when Mahmud II's efforts to crush these and centralize all means of physIcal coercIOn In the empire ultImately succeeded, onl\" those provincial notables who were willing to use theIr wealth as capnal 10 develop economIc and commercial enterpnses had a chance to surVIVe. The T,.a.I1Z1ma. t mcorporated t.hiS _new class of wealthy notable.s ("efraf',

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Turkish sense of the word) mlO the provmcial admmIstratlVe councils. thu ~ss.; ~ / "7'J-: ~ gwmg them some leverage over local. DO I"mrs T''~ ~ 11 was mamly the ChnstJan elements, however, who gamed most from In""7: _ ~ ...~~lC~ tensified commercIal relaoons wIth Europe under the TanZI/nat. Almosr~.C'~;-- """r~ always the Europeans preferred to work through local Chnstian merchants In ...... ---.....