Page - 121 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

121 | www.limina-graz.eu hande Birkalan-Gedik | muslim | martyr | masculine In my view, White’s diagnosis about Anatolia being sacred best explains the above-quoted verses from the Turkish national anthem, where blood determines the discourse of martyrdom. Besides soil being imagined as female, women held a special position in Kemalist nationalism as the emancipation of women under Kemalism was part of a broader political project of nation-building and secularization. This process emphasized the pre-Islamic, “authentic” features of an im- agined womanhood. It was trying to find anti-Islamic but certainly Turk- ish roots of a common identity that were taken from the “democratic” and “egalitarian” society of Central Asia, where Turkish women presum- ably stood alongside Turkish men. This vision, which existed in the ear- lier phases of Turkish nationalism, also created a romantic view of women (Kandiyoti 1991, 41). While the idea of a “pre-Islamic” woman marks an important nuance be- tween the “old” earlier Kemalist nationalism and the “new” nationalism of the AKP, the role for women as “martyr’s mothers” is what connects them. In either scenario—whether secular or religious nationalism in Tur- key—it is very difficult for women to imagine a place for themselves within the nation as actual “actors.” As motherhood emphasizes reproduction women are imagined as mothers, thus as providers. They are the agents of generational continuity. They are supposed to provide the nation with sons who are to become soldiers in the future. If killed in a war, they will be martyrs. Yet the public opinion is that mothers are not supposed to cry when they lose them to any war. On the contrary, they should be grateful that their sons (also husbands, fathers or brothers) followed a “holy path” and that they are reunited in heaven with God and the Prophet Mohammad. Interestingly, this interpretation of martyrdom seeped into secular causes. Military and Masculinity in Turkey Militarism implies, even requires, that martyrdom becomes a natural re- sult. Slogans such as “every Turk is born as a soldier” (Her Türk asker doğar), or “martyrs do not die, homeland cannot be divided” (Şehitler ölmez, vatan bölünmez) are illustrative of this idea. Like nationalism, militarism Earlier Kemalist nationalism and the “new” nationalism of the AKP may be connected by the role for women as “martyr’s mothers.”