Resumen de Between Regressive and Inspirational Kemalism: Iraqi Perspectives on the Ottomans after the Ottomans

Aline Schlaepfer

• Did Turkey and the newly formed Arab states truly become mutually estranged following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire? By looking at the experiences of the Iraqi political elite and intellectual circles (booksellers, poets, educators, and historians) after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, this article challenges this narrative. I focus on the role played by the Kemalist movement ( al-ḥaraka al-kamāliyya ) in Iraq in the context of growing opposition to the British Mandate and I identify in particular two forms of Kemalism, which I describe as “regressive” and “inspirational”. Regressive Kemalism aimed at renewing former Ottoman relations in order to forge new ties with Turkey, thereby attempting to weaken British power in the country, while “inspirational Kemalism” promoted the policies implemented in Republican Turkey by Mustafa Kemal as a model for a possible future in Iraq. These dimensions emphasize the complex ways in which Ottoman and then Turkish influences continued to shape the Iraqi political and ideological landscape, even after the fall of the Empire.