Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Ottoman Language in Turkey
On December 10th, 2014, Al Jazeera published an article by Joseph Dana entitled “It’s Erdogan vs. Ataturk in a battle for Turkey’s soul,” where in the piece, Dana discusses the various initiatives pushed forward by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The article centers around Erdogan’s interest in reviving the Ottoman Language in Turkey, and in turn challenging principles set forth by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who is the seen as the founder of modern Turkey.
Just recently, Turkey’s National Education Council has decided ” to make Ottoman language classes compulsory for the religious vocational high schools that train imams and elective for secular high schools across the country.” Erdogan, speaking shortly after this decision, was quoted as saying that ““Whether they want it or not, Ottoman [language] will be learned and taught in this country,” Erdogan said. “There are those who are uneasy with this country’s children learning Ottoman.”
However, many in Turkey have taken issue with what they see as not only a new push for the Ottoman Language, but also the emphasis on increased Islam in government, and have expressed such concerns during (and even before) the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Seculars, beginning with Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, wanted (and want) to move away from Ottoman history to more secular Turkish history. And one battle is on the issue of the language, “which was abolished by Ataturk’s decree in 1928, is a predecessor to modern Turkish. It was written in Arabic script, and can still be found on monuments and buildings throughout Turkey” (Dana, 2014). However, while the push for more Islam in the state has been debated (particularly with the issue of the headscarf in Turkey), according to Dana, “changing the Turkish language is different; it is striking at the heart of the grand transformation ushered in by Ataturk in the 1920s. When Ataturk came to power as the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the language spoken in Turkey had been a rich tapestry of Arabic, Turkish and Farsi woven together in flowing Arabic script. As part of Ataturk’s scheme to “modernize” Turkey, Arabic script was replaced with the Latin alphabet. Arabic and Farsi words were systematically replaced with German and French.”
As was pointed out in the article, it seems that these motivations have political undertones. Turkey will have parliamentary elections coming up in 2015, and it seems that Erdogan is attempting to push issues that are of importance to him, possibly knowing that the AKP will be successful. This may also be why he is challenging groups such as Hizmet (Fethullah Gulen’s organization), as well as others such as journalists who he sees as critical to his regime and those associated with the government (such as the corruption scandal in late 2014). However, despite these developments, Erodgan’s party did well in recent local elections (Dana, 2014). Thus, the parliamentary elections will be an important election, and if Erdogan does well, despite his move towards authoritarianism, then not only will he “have ample opportunity to make more fundamental changes to the way Turkey is governed” (Dana, 2014), but it will also suggest that there will be additional tensions between the AKP and secular voices in the state, not to mention supporters of Hizmet, and environmental activists who have challenged the AKP’s actions (which include various environmental abuses) in the name of economic development.
