In Milliyetçi Muhafazakâr Neslin Çatısı (The Umbrella of the Nationalist Conservative Generation), published by İletişim Yayınları, Mehmet Güldal turns the spotlight on the founding and rise of the İlim Yayma Cemiyeti (Society for the Dissemination of Knowledge) between 1951 and 1981, meticulously tracing the roots of the Islamic conservative wave that became visible in Türkiye after 1980. Analysing within its historical context the society’s ideal of raising a pious/conservative generation, the book offers a robust guide for readers wishing to understand the broad line of right-wing politics that stretches from the anti-communist associations to the Akıncılar.
“Grasping the society’s years of foundation and ascent is also vitally important for understanding the Islamic conservative wave that rose after 1980. The İlim Yayma Cemiyeti is not merely a religious group or association; it is an organisation that in itself played an important role in raising conservative generations capable of governing the country in Türkiye.”
The fact that the Islamic conservative wave became visible after the 1980 coup goes a long way towards explaining why Islam is understood as though it were a post-1980 phenomenon in Turkish political life. Yet understanding an awakening or a wave requires following its organisation, its social base, its leading figures and its intellectual roots.
In Milliyetçi Muhafazakâr Neslin Çatısı: İlim Yayma Cemiyeti (1951-1981), Mehmet Güldal does just that. Discussing the historical moment that made the emergence of the İlim Yayma Cemiyeti possible, he offers a detailed analysis of its ideal of raising a pious/conservative generation, its reactionary modernist outlook, and its pioneering and precursor figures. In doing so, he establishes the society’s identity as a nationalist conservative umbrella.
Addressing readers curious about the development, organisation and ideological orientations of nationalist conservatism in Türkiye, the book also broadens the frame of the right-wing political world it speaks to, alongside movements such as the anti-communist associations, the Akıncılar movement and the “Mücadeleciler”.
