Abstract

The article traces the debates on the migration of the Gagauz into post-Ottoman Turkey and the controversy over their ‘Turkishness’. The debates, concurrent with the migration of Muslim communities to Turkey, formed the basis of the dominant view on the Turkishness of the Gagauz in the current literature. A significant number of scholars have argued that the Gagauz were not admitted to Turkey, and, therefore, the ruling elite did not view Christian Turks as a valid cultural, legal, and social category in the nation. A critical reappraisal of archival documents, media debates, political discussions, academic studies, newspaper articles, and memoirs, however, does not support this conclusion. Reassessing the boundaries between religion and ethnicity in early Republican Turkey, the present article offers fresh insights into the attempts of republican intellectuals to assert the acceptance of Christian Turks. It argues that the debates on the Turkishness of the Gagauz were indicative of a special stage in the development of Turkish nationalism in the 1930s.

摘要

这篇文章追溯了关于加告兹人迁移到后奥斯曼土耳其的争论，以及关于他们的“土耳其性”的争论。辩论与穆斯林社区向土耳其的迁移同时发生，构成了当前文献中关于加告兹人土耳其性的主流观点的基础。相当多的学者认为，加告兹人未被土耳其接纳，因此，统治精英并未将基督教土耳其人视为该国有效的文化、法律和社会类别。然而，对档案文件、媒体辩论、政治讨论、学术研究、报纸文章和回忆录的批判性重新评估并不支持这一结论。重新评估早期共和国土耳其的宗教和种族之间的界限，本文对共和知识分子试图主张接受基督教土耳其人的尝试提供了新的见解。它认为，关于 Gagauz 的土耳其性的辩论表明了 1930 年代土耳其民族主义发展的一个特殊阶段。