НАЦИОНАЛНИТЕ ПРАЗНИЦИ НА ТУРСКАТА РЕПУБЛИКА В МИНАЛОТО И СЕГА
TURKISH NATIONAL HOLIDAYS IN THE PAST AND NOW

Summary/Abstract: The objective of the present article is to analyse the Turkish holiday system introduced after the proclamation of the Republic and supplemented over the decades with new occasions for national celebrations. Four of Turkey’s “great holidays” introduced under Mustafa Kemal are discussed as events targeted at creating certain emotional states serving to support the Kemalist regime and to create a sense of national belonging in the minds of the Turks. The changes introduced in the national holiday system after the military coup of 1980 are also brought into focus. That was the time when the then Turkish statesmen began to pursue a policy of “Turko-Islamic synthesis” that restored the Islamic festivities – prohibited during the early years of the Republic and traditionally celebrated by left-wing political forces – back into the national calendar. Last but not least, the national holiday known as Democracy and National Unity Day, born of the attempted military coup in 1916, is also presented.

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