The Evolution of Populism from the Second Constitutional Period to the Early Republican Era

The origins of Turkish populism can be extended back to the Second Constitutional Period. We can find the first formulations of this ideology in the writings of nationalist intellectuals like Ziya G？kalp and Yusuf Ak？ura. In this sense, it can be argued that the fate of populism in the Turkish context is determined by the history of Turkish nationalism from its early stages on. Populism was considered as one key constituting element of Turkish nationalism. With the incorporation of the idea of solidarism into the populist idiom via Durkheimian sociology by G？kalp, Turkish people were imagined as an unprivileged and classless nation. This legacy was also continued by the ruling elite of the early Republican period