Anti-communism and the making of the Ülkücü paramilitary identity (1974- 1980)

Abstract

This study examines the construction of Ülkücü paramilitary identity through the discourses on communism which were developed by the ultranationalist militants politically active inbetween 1974 and 1980’s coup d’état. It does so via historical data which carry the mark of militants’ own voice; most significantly memoirs, confessions and movement publications. The aforementioned era witnessed one of the most significant socio-political crises in the history of Turkish republic, causing the death of hundreds with the murder of public figures, fatal street warfare and massacres. Ülkücü movement and its paramilitary forces emerged as the chief catalyst of these events, serving to the unsuccessful power strategy of the Nationalist Action Party. Raison d’étre of Ülkücü paramilitaries; the existence of radical leftist activity, not only grew so as to receive a violent response from its antagonists, but also helped anti-communism become a very significant component to the language and ideology of the Turkish Right; producing vast populations penetrated with communist enmity. The anti-communist militancy of Ülkücü movement articulated it to these larger segments of Turkish society. Its unique paramilitary response differentiated its anticommunism and identity from the rest of this larger anti-communist bloc. This ground of articulation and differentiation forms the objective of the present thesis.