The symbolic sources of Turkish nationalism (The political rhetoric of Young Ottomans, 1860-1876)

Nationalism emerged in the Western Europe at the end of the 18th century, and found its reflections in other places during the next era. Among others, multi-ethnical empires were to be the most influenced polities by this currency. The Ottoman Empire needed to fortify itself in the 19th century against ethnically based nationalist movements, and strived to gather all ethnic and religious groups under the identity 'Ottoman'. Centralist policies, reformations and the newly established patters of modern relationships with the people, on the other hand, played an eminent role in the way toward the nation-state. But the Muslim elements were troubled by the identity conceptions going behind the religious differences, and this caused emergence of opposite fractions. The Young Ottomans rejected absolute hegemony of bureaucracy, and contributed to the shaping of political culture with some principles like people's rule, consultancy, assembly and separation of powers. They reinterpretted traditional symbols with their political, literary and cultural roles in the identity design developing together with the modernisation, and contributed to the making of identity by indroducing new symbols. Besides, developing relations with other Islamic countries and the ongoing migrations were also influent in the identity design. These developments predating emergence of Turkish nationalism were the determining factors of the modern Turkish identity.