著者

藤波 伸嘉

出版者

日本中東学会

雑誌

日本中東学会年報 (ISSN:09137858)

巻号頁・発行日

no.25, pp.55-82, 2009-07-15

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Vocational representation (temsil-i mesleki) attracted attention when the "1921 Constitution (Teskilat-〓 Esasiye Kanunu)" was being discussed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Buyuk Millet Meclisi). The debate on this system reflected the environment in which the GNA could change the regime. Vocational representation was proposed as the sole path for realizing populism (halkcilik), one of the declared principles of the GNA in achieving the agenda of national soveignty (hakimiyet-i milliye). While the GNA inherited this concept from the Second Ottoman Constitutional Period (1908-18), it did not refer to the "unity of elements (ittihad-〓 anasir)," another key terminology of the Ottoman nationhood. It is because the ethnic and/or religious diversity within the nation was already forgotten; now what is important is the welfare of "people." In this way the transition from the multiethnic Ottoman Sultanate to the Turkish Republic was prepared. The period from September 1920 to January 1921 was the critical time when this transition occurred. The reason why vocational representation was rejected illustrates another aspect of the continuity from the late Ottoman period. The GNA always showed hostility towards communitarian and/or corporatist interpretation of constitutionalism, regarding it as a pretext for the dissolution of state, which must be based on the homogeneous, one and inseparable, "nation." It represented the Ottoman-Turks' antipathy towards the political activities of the non-Muslim communities in the late Ottoman period. In conclusion, the debate on vocational representation in late 1920 demonstrated the aspects of both continuity and difference in Ottoman-Turks' political thought between the Ottoman constitutionalism and Turkish republicanism.