The Ottoman Empire left an abandoned

cultural heritage, one which was not

adopted by its successor nation-states.

The founders of the post-Ottoman nationstates

preferred to establish their national

identity on the historical basis of denying

the imperial legacy and opening a corridor

in history for their nations as actors. The

Kemalist political leaders and intellectuals

in the Republic of Turkey interpreted the

late history of the Ottoman Empire as

progressing toward Kemalist secularism,

which concluded with the collapse of

the Ottoman imperial project by the

“betrayal” of other nations, such as the

Arabs and Albanians, and the rebirth of

the Turkish nation from its ashes with the

war of independence.1