Abstract:

This study aims to understand the transformation of nationalism in Türkiye, the rebuilding process of the nation depending on this transformation, and the effects of this process on the borders. Based on the argument that the transformation of borders in Türkiye is not independent from the transformation of nationalism and the new nation-building process, the main problematic of this study is how nationalism transformed from Kemalist nationalism to Islamic conservative nationalism in the dominant political sphere in Türkiye, what kind of nation-building process this transformation created and how this process affected borders. Within the framework of this problematic, the changing meaning of borders in the process of constructing a new nation of Islamic conservative nationalism has been focused and the changing structure of the borders of national identity has been discussed. It has been observed that while Kemalist nationalism constructs national identity within the borders of Anatolia and limited to the Republican period, Islamic conservative nationalism creates the new nation building in the contexts of Turkish, Muslim and Ottoman identities outside the current borders of Türkiye. It has been understood that the construction of the new nation is shaped by the common history, religion, identity, geography, language and origin of belonging in the lands dominated by the Ottoman Empire, in the Islamic geography and in the Turkish world. Türkiye's reintegration beyond national borders with Turks, Muslims and its Ottoman past showed the new boundaries reached by national identity in the new Türkiye. In this respect, it has been seen that the borders in the New Türkiye were reconstructed in the geographical contexts that Turkish, Muslim and Ottoman identities reached.

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