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Let me open up a rather esoteric debate over #Erdogan’s discourse that “we are one nation who can’t read the tombstones of their grandparents.” He’s not wrong, and all goes back to #MustafaKemalAtaturk changing the alphabet overnight in 1920s. It was all about strategy +
+ First, background: there is a reason why most Westerners can’t pronounce (or consistently mispronounce) Turkish names. We use Latin alphabet like Westerners, but in our own way (plus extra letters). It wasn’t always the case, until 1920s, Ottomans/Turks uses Arabic alphabet +
+ Fun fact #1: When Asians/Arabs/anyone who uses a non-Latin alphabet write their names in English, they automatically translate their names from their alphabet to Latin alphabet. For example, محمد becomes Muhammad, Mohammed, or a version of it. Turks don’t transliterate +
+ Fun fact #2: when the Japanese transliterate words from their own alphabet to Latin/English, how those transliterations are pronounced are almost exactly the same with how Turks pronounce TR alphabet. Example: #HattoriHanzo from #KillBill, we pronounce it just like Japanese +
+So, why #MustafaKemalAtaturk radically changed alphabet overnight? Aimed to rebuild a Westernized *and* secular nation. Two birds with one stone:
1) An alphabet to facilitate Westernization
2) Undermine religious authority by making illiterates out of former “knowledge-brokers”+
1) An alphabet to facilitate Westernization
2) Undermine religious authority by making illiterates out of former “knowledge-brokers”+
+Foreseeing nationalism theorist #ErnestGellner’s dictum that nation-building requires “monopoly of legitimate education” (which is a play on #MaxWeber), #Ataturk single-handedly delegitimized Islamic scholars/imams operating in Arabic alphabet, while also monopolizing education+
+ In addition, by changing the alphabet overnight, #MustafaKemalAtaturk crippled the link between modern Turkey and the Ottoman and Islamic past. So, when Erdogan complains “we can’t read the tombstones of our grandparents,” he signals his anger at this particular strategic move.
+Another esoteric debate over religion-secularism in Turkey. In 1932, #MustafaKemalAtaturk ordered daily prayers (ezan) to delivered in Turkish. Why?
1) To “Turkify” & distinguish Islam in TR
2) Most Turks know prayers but few speak Arabic, so they pray without understanding all+
1) To “Turkify” & distinguish Islam in TR
2) Most Turks know prayers but few speak Arabic, so they pray without understanding all+
+Ataturk not only did order prayers to be delivered in Turkish, he also banned Arabic prayers to be delivered from mosques. In a way, that can be seen as an attempt to liberate Islam in Turkey from linguistic fetishism over Arabic, but this move was an anathema to most Islamists+
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