Negotiating the Borders of a Turkic World: The Journal Türk Amacı (1942–1943)

The journal Türk Amacı, published in Istanbul between 1942 and 1943, was – according to

its subtitle – intended as a ‘propagator of Turkic cultural unity.’ As such, it is an outstanding

example of the discourse of the time and offers interesting insights into how the editor and

the authors constructed and negotiated the borders of the ‘Turkic world’ they had in mind. In

a close qualitative discourse analysis, which also considers the political and social conditions

of that time, this article will show how debates about the history, language, literature, and culture

of the Turkic people(s) and neighbouring communities – as well as the existing ideologies

of Pan-Turkism – influenced the journal. To this end, it focusses on how Turkic culture and

geographical aspects are combined, how the various (sub)groups are represented in the contributions and how the authors deal with issues of language(s). Through their selection of topics and the wording used, the articles in the journal constructed a more or less unified cultural and linguistic space, a ‘Turkic world,’ that largely ignored the question of real existing borders.