The article “Nevruz’ or ‘Newroz’? Deconstructing the ‘Invention’ of a Contested Tradition in Contemporary Turkey” is a dissertation, written by Lerna K. Yanik, on the study and documentation of public celebrations in Turkey during the 1990s era. According to the article, “the concept of Nevruz and its cerebrations are associated with the Kurdish identity” (Yanik 286). The cerebrations were established by an order issued by the minister of culture of Turkey back in 1991. The article seeks to find the reason as to why the Turkish state decided to adopt the Nevruz tradition and cerebrate it at a national level, and also making it a public holiday.
“The elites has revived the ritual of tradition from the archives of the nation history for the sake of social cohesion at the national level especially to those countries going through socially turbulent periods” (Yanik 385). This was aimed at acting as the cement to unite the diverse societies during times of differences. The argument of inventing traditions explains the adoption of the Nevruz tradition in 1990s. During the period of its adoption, the nation had gone through a decade of social, political, and economic change. The Turkish authority had experienced a challenge from the rise of Kurdish nationalism and the terror that came with it. The article argues that the Nevruz was intended to help adapt and cope with the above-mentioned challenges. The adoption was also aimed at neutralizing and balancing the cultural dimension of the rising Kurdish nationalism.
The celebration of Nevruz also came at the time when the Soviet Union collapsed. In this way, the celebration came as a way of fostering close ties with the Turkic republics of the former Soviet Union. The major aim of the article is to deconstruct the process of invention of tradition in a country. The author further argues that “the major importance of studying the invention of tradition is to establish what a state should consider as a threat or an opportunity” (Yanik 386). In the same measures Nevruz tradition was the means used by the elites to analyze the arising threat and opportunity at the same time. This invention shows how culture can be used for political reasons.
The author defines culture as a resource that attempts to instill the idea of sharing and cohesion among groups that are separated by different aspects from each other. In the 1990s, turkey was dealing with two different separation issues. One separation was with the Kurds and the other was with the Turkic republics. These separations were both geographic and historic. One of the separations was a threat while the other one was an opportunity. Both separations were sealed by the Nevruz celebrations.
Works cited
Yanik, Lerna K. ‘Nevruz’ Or ‘Newroz’ Deconstructing the ‘Invention’ of the Contested Tradition in Contemporary Turkey.” Middle East Studies (2006): 285-302. Print.