Kahraman GÜRBÜZ
The ethnically and religiously diverse structure of the Ottoman Empireled to significant changes in state administration, under the impact of nationalist movements originating in the nineteenth century.Nationalist movements resulted in the separation of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, the Balkans and the Arabian Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire. To prevent these separations and save the state from collapse, the idea of Ottomanism emerged, aiming to treat all citizens equally. However, this policy failed. Instead, the idea of uniting all Muslims under the Ottoman Sultan as the Caliph of Islam gained prominence and the ideology of Islamism was adopted. Nonetheless, the separation of Muslim Albanians and Arabs weakened Islamism, leading to the adoption of Turkish nationalism. Ziya Gökalp emerged as the ideologist of Turkish nationalism and emphasized the creation of national consciousness and the strengthening of national culture by harmonizing nationalism with social and cultural realities. This study examines the ideologies of Islamism, Westernism, Turkish nationalism and Ziya Gökalp's place within these movements at first.Then, Ziya Gökalp's life, the basic features of his ideology and his understanding of nationalismwere analyzed through qualitative research methods based on a review of the literature, archive documents andinformation reported inthe press of the timeand Gökalp's ideological effects on the formation of the new Türkiye are discussed.It has been emphasized that, in line with the ideology of Turkism, Türkiye should adopt a foreign policy approach that prioritizes Turkic states in order to enable the Turkish nation to reach the desired level and power.