Pan-Turkism - History and Exploitation

==History==

 In 1804, [[Tatar people|Tatar]] theologian [[Ghabdennasir Qursawi|Kursavi]] wrote a treatise calling for Islam’s modernization. Kursavi was a founder of the religious thought of [[Jadidism|Djadidism]] (from Arabic al-djadid, which means renewal or reform). The idea of Djadidism was encouragement of critical thinking, as opposed to insistence on unquestioning loyalty. It supported education for Muslims and promoted equality among the sexes; advocated tolerance for other faiths, Turkic cultural unity, and openness to Europe’s cultural legacy.Rafael Khakimov, "[http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/region-ecology/numbers/5/504.html Taklid and Ijtihad]", ''Russia in Global Affairs'', Dec. 2003. In the 1843 in [[Kazan]] was created a movement Djadid. Its aim was a semi-secular modernization and educational reform, and within Djadid for the first time sprout the idea of a national, and not religious identity of the Turks. Before that they were solely Muslim subjects of the Russia, and the Empire continued this attitude to its very collapse.N.N., "[http://www.panorama.ru/gazeta/p35_turk.html Полтора Века Пантюрκизма в Турции]", magazine "Панорама". {{ru icon}}

Following the [[Wäisi movement|upsurge in Russian colonization of the Volga area in 1880s]], the Islamic social movement Djadidism added motives of national-liberation, but as a result of increase of the imperial tendencies in the Russian internal politics after the 1907 many partisans of Turkic unity immigrated to Turkey. In 1908-1913 Russia enforced the so called “struggle against Pan-Islamist movements among Tatars”. The tsarist secret service used methods of crude lies, provocation, and it times adept falsification to fabricate criminal actions. The secret service ran searches, arrests, and relied on paid informers and fabricated witnesses. Later, the regimes in USSR/Russia, China and Iran adopted the theses and methods developed in imperial Russia for their own internal policies.

In 1908 power in Ottoman Turkey received the “Unity and Progress” committee, and the [[Ottoman Empire]] turned toward nationalistic ideology. From the 16th c. the Empire was a Muslim Empire, the Sultan was a Caliph for the part of the Muslim lands under his control. From Russia, the exiled Enlightenment leaders espousing Pan-Turkism fled to Istanbul, where rose a powerful Pan-Turkic movement. From that time, the Turkish Pan-Turkism grew into a nationalistic, ethnically oriented replacement of the Caliphate by a world-wide state. Following the [[fall of the Ottoman Empire]] with its multi-cultural and multi-ethnic population, influenced by emerging racial theories and the Turkish [[nationalism]] of the [[Young Turks]], some tried to replace the lost empire with a new Turkish commonwealth. But a speedy collapse of the Ottoman Empire brought about Mustafa Kamal (Atatürk), who replaced Pan-Turkic idealism with solely Anatolian nationalism aimed at preservation of an Anatolian nucleus instead of global imperial pretences, with some isolationist tendencies. Mustafa Kamal Atatürk penalized Pan-Turkist groups and closed all publications of Pan-Turkic orientation.

One of the most significant early exponents of pan-Turkism was [[Enver Pasha]], the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Minister of War and [[acting (law)|acting]] [[Commander-in-Chief]] during [[World War I]]. He later became one of the leaders of the national-liberation [[Basmachi]] uprising against Russian Empire and Soviet Russia rule in Central Asia.

In the Soviet Union, the budding Bolshevik government quickly retreated from its initial populist promises, and mounted a determined chauvinistic campaign of dismemberment the territories of national minorities, creation of ethnically mixed political entities, incorporation of indigenous territories into Russian Federation, and replacement of national scripts by incompatible national alphabets. Coupled with annihilation of the national educated elite, genocidal deportation of the entire nations, and spiritual execution like the 9 August 1944 Declaration of the Central Committee VKP(b), this policy wiped out any trace of independent thinking.

The last episode in the history of Pan-Turkism played out during WWII, when the Nazis attempted to undermine Soviet unity under a flag of Pan-Turkism in their fight with the Stalinist USSR. The German intrigues, however, did not bear any results.

While of little impact during much of the 20th century, the dissolution of the [[Soviet Union]] in the late 20th century meant that the majority of the Turkic peoples were suddenly again able to exert considerable independence in business and political endeavors.

==Exploitation of Pan-Turkism==
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 To discredit the national-liberation idea of Türkism in the eyes of the Russian population, the Tzarist Secret Service began attributing to Türkism purposes and features incompatible with it, namely aggression and expansionism. The term "Türkism" started to be used with a prefix "Pan" (from Greek meaning "all"), to create "Panturkism". The Türkic peoples of Russia began to be threatened with Turkish expansion, I. Gasprinsky and his adherents were labeled "Turkish spies". Unfortunately also later, after the revolution of 1917, the attitude to Türkism did not differ from the attitude of the Imperial powers. At the 10th congress of Bolshevik Communist Party in 1921 was formulated the official doctrine where the party "condemned Panturkism as a sloping to the bourgeois-democratic nationalism". The emergence of a "Panturkism" scare in the Soviet propaganda caused "Panturkism" to become one of the most frightening political labels in the USSR. The most widespread accusation used for fatal repressions in the 1930es of the educated Tatars and other Türks was the accusation in "Panturkism". "[Mansur Hasanov, Academician of Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan republic, in "People's Political Newspaper" № 96-97 (24393-24394) 17 May 2001 http://www.rt-online.ru/numbers/public/?ID=25970]" Russia, China and Iran, claim that they perceive Panturkism as nothing else but a new form of Turkish imperial ambition. Some see it as downright racist, particularly when considering the associated racial and historical teachings. Critics also believe that the concept of Pan-Turkism is flawed because of the distinct dialects among each different group of Türks, which sometimes lead to problems of understanding between people speaking different Turkic language. There is also concern over religious differences too. Although most Türks follow the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] sect of [[Islam]], the [[Azerbaijani people|Azeris]] of [[Azerbaijan]] are distinct in that they follow the [[Shi'a Islam|Shi'a]] school. Some nationalist critics also claim that Pan-Turkists are at the fore front of major historical revisionism regarding Turkic history and world history in general.[http://www.rozanehmagazine.com/NoveDec05/aazariINDEX.HTML Pan-Turanianism Takes Aim at Azerbaijan: A Geopolitical Agenda'' By: Dr. Kaveh Farrokh] Still, proponents see Pan-Turkism as a way of increasing regional security, economic growth and as a viable bulwark against [[Islamist]] movements, by furthering [[secularism|secular]] and democratic government in the region.