Anatolianism

Anatolianism (Turkish: Anadoluculuk) is a Turkish intellectual, cultural and nationalist current that places Anatolia at the centre of Turkish identity, history and political belonging. It developed in the late Ottoman and early Republican periods as a response to the collapse of imperial Ottoman space and to competing ideologies such as Ottomanism, Islamism, Pan-Islamism, Turkism and Turanism.

The central claim of Anatolianism is that the modern Turkish nation should be understood primarily through the land, history and culture of Anatolia rather than through dynastic Ottoman identity, religious universalism, or an imagined pan-Turkic homeland in Central Asia. In its stricter nationalist forms, the movement treated Anatolia as the "real homeland" of the Turkish nation after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071; in its humanist and Blue Anatolianist forms, it interpreted Anatolia as a deep civilizational synthesis including pre-Turkish, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman and modern Turkish layers.

Anatolianism was not a single party ideology. It appeared as a loose school of thought across literature, history, sociology, geography, political theory and philosophy. Its representatives disagreed sharply on religion, ethnicity, ancient Anatolian heritage, Western civilization and the meaning of Turkishness. Because of this, scholars commonly describe several variants of Anatolianism, including cultural Anatolianism, nationalist Anatolianism, Islamic Anatolianism and humanist or Blue Anatolianism.

Terminology

The Turkish word Anadoluculuk derives from Anadolu, the Turkish name for Anatolia. It may be translated as "Anatolianism", "Anatolianist thought" or "Anatolian nationalism", depending on context.