Freemasonry in Turkey: a by-product of Western penetration

Abstract

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, various European Masonic obediences set up lodges throughout the Ottoman empire, many in Istanbul, while another important centre was Smyrna. Freemasons were also active in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Cyprus and Macedonia. Lodges were established in the main political, economic and cultural centres of the Empire. There was a strong parallelism between the Ottoman Masonic geography and that of European colonial expansion. It is easy to delineate the social and ethnic structure of lodges, but we know less about what was going on behind the walls of Masonic temples. For sure, Ottoman Freemasons, like their brethren in other parts of the world, when not busy with ‘table works’ or ceremonies, dedicated themselves to philanthropic activities. A considerable part of the annual income of the lodges was used to finance various charitable works (assistance to orphans, to brethren in distress …) and to fund educational institutions. The lodges were also places for the discussion and exchange of ideas about current themes: socialism, feminism, venereal diseases, progress of science, etc. Some mingled with politics, displaying a highly nationalistic discourse. The politicization of Ottoman/Turkish freemasonry climaxed during the years of the Young Turk revolution (1908–1914), when an autochthonous obedience was created. One of the goals of the new organization, coldly received by most European freemasonries, was to rid the Ottoman Empire of foreign penetration. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, this national freemasonry continued to flourish, except for 13 years between 1935 and 1948 when Masonic activity was banned.

Freemasonry in Turkey’s modern history of ideas: A factor of liberalization and individualization?

“…The historical development of Freemasonry in Turkey has influenced the dialogue between different traditions, mentalities, and worldviews under continuously changing social and political conditions (Dumont, 2005). Secular Freemasonry in Turkey today claims to be, de facto, a liberal and pragmatic counterweight to religiously “unitarian” and politico‐religious tendencies.…”

“…All these circumstances led to the suspension of all activities of Turkish Freemasonry in 1935 by the Turkish state. Although Atatürk wanted to protect Freemasonry as a representative of secular reason and intended to reactivate it in the long term, he ordered the removal of all lodges, whose assets were transferred to public institutions according to historians (Dumont, 2005).…”

“…Today’s Turkey is formally pursuing the secular, pro‐modern, and pro‐individualization principles of Atatürk, yet since the 2000s enforces certain restrictions on these principles (Benedikter & Altun, 2002b). Due to various macro‐political developments such as the predominance of Erdoğan’s pro‐Islamic Justice and Development Party, the stagnant EU rapprochement, gradual transformation of the traditional “secularization guarantor” military, and the generally fragmented development in the surrounding Middle East, Turkish Freemasonry has suffered various setbacks while at the same time indirectly acquiring a certain role in regard to breaking the country’s isolation between the Arab and European worlds (Dumont, 2005). That was also due to the continuing presence of lodges under foreign obedience frequented by non‐Turks (which is, among other factors, related to Turkey’s long‐standing NATO membership).…”

The Architecture of Collective Intimacy: Masonic Friendships as a Model for Collective Attachments

“…I situate these broad questions in the embodied organizational context of Freemasonry, a worldwide fraternity practicing an elitist stance of civilizing the self (Hoffman ), translated into a collective mission of society building premised on a civic‐democratic political vocabulary (Jacob ). Though not a national movement, Freemasonry was implicated in national struggles against imperial rule in the Americas and the Middle East (Dumont ; Harland‐Jacobs ) and provided a secluded social space for negotiating a particularist national consciousness set in civic context (Kaplan in press).…”

Freemasonry as a playground for civic nationalism

“…My aim is not to prove the viability of CN as a theoretical model but to show how it flourished across the globe within the confines of Masonic lodges as a tangible cultural script for imagining the nation as a liberal democracy. Though not a national movement, individual members of Masonic lodges played important roles in advancing national revolutions with distinctly civic aspirations, as in the 1776 American Revolution (Triber ; York ), the 1908 Young Turks Revolution (Dumont ) and the 1919 national democratic revolution in Egypt (Wissa ). Masonic circles were also implicated in struggles for national independence in the 1830 Belgian Revolution (Maes ), the Mexican and various other Latin American national movements (Uribe‐Uran ), and the 1905 Iranian constitutional revolution (Bayat ).…”