“Figures of Nationalist Speech in Atatürk’s Great Speech,” in History, Politics, and Foreign Policy in Turkey, ed. Kılıç Buğra Kanat, Kadir Üstün, and Nuh Yılmaz (Ankara: SETA Foundation, 2012). Access here.  This essay explores the discourse of Turkish nationalism in Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s massive six-day speech, Nutuk, focusing on the way that the figure of “religion”  articulates relationships of authority and legitimizes certain actors and institutions in the speech.  Delivered in 1927, Nutuk offers a wide-ranging account of Turkish history, and specifies some of the enduring features of the figure of religion, such as the relationship between Ottoman state institutions and those of the new Turkish Republic.  Accounting for the continued circulation of Nutuk in Turkish society, the paper addresses the way that public, political statements surrounding the figure of religion has powerful effects on the way people imagine Turkish national identity.