ABSTRACT
The Turkish national metanarrative, already in place by the late nineteenth century, stemmed from the fear of imperial dismemberment provoked by threats from abroad and within. This apprehension and perceived vulnerability and exposure brought about not only a nationalist furor, but also a conspiratorial mindset that spotted enemies everywhere against whom one should be ever watchful. Although the metanarrative was first propounded by the state discourse of the declining late Ottoman Empire (especially the Hamidian state) and inherited by Young Turks and Kemalists, the Islamist metanarrative arose from the same context. The birth of conspiracy theories relating to Jews and Freemasons can be dated to the early twentieth century, exacerbated by Zionist demands to settle in the then Ottoman territory of Palestine, and by the existence of the community of Dönme (Jewish converts, also known as ‘conversos’). The association – at times, even the identification – of Young Turks, and then Kemalists, with Freemasonry and Zionists, was at the root of Islamist conspiracy theories (Nefes 2012). Contemporary Turkish conspiracy theories are deeply rooted within a specific historical and discursive space. Their emergence, dissemination and proliferation are possible only if they comply with pre-existing ideas and sentiments. Examining the traumas revolving around the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, this chapter will explain the origins and fantasies of Turkish nationalism undergoing an imperial collapse (for studies of Turkish conspiracy theories, see Gürpınar 2011, 2013a, 2014; Özman, Dede 2012; Yeğen 2014; Nefes 2017, 2018a, 2018b).
