Challenging the ‘cultural hegemony’ of the left in Cold War Turkey: the case of the Yeniden Millî Mücadele (National Struggle Anew) movement

This article explores the creation of consensus around official and unofficial anti-communist activities in Turkey by focusing on the weekly periodical Yeniden Millî Mücadele/National Struggle Anew (1970-1980) as a case study. The magazine described itself as a publication that was anti-communist, anti-capitalist, anti-zionist and respectful towards religious beliefs, and was associated with the national islamist organisation Mücadele Birligi (Union for Struggle). After a brief historical outline, the paper discusses some of the basic ideas of the magazine, and shows that these were intricately connected with the ideological struggle against the supposed cultural hegemony of the left. It then illustrates how National Struggle Anew took advantage of myths and symbols of the Ottoman and Turkish past in order to construct an anti-communist discourse and the image of the nation’s enemies. The investigation has been conducted through a conceptual analysis of a selection of articles that appeared in the magazine, mainly in its first year of publication.