Turkish nationalisim and Arminius Vambery

After nationalism which was a modern concept emerged in the international arena, caused very important changes the structures and borders of the states in the worldwide. Nationalism firstly influenced the multinational empires like Ottoman Empire and had also forced the groups that created the core of the state to become nationalist while encouraging independences of the minorities. The Ottomanism and Islamism aimed to block the nationalist waves coming from Europe. Eventually, not only these ideologies failed but also had perverse effects on the Ottoman Empire. Nationalist movements that broke out among the non-Muslim groups continued among the non-Turkish Muslims. Thereby, the Turkism became more important under this conditions. However, Turks were deprived of national consciousness. Some historical and linguistic activities were initiated to be adopted the Turkism thought between Turks. This progress was called as "Cultural Turkism" significantly took advantage from Turcology, especially Arminus Vambery's Turkish studies. On the other hand, Vambery observed the Turkish nationalism closely and played very important role in spread of the Pan-Turkist thought between the Turkish intellectuals. In the Turkish world, Vambery became one of the most respectable Turcologist who advocated the Turkism in terms of culturel and political. In this study, Vambery's impacts and contributions on the cultural and political Turkism in the stage of improvement of Turkish nationalism has been examined in the light of his studies and close relations with Turkish intellectuals.