Ahmed Rıza Bey's Criticism of The Western Centred World System and Responses To Samuel P. Huntıngton's Clash Of Civilisations Thesis

Abstract

Ahmed Rıza Bey addressed the distinction and conflict between Eastern and Western civilizations in his book “The Political Immorality of the West” published in 1922. He posited that the Western approach to the Eastern world was founded upon otherising and denying historical facts. From this framework, he attempted to analyze the East-West relationship/conflict. About 70 years after Ahmed Rıza Bey published his work, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Eastern Bloc disintegrated. The clash of civilizations approach became worldwide popular with the works of Samuel P. Huntington. Huntington argued that the Cold War confrontation between the Western and Eastern blocs would replaced by a conflict between Western and non-Western civilizations, especially between Western and Islamic civilizations. He also positioned Türkiye as an Eastern (Islamic) country that does not belong to the West with his conceptualization of a divided and unstable country, arguing that Türkiye’s secular structure prevents it from being on the side of the civilization to which it belongs. The paper examines and attempts to criticize Samuel P. Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations” arguments on Türkiye in line with Ahmed Rıza Bey’s theses.