The Conquest of Hearts: The Central Role of Ottoman Nostalgia within Contemporary Turkish Populism

• In Event: 4166 - Democracy on the Defense: Rising Authoritarianism and Populism

Abstract

In contemporary Turkey populism travels with neo-Ottoman nostalgia. It is a stigmatized duo, as nostalgia is affiliated with lingering in the past, and populism is deemed as the opium of uninformed and emotional masses. I complicate this vision through an ethnographic and discursive analysis of the Commemoration of the Conquest of Constantinople rallies, organized by the ruling party AKP, showing the combined nature of emotional and cognitive in political participation in mass settings, and the subsequent meaning making process. By relying on forty-five in depth interviews in five Turkish cities, I inquire how people perceive the nostalgic conquest rallies. The nostalgic commemoration rally displays three of the main characteristics of populism; in a ritualistic setting, it portrays a Manichean discourse, underlines the power of the “people” against nefarious others, and is centered on a leader who is posited as a savior and symbol of redemption. These moments of collective effervescence help AKP feed into neo-Ottoman hegemony, further linking people to the leader and nation. Three discursive perspectives emerged from the interviews: spectacle seekers see the nostalgic conquest rallies as a necessity, and view providing emotional uplift as a duty of the state; appraising skeptics appreciated the commemoration, yet were skeptical of its objectivity and AKP’s vision of history; and lastly history guardians deem the Ottoman past as sacred and disdain AKP’s use of it, evaluating it as emotional manipulation. These last two clusters underline a tension between a strong hegemonic nostalgia and political authoritarianism. As the Ottoman past became sacred by the cultural work of AKP, people start to question “emotional manipulation” of people using this holy past. This suggests that once leaders start using these powerful cultural tools, how people respond is actually uncertain, showing the fragility of authoritarian leaders under the discursive powers that they have summoned.

Author

• Yagmur Karakaya, University of Minnesota