Europe imagery in construction of modern Turkish identity

The modernization efforts, which started with the reforms brought by the Gulhane Edict on the way of the idea of integration with the West in the internal structure of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, and continued with the declaration of constitutional governments (First Constitutional Era in 1876 and second Constitutional Era in 1908), continued when the Republic of Turkey was established. The basic axes on which the reforms made to create a secular and modern nation-state in the Republican era were based were the construction of the Turkish national identity, the rise to the level of civilized civilizations, and the spread of the phenomenon of secularization to the society. With the emergence of modern nation states and identities on the world stage, the Republic of Turkey has entered a new identity construction process that puts the Turkish national identity in the foreground. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the construction of Turkish identity in historical processes, to examine the European image in the formation of national identity, that is, the European influence in the construction of Turkish nation identity. In this context, the concept of identity and its elements, which constitute the infrastructure of all identities, have been studied. Then, how the Turkish identity emerged in the historical process and how it started to be built has been examined in many ways. Finally, in this thesis, the emergence of European civilization and identity and its effect on the construction of Turkish identity are emphasized. The reforms made by the Republic of Turkey to build the national identity were examined in various dimensions and the factors that were effective in the realization of these reforms were specified.