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Orientalism is a term that depicts the Eastern cultures, specifically the Ottoman empire, by portraying the people as underdeveloped, barbaric, and exotic.

“but it must be owned that every beauty is more common here than with us... they have naturally the most beautiful complexions in the world and generally large black eyes” (Lady Mary's Letters pg 70)

This term marks the beginning of a larger effort to westernize turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Eastern cultures have historically been seen as primitive and strange through the lens of the West. In the context of the emergence of the Turkish Republic, nationalists began trying to westernize to move away from the stereotype of "oriental".

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Ottoman art and architecture experienced a renaissance during the relatively peaceful and prosperous Tulip Period (see Tulip Period architecture). Ottoman public buildings began to incorporate elements of western European designs during this period, which laid the groundwork for Ottoman Baroque architecture in the ensuing decade.

“Tulips evoked the ephemeral pleasures and seasonal rhythms of Ottoman public life. In spring, courtiers poured onto the waterways and gardens of the city, especially toward the cottages and pavilions of the Golden Horn where at Kaglthane, a new palace, the "abode of happiness" (Sa'adabad), had been constructed on French plans. Nocturnal fetes were illuminated by flragan, tulips beds festooned with colored lanterns.2 For early Turkish republican literati the craze for tulips was not only the charming emblem of the old regime. It also served as a cautionary tale of the perils of precocious modernization.” (Salzman age of tulips, page 4)

Not only did this period highlight the prosperity within the young state but was a reminder and signifying factor of architectural, economic, and social stability during this period in Ottoman history.

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The Tıfli stories provide a distinctive, realism depiction of some elements of daily life in Istanbul. They follow the protagonists as they go about their lives in the city, describing their movements through real-world urban settings, their modes of transportation, their homes and families, their clothes and fashion, their occupations and places of employment, the common foods and semiluxury goods they consume, such as coffee and tobacco, and their favorite forms of public and private entertainment, such as drinking parties (meclis).

“The objects of desire are mostly pubescent boys who have not yet grown coarse facial hair. Their pursuers are sexually mature young men (Sansar Mustafa in our story), as well as adult men (like Sultan Murad) and women. The passion for beautiful boys corresponds to the norm represented in Ottoman love poetry from the late fifteenth century onward. Later, in the Tıfli stories produced from the nineteenth century on, the concept of boy love is abandoned and replaced by heterosexual desire expressed between young men and enslaved girls (and/or women).” (Murder on Bosphorus, page 324)

These stories provide us with an internal monologue into the culture within the Ottoman society and the day to day encounters within the marketplace, and how these eventually became facets of the Turkish Republic as well as manners in which some cultural norms were discarded.

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The Ottoman Empire underwent significant military reform during the New Order, which lasted from 1789 to 1807 and was implemented in an effort to combat the Empire's waning military might. The program, led by figures such as Selim III, aimed to bring the Ottoman military forces back to life by introducing cutting-edge European military tactics, expertise, and equipment. A major attempt was made during this time to close the gap between Ottoman military prowess and that of the quickly modernizing European powers, which was indicative of the Empire's larger battle to preserve its political and territorial integrity in the face of shifting international conditions.

“Constant fiscal pressures pushed the central administration to seek solutions both old and new, including direct and indirect taxation, burdening communities with new services, and internal borrowing. Some proposed novel regulatory measures to discipline urban life and markets, within which the Janissaries were integrated. By the early 1790s, the Ottoman ruling elite, under the patronage of Selim III, unleashed a twin reform agenda to create a new disciplined and trained army, and a new treasury to regulate the resources that were reserved to finance this new army. Ottoman reformists called the new army Nizam-ı Cedid, literally the ‘New Order’, thus the name combined two terms, newness and orderliness.” (page 1567, Ali Yaycioglu - Guarding Traditions and Laws)

The New Order although disbanded after Selim's reign, signifies the message of military revival and the sense of upheaval within the ottoman empire and how the leading conservative opposing forces helped shape this narrative. Alongside all this, what came out for the future Turkish Republic and its military agenda is extremely crucial to understand here.

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A series of reform measures aimed at modernizing the Ottoman state and society, including legal, administrative, and educational reforms.

“The framers of the Tanzimat introduced new penal, maritime, and commercial codes; abolished slavery and torture, attempted to institute a new tax system; created a nondenominational, secular judicial system; reorganized the provincial administration; and formed a streamlined military officer corps to lead a new consript army” (Primary Sources on the Nineteenth Century 80-81).

The Ottoman Tanzimat sparked a trend of modernization that eventually led to the creation of the Turkish Republic. In an effort to follow the European period of enlightenment, Ottomans wished to reform their society and move on from the primitive stereotype placed on them by the west.

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Near the end of the Ottoman Empire, a group named the Young Turks fought for a homogenous state. Along with modernization, the Young Turks promoted a centralized Turkish nation.

"Pragmatic, fractious, and ideologically malleable, they came to power promising greater freedoms and imperial unity; they named their political party the Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P.). But the empire that they sought to unify was inexorably unravelling. Within several years, they settled on a principle called Turkism, which envisioned an ethnically unifed state. The idea was to create 'an ideal homeland that gathers in all the Turks and excludes foreigners.'" (Atoning for a Genocide).

The Young Turks represent another movement towards the Turkish Republic. They fought back against their sultan, Abdiülhamid, to promote a new centralized nation. Their efforts also lead to the Armenian Genocide after World War I.

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Ottoman forces killed or deported hundreds of thousands of Armenians to ethnically cleanse the empire.

“For about a month the Kurd and Turkish population of Armenia has been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities…In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization the Allied governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible these crimes all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres” (Sampling Documents Pertaining to the Armenian Genocide).

Under the guise of tensions during World War I, the Ottoman government ordered for an execution and mass deportation of the Armenians. Young Turks had a vision of creating a homogenous Republic of Turkey through annihilating those who were not the same religion or ethnicity.

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Atatürk, also known as Mustafa Kemal, was a key figure in the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and the closing stages of the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, he made notable contributions as an Ottoman military officer, particularly at Gallipoli, which helped to maintain the empire's military might even as it was crumbling. Kemal led the Turkish National Movement after the war, which resulted in the Turkish War of Independence. The Ottoman sultanate was essentially overthrown by this movement, and in 1923 the secular, nationalist Republic of Turkey was founded. Kemal's later reforms brought Turkey up to date in the legal, educational, economic, and cultural spheres, ushering in a dramatic shift from the Ottoman imperial system to a contemporary nation-state.

“Gentlemen, I must frankly and categorically declare that those who continue to occupy themselves with the chimera of the Caliphate and thereby mislead the Muslim world, are nothing but enemies of the Muslim world, and especially of Turkey." (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the Abolition of the Caliphate 238).

Atatürk serves as the embodiment of the Turkish Republic. He abolished the caliphate to make way for a new, secular, and modern nation. Through implementing new policies surrounding education, the adoption of a Latin alphabet, and foreign relations, Atatürk transformed the whole country into a nationalist society.

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The Turkish Parliament voted to abolish the role of the caliphate in 1924. Abdülmecid was the Ottoman Empire's 101st caliphate who served as a representation of the connection between religion and state.

“The dignity of the Caliphate can have no other importance for us than that of a historical memory” (Ataturk on the Abolition of the Caliphate 235).

Even though the Caliph had already lost most of its importance in the context of the Ottoman Empire, the abolition of the role served as a landmark towards the beginning of the Turkish Republic. Atatürk stated that the Caliphate only be a "historical memory" in order to progress with his vision of a secular state.

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One of Atatürk's most drastic change was the Turkish language and alphabet. By abandoning the Arabic alphabet and changing the whole country to use the Latin alphabet, he took Turkey one step further from its Ottoman roots.

"One of the significant characteristics of the nation is language. One, who regards himself as a member of the Turkish nation, should first of all and in every case, speak Turkish. If, someone, who does not speak Turkish, claims membership to Turkish culture and community, it would not be right to believe in this." (Race, Assimilation, and Kemalism pg 89).

The importance of the Turkish language encapsulates how the Ottoman empire shifted from an ethnically diverse territory with different languages, religions, and cultures to a republic that prioritized homogeneity over everything. Atatürk stated that if someone were to not speak Turkish, they do not belong in the Republic of Turkey.