White Turks

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White Turks (Turkish: Beyaz Türkler) is a term used in Turkey for the urban population that embraced or directly benefited from Turkey’s modernization. They are often generalized as embracing values such as secularism, Western enlightenment, positivism and republicanism. White Turks are in contrast to the so-called Black Turks, a name for the conservative, Islamic, and typically less privileged among the originally rural Anatolian population. The two terms are related to the emergence of a middle class since the end of the 20th century, and is an expression of elite consciousness and also a contempt for a section of the population which is seen as backwards. Civilizing efforts had been part of the imagination of all Turkish elites since the Tanzimat reforms. Anand Giridharadas describes the dichotomy between white and black Turks as "an extraordinary culture war over what it means to be a Turk":The battle — waged in national politics but also in life’s daily minutiae — has become, literally...

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