TURKISH IDENTITY. ETHNIC AND CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS AND IDENTITY FORMATION

Turkish identity has two fundamental pillars: ethnic identity and cultural identity. These two pillars were formed and later consolidated on a historical route of going from the presocietal ethnic groups to the tribal organisation and then to a tricontinental empire, with an ideological Islamic identity. Türkiye followed an ascending constant in its formation, and the central element of its formation as a great power was identity – the element that gave vitality, the engine that set in motion all the other component elements.