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At the Making of Modern Turkey Seminars:
Continuity and Disruption in Turkey's Recent History
Our guest speaker this month at the Making of Modern Turkey Seminars, held at the Museum on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, is Prof. Mete Tunçay, chair of the History Department, of the School of Arts and Sciences, at Istanbul Bilgi University. In his presentation on Continuity and Disruption in Turkey's Recent History, Tunçay will address the enduring and changing aspects of Turkish political and social culture, from pre-modern Ottoman times to the present. The seminar is scheduled for Saturday, May 15, from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Prof. Tunçay defines the Ottoman Empire as a pre-modern state, whereas, he adds, "the Turkish Republic attempted to realize its own modernization project through the creation of a nation-state. In terms of political structure, the Turkish Republic was innovative but the country and its people were inherited straight from the Ottoman Empire. The entire political and social culture was carried over from Ottoman times, just as the dependence on foreign powers, though fluctuating, has persisted from Ottoman times to the present."
Born in 1936 in Istanbul, Mete Tunçay graduated from the School of Political Science at Ankara University in 1958. After earning a Ph.D. in Political Science in 1961, Tunçay presented his thesis on Political Theories and became associate professor in 1966. Following the 1980 military coup, he was removed from his post at the university and for the next 10 years he was editor in chief of the monthly publication Tarih ve Toplum (History and Society). Among Tunçay's published works are, Türkiye'de Sol Akımlar I(1908-1925)[Leftist Movements in Turkey I], Türkiye'de Sol Akımlar II (1925-1936)[Leftist Movements in Turkey II], and Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Tek Parti Yönetiminin Kurulmasi (The Establishment of Single Party Rule in Turkey). He is currently a Professor of History at Istanbul Bilgi University.
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