Tolerance and Cultural Diversity Discourses in Turkey

Abstract

Tolerance and cultural diversity as a discourse has gained momentum in the last decade, distinguished by the societal and official attempts to join the EU. At first glance, it seems that the shift from the ‘homogenization discourse’ to the ‘diversity discourse’ has resulted from external factors, such as the EU. But a comprehensive analysis of the issue may prompt us to reach another conclusion, that is, the alliance of internal and external factors leading to the revitalization of the discourse of diversity. One can observe that the Kemalist ideology encountered various challenges originating from ethnocultural and religious groups in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup. This was the time when the Kemalist rhetoric of homogenizing nationalism, which was based on a retrospective narrative holding the Muslim-origin nation together against the syndrome of the common enemy of imperialist European powers, was challenged by its major taboos: Islam, Kurds and Alevis, as well as globalization, liberalization and Europeanization. In what follows, the discursive shift from homogenization to multicultural diversity will be described with the interplay of both internal and external dynamics in the background..