The trajectory of nation-building through language policies: the case of Turkey during the early Republic (1920-38)†

ABSTRACT. This article explores the link between language policies and nation-building by focusing on the Turkish case during the early Republican period (1920–38). As opposed to conceptualising nation builders as seamlessly and strategically forming a nation out of the remnants of an empire, this article emphasises the complex and, at times, ambiguous nature of the nation-building process using Turkey as a case study. The article is also critical of ethno-symbolic accounts of nations and nation formation that tend to emphasise the cultural at the expense of the political sphere. Instead, by looking at the process and content of the formulation of language policies, this study demonstrates how culture was highly politicised during the formative period of the Turkish nation.