History repeats itself

When the Republic of Turkey was established under Atatürk’s leadership, the ideologically secularist and modernist urban elite ended state support and patronage of Islamic institutions. The purpose was to make religion a matter solely of private conscience.

I am convinced that every newcomer should spend some time in one of the major cities and visit the different mahalles (neighborhoods) to really better understand the contrast of class and community in urban Turkey. It began with Atatürk’s reforms. The result of Atatürk’s reforms was the creation of two cultures: a secularized and Westernized elite culture and a mass culture based on traditional religious values.

An uncle of mine served in the air force in İzmir during the early 1950s. If you look at a timeline of the 1950s, you’ll see that while he was in Turkey, major changes happened back home: the first Peanuts cartoon strip was published, color television came on the market, Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan, Disneyland and McDonalds both opened, Dr. Seuss’ book, “The Cat in the Hat” was published and segregation was ruled illegal in the States. History was being made.

I remember as a child listening to him talk about his experience in Turkey. Sometimes I did not know whether he was pulling my leg or not. Some of the stories he told us seemed hard to believe.

Now having lived in Turkey for three decades myself, I can look back on what he said and not take it with a grain of salt, but believe that most of it was true. Based on what my uncle said and research from the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program (AAHP), the 1950s in Turkey were years of change and transition.

You could say that around 1950 in Turkey a significant change in attitude occurred. According to the AAHP, prior to 1950, the elite’s attitude toward traditional culture tended to be contemptuous in general and specifically hostile toward religious expression. Since 1950, however, the elite generally has become more tolerant of religion, or at least of orthodox Sunni Islam, and various political parties have attempted to conciliate religious interests, albeit within the framework of Atatürk’s institutional secularism.

Again, in the mid-1990s to the present, the single most significant distinction in Turkish society remains the gap separating the secular elite from traditional culture.

The gap seems to continue to widen.

I think a mahalle tour would be fascinating.

Alan Duben conducted significant research on a mahalle (Aktepe) of about 30,000 persons in the 1970s. The neighborhood is divided into two principal quarters. One is occupied by the people of the Black Sea, known as the Laz. The other section is predominantly people of eastern Anatolian origin, mostly Kurds. Duben researched the regional/ethnic distinction and the religious one. Duben noticed in the lower part of the neighborhood where the Kurds lived there were no mosques and during Ramadan, a number of residents did not adhere to keeping the fast. In contrast, in the upper part of the neighborhood where the Sunni Laz lived there were two mosques and stricter adherence to religious practices. Although the two groups had, as he puts it, “two rather different moral communities,” he points out that they were administratively united. This neighborhood was formed and developed as migrants came from the villages or general regions and settled together.

Like many neighborhoods in Turkey, the area began with newcomers who constructed simple single-story makeshift homes (gecekondu). Later another floor was added or they moved to four and five-floor “modern” apartment buildings.

In the past 10 years or so, the next step up the economic ladder was to move into a taller building with more amenities or move into a villa on the outskirts of the city. In Duben’s time, he observed an unequal distribution of wealth and power among Aktepe’s residents. Now it is more significant and elsewhere in Turkey.

Has the significant change in attitude that happened in the 1950s been lost?

“Cities aren’t isolates, but wide-ranging flows of people, authority systems, cultural symbols, capital innovations.” -- Robert McC. Adams

Remember today, May 1, is a public holiday. Stay away from crowds. Be safe!