Late prominent Turkish professor Idris Küçükömer’s book "Alienation of the Order and Westernization" is an important work that comprehensively examines, on an economic basis, the economic dynamics of the late Ottoman period and the first century of the republic, the position of the intellectual-bureaucratic elite within these dynamics, and the historical roots of the intellectual-bureaucrat’s detachment from the people. In the preface, Küçükömer explains what he means by the alienation of the order, emphasizing that it has been propelled by Westernism, while the large masses of the people have been left outside, as outsiders.
Küçükömer defines Westernization as a current that has prevented the emergence of a genuine thesis in these lands; in contrast, "the Easternist-Islamist current," which was rendered passive, appears more consistent. In both strands, the emphasis on continuity linking the republic to the Ottoman Empire is significant. The core problem, in fact, lies in ignoring the dynamics of Europe that became increasingly visible in the late Ottoman period, and in the emergence of a false positioning that resulted from acting as if those dynamics existed in our context even though they did not. This false positioning emerges within the Westernist camp. Because it lacks a genuine grounding in these lands and is also devoid of a deep understanding of developments in the West, it does not possess an authentic thesis and therefore brings with it a process of alienation – both from itself and from the people. According to Küçükömer, this is the paradox of the Westernists.
