Transformation of nationalism and the principle of nationalism in Turkish Constitutions

It is now natural to come across concepts such as national identity and national sovereignty that derive their fundamental philosophical motivation from the French Revolution in many of today's constitutions. Nationalism, which means equality and freedom in Europe after the revolution, meant a crisis and disintegration for non-European geographies. The national identity movements that started in the Ottoman Empire against the negative effect of nationalism brought Ottoman citizenship as constitutional citizenship in Kânûn-ı Esâsî. The 1921 Constitution was our first constitution to include the principle of national sovereignty. The preamble parts of the 1961 and 1982 Constitutions, which are almost "ideological manifestos", have caused stalemates for Turkish constitutionalism, law and even political life at certain times. This situation has been reinforced by the decisions of the Constitutional Court, these legal and political dilemmas. With the changes made in the 1924 Constitution in 1937, nationalism became a constitutional principle; It was included in the text of the 1961 Constitution as "national state" and in the 1982 Constitution as "Atatürk Nationalism". In this thesis, terminological studies, emergence, historical processes and transformations of the concept of nationalism are discussed. Here the concept of nationalism movement, constitutional processes to effect a constitutional principle the receiving state in Turkey is examined. It is aimed to clarify the boundaries of the principle of nationalism, to be re-evaluated in today's conditions and to reveal how it should be included in the law and in the constitution in particular.