Common Asianist intellectual history in Turkey and Japan: Turanism

LEVENT S.

CENTRAL ASIAN SURVEY, cilt.35, sa.1, ss.121-135, 2016 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 35 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2016
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/02634937.2015.1062601
  • Dergi Adı: CENTRAL ASIAN SURVEY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Geobase, Historical Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Index Islamicus, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.121-135
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Turanism, Asianist thought, irredentism, anti-Westernism, anti-Han Chinese intellectual history
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

This article proposes that Turanism played similar roles in Turkey and Japan in terms of forming a common Asianist thought, which can also be considered an anti-Western intellectual notion. Central Asia was depicted as irredenta, and Turanists in each country dreamed of independence for Turan-origin people in the region. Some of them even took action, as seen in the examples of Imaoka and Enver Pasha. Russia, as a member of the West, was othered in both countries. Togay, as a Russian Turkic-origin thinker, believed that Japan was a Turan-origin country, which had potential to dispose the Russian influence on Turkic people, which could enable their independence. Apart from Russians, Han Chinese played the villain's role due to the Mongolian, Manchurian, and East Turkestan questions. Turanism, which has been almost forgotten today, formed a common Asianist intellectual root in Turkey and Japan in the first half of the twentieth century.