★Writing Turkey’s Geopolitics: The Rise and Fall of Kemalist Geopolitics

★Writing Turkey’s Geopolitics: The Rise and Fall of Kemalist Geopolitics

Murat Yesiltas, Sakarya University

Abstract

By problematizing the concept of “geo-power” rooted in critical geopolitics in general and the “Kemalist geopolitical mentality” in particular, the paper concerns with the formal geopolitical discourse of Turkish Military in its historical process. Based on the theoretical framework of critical geopolitics, the paper treats geopolitics not as a neutral consideration of pregiven “geographical” facts, but as a deeply ideological and politicized form of analysis. Eschewing the traditional question of how geography does or can influence politics, the paper investigates how geographical/geopolitical claims and assumptions of the Turkish Armed Forces legitimizes the role of the military as an agent in the normal political structure and how it constructs Turkey’s identity in (inter)national level with reference to the Kemalist ideology. Firstly, the paper problematizes the conceptual maps of geopolitics by focusing particularly on the relationship between geography and geopolitics within the framework of the discourse of the Turkish military. Secondly, it examines Turkey’s international position by exposing the relationship between Kemalism and geopolitics in terms of exceptionalism and militarism as parts of the nation-state mentality in Turkey. Thirdly, it shows how the existing geopolitical discourse is established within the school and ideology of national education of Turkey.

Suggested Citation

Murat Yesiltas. "Writing Turkey’s Geopolitics: The Rise and Fall of Kemalist Geopolitics" ISA Annual Convention. San Francisco, USA, April 3-6, 2013. Apr. 2013.