The ideological transformation of National Turkish Student Union and anticommunism (1916-1971)

The National Turkish Student Union is a student union that has a unique place and importance in Turkish political life. MTTB, which has gone through many different periods from its establishment in 1916 until its closure in 1980, has sometimes adopted different political ideologies, but has always managed to preserve its "national" identity. Continuing its activities first in Turkish/Nationalist, then conservative and finally Islamist lines, MTTB felt obliged to protect Turkish youth against foreign powers and foreign ideologies. For this reason, although he was under the influence of different political currents, he always aimed to bring national consciousness to Turkish youth. Because young people who do not have national consciousness fall into the clutches of communism and it is the main duty of MTTB to prevent this. MTTB, which adopted the main purpose of protecting Turkish youth from this harmful ideology, did this task first with the official ideology of the state, Turkist/nationalism, then with conservatism and finally with conservatism. as well as with Islamism. Although the tool used changed, anti-communism remained constant until it was shut down in 1980. In this study, which deals with the processes and ideological transformation of MTTB since its establishment, we reveal that the main function of MTTB is to fight against communism, no matter what ideology it has, based on the similarities between the political developments in Turkey and the actions and discourses of MTTB.