Opening to the East at the turn of the century: THE TURANIAN IDEA

By Bálint Somkuti

THE EASTERN, NOMADIC ORIGINS OF HUNGARIANS HAVE HAD A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON OUR NATIONAL IDENTITY. THE DEBATE ABOUT HUNGARY’S GEOPOLITICAL FEATURES, ACTING AS A BRIDGE OR FRONTIER, CAME TO THE FOREFRONT DURING THE TIME OF THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN DUAL MONARCHY (1867-1918).

Turanism, which promotes eastern orientation as opposed to western trends, has played an important role in Hungarian public discourse since the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For some, the East and “opening to the east” extended only to the Balkans. Others imagined the past and the future in cooperation with the Middle East and the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

The first Hungarian expeditions to the East around the end of the 19th century were financed and led by aristocrats who endeavoured to research