Whose Hittites, and Why? Language, Archaeology and the Quest for the Original Turks

Encrucijadas de la identidad: acotaciones antigeopolíticas a la historia kurda de Turquía

“…La segunda aseveraba que los turcos eran descendientes de los habitantes arios de Asia central y que estaban emparentados con todas las grandes civilizaciones antiguas de la región, como la sumeria o la hitita. 15 La función de este mito nacional fue dotar imaginariamente a la figura de la "nación turca" de una raigambre ancestral en Anatolia y así justificar su presencia en dicho territorio (Zürcher 2004, 191;Shaw 2004). Así surgieron diferentes interpretaciones que pretendían demostrar que, originalmente, los kurdos no hablaban ninguna de las variantes del kurdo que existen en Anatolia (zazaki y kurmanji).…”

5. Lycia and Classical Archaeology: The Changing Nature of Archaeology in Turkey

“…Such change had to begin with the rehabilitation of the notion of "Turk" and the demonstration of Turks as the natural heirs of Anatolia, alongside the rejection of Ottoman practices. Thus, the fez was banned in 1925 to be replaced with western headgear; the Islamic calendar was abandoned in 1926 in favor of the Western clock and calendar; Arabic script was replaced with Latin in 1928, and from 1932 the language was reformed, with the replacement of all foreign words with so-called purely Turkish words, some of which were invented (Shaw 2004;Özyürek 2006;Goode 2007); in 1936 the Sun-Language Theory (Güneş-Dil Teorisi) was unveiled to proclaim Turkish as the mother of all languages (Aytürk 2004). Most significantly, Atatürk embarked upon a sweeping revision of the history of Turkey to claim ancestry with the earliest inhabitants of Anatolia.…”

“…Proponents of the Thesis recognized the need for corroborating evidence, and thus in 1933 a series of archaeological excavations commenced at explicitly prehistoric sites, as well as those of Hittite, Phrygian and other cultural origins, to demonstrate Turkey's relationship with these past mighty civilizations. A second Congress was held in 1937 with focus more on the empirical presentation of archaeological data than the theoretical nationalist theories that had prevailed at the previous Congress, and to an international audience of scholars (Atakuman 2008;Çiğ 1993;Shaw 2004;Tanyeri-Erdemir 2006). This paved the way for archaeological research across a range of periods and cultures to create a rich and diverse understanding of Turkey's pre-Ottoman heritage that is maintained today.…”