A well-known newspaper columnist and political figure , Gökalp was a primary ideologue of the Committee of Union and Progress . His views of " nation " , and the ways in which they have informed the development of the modern Turkish state , have made for a controversial legacy . Many historians and sociologists have suggested that his brand of nationalism contributed to the Armenian Genocide . His conception of nation was of a " social solidarity " that necessitated " cultural unity " . " Geographic nationalism " , in which everyone living under one political system was a part of the nation , was unacceptable to Gökalp , who conceived of a nation as linguistically and culturally unified . Finally , merely to believe one was a part of a nation , this was not enough , either ; one can not choose to belong to the nation , in his view , as membership in the nation is involuntary . After World War I , he was arrested for his involvement in the Committee of Union and Progress , and briefly exiled from the country to Malta
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Ziya Gökalp