Sezgin Boynik and Tevfik Rada, sociologists from Prizren dealing with the contemporary culture of artistic and political movements are initiating ‘Nation Formation’, a study on the formation of the Turkish national ideology during socialist Yugoslavia.
Nation Formation researches ways in which the Turkish speaking community in Yugoslavia perceived its national identity during the socialist period. By studying this period of the recent history, it will also be possible to reveal new aspects of socialism and nationalism, especially how they were woven in the complex web of the modernization project of socialist [or Second] Yugoslavia, which meant emancipation from the constraints of a traditional and feudal society. The aim of the project is to untangle this web of modernisation from obscurantist approaches which mystify nationalism and to show the concrete dynamics and structures involved in the making of this history, which is still reverberating today.
Relying on printed sources, the scope of the research covers the cultural, artistic and intellectual productions in Turkish language in Kosovo and Macedonia from 1945 to 1991. The core argument of the research is based on the theory that the continuity of national ideologies can be traced in concrete material effects linked to precise political institutions. The aim here is to detect these existing institutions and to discuss their importance in imagining nationalisms. By this, the researchers claim that nationalism does not exist on its own, or to say in other words, it does not live its own life in the realm of symbols. Nationalism and national identities can exist only within concrete institutions; nationalism always breathes the air of the institutions.
The overall working hypothesis of the project argues the delimitation of nationalism, meaning that following their theoretical approach, Boynik and Rada will argue also an activist side of their research, which is to point at the limits of nationalism. By pointing out these limits and forms of nationalism, the ultimate aim is to envisage new ways of community solidarity that go beyond given particularities of ethnic identities. The two fundamental theses that the research studies are:
· The intertwinement of Turkish nationalism in Yugoslavia with the ideological and political institutions of socialism. This implies the existence of an inherent contradiction in what is understood as local, ethnic, national elements within the multinational socialist institutions in Yugoslavia. This fundamental dispute has determined the Turkish nationalism in Yugoslavia.
· Apart from ideological and political contradictions, this uneven national form is also linked to the process of modernisation. By studying this phenomenon, a contribution to larger social questions related to modernisation in Kosovo and in Macedonia is being made.
At the initial stages of the project, due to the limits imposed by the current pandemic and global closure, the focus will be on discussing the already existing documents that were crucial in the formation of the Turkish national identity during socialism. These documents are scientific studies, articles, essays, statistical reports, bibliographical materials, popular textbooks, city guides, and memories published during socialist Yugoslavia. Every week there will be a publication of a document from that period, together with an introduction written by the researchers, explaining the context and merits of that particular material.
This will be a two-year project including an in-depth study of existing documents, research on private and public archives, and interviews with protagonists involved in the formation of the Turkish national ideology in socialist Yugoslavia.
Starting from next year, the project will result with the publication of a series of booklets, each dealing with one particular aspect of the specificity of Turkish national formation in Yugoslavia. Apart from publications, the project contains organized discussions, lectures, and exhibitions addressing the relevance of these historical dynamics in today’s context of shifting national identities.