Diverging paths of Turkish conservatisms during the cold war era : a study on Cemil Meriç and Tarık Buğra

Abstract

This thesis sheds light on the divergence that happened during the Cold War era between Turkish conservatisms. Most of the conservatives went on the anticommunist and nationalist road, but some of them went on unique roads, a “civilizationist” (medeniyetçi) and “conservative nativist” roads. Tarık Buğra is studied as an example of the former and Cemil Meriç of the latter. Cemil Meriç may be the only example of the latter one. Meriç’s and Buğra’s themes sometimes intersected and sometimes differed from each other. Their attitudes vis-à-vis religion, laicism and Kemalism intersected, but they differed in many issues thematically. The main themes of Buğra’s writings were anti-communism and hostility towards politics/politicians/politicization. Meriç’s dominant themes were “civilizationism” and “conservative nativism”. Tarık Buğra was a figure that represented the nationalist-conservative orthodoxy. The main themes of nationalist-conservatism were valid in its most sophisticated form, unlike, for example, the vulgar nationalistconservatism of Serdengeçti, especially in the novels of Buğra. Meriç was a forerunner of the post-1990s conservative understandings. His “civilizationist” and “conservative nativism” themes are very popular in conservative circles today.