The Transformation of Turkey


Book Description

In 1923, the Modern Turkish Republic rose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, proclaiming a new era in the Middle East. However, many of the contemporary issues affecting Turkish state and society today have their roots not only in the in the history of the republic, but in the historical and political memory of the state's imperial history. Here Fatma Muge Gocek draws on Turkey's Ottoman heritage and history to explore current issues of ethnicity and religion alongside Turkey's international position. This new perspective on history's influence on contemporary tensions in Turkey will contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding Turkey's accession to the EU, and offers insight into the social transformations in the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Nation-State. This analysis will be vital to those involved in the study of the Middle East Imperial History and Turkey's relations with the West.




Turkey’s Engagement with Modernity


Book Description

Turkey's Enagement with Modernity explores how the country has been shaped in the image of the Kemalist project of nationalist modernity and how it has transformed, if erratically, into a democratic society where tensions between religion, state and society continue unabated.




The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Politics


Book Description

The study of politics in Turkey : new horizons and perennial pitfalls / Güneş Murat Tezcür -- Democratization theories and Turkey / Ekrem Karakoç -- Ruling ideologies in modern Turkey / Kerem Öktem -- Constitutionalism in Turkey / Aslı Ü. Bâli -- Civil-military relations and the demise of Turkish democracy / Nil S. Satana and Burak Bilgehan Özpek -- Capturing secularism in Turkey : the ease of comparison / Murat Akan -- The political economy of Turkey since the end of World War II / Şevket Pamuk -- Neoliberal politics in Turkey / Sinan Erensü and Yahya M. Madra -- The politics of welfare in Turkey / Erdem Yörük -- The political economy of environmental policymaking in Turkey : a vicious cycle / Fikret Adaman, Bengi Akbulut, and Murat Arsel -- The politics of energy in Turkey : running engines on geopolitical, discursive, and coercive power / Begüm Özkaynak, Ethemcan Turhan, and Cem İskender Aydın -- The contemporary politics of health in Turkey : diverse actors, competing frames, and uneven policies / Volkan Yılmaz -- Populism in Turkey : historical and contemporary patterns / Yüksel Taşkın -- Old and new polarizations and failed democratizations in Turkey / Murat Somer -- Economic voting during the AKP era in Turkey / S. Erdem Aytaç -- Party organizations in Turkey and their consequences for democracy / Melis G. Laebens -- The evolution of conventional political participation in Turkey / Ersin Kalaycıoğlu -- Symbolic politics and contention in the Turkish Republic / Senem Aslan -- Islamist activism in Turkey / Menderes Çınar -- The Kurdish movement in Turkey : understanding everyday perceptions and experiences / Dilan Okcuoglu -- The Transnational Mobilization of the Alevis of Turkey : from invisibility to the struggle for equality / Ceren Lord -- Politics of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey : limits and prospects of populism / Fatih Resul Kılınç and Şule Toktaş -- A theoretical account of Turkish foreign policy under the AKP / Tarık Oğuzlu -- US-Turkey relations since WWII : from alliance to transactionalism / Serhat Güvenç and Soli Özel -- Turkey and Europe : historical asynchronicities and perceptual asymmetries / Hakan Yılmaz -- Turkey's foreign policy in the Middle East : an identity perspective / Lisel Hintz -- Turkey and Russia : historical patterns and contemporary trends in bilateral relations / Evren Balta and Mitat Çelikpala -- Citizenship and protest behavior in Turkey / Ayhan Kaya -- Gender politics and the struggle for equality in Turkey / Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat -- Human rights organizations in Turkey / Başak Çalı -- Truth, justice, and commemoration initiatives in Turkey / Onur Bakiner -- The politics of media in Turkey : chronicle of a stillborn media system / Sarphan Uzunoğlu -- The AKP's rhetoric of rule in Turkey : political melodramas of conspiracy from "ergenekon" to "mastermind" / Erdağ Göknar -- The transformation of political cinema in Turkey since the 1960s : a change of discourse / Zeynep Çetin-Erus and M. Elif Demoğlu -- Political music in Turkey : the birth and diversification of dissident and conformist music (1920-2000) / Mustafa Avcı.










National and State Identity in Turkey


Book Description

National and State Identity in Turkey uses the concepts of national and state identity to examine Turkey's domestic and international politics and explain how the country's position in the international system has changed over the last ten years. State identity is understood as the end result of a transformed national identity, linking both domestic and international levels. Toni Alaranta argues that there has been a radical reformulation of Turkey's national identity, interest, and positioning in the world since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. This transformed identity has helped the country renegotiate its status in the world. He first examines the changing nature of Turkey's national identity before looking at the struggle between two extreme positions--secularism and Islamism. He then explains how the "New Turkey" discourse is part of an Islamic-conservative ideology that targets the notion of the "domestic other," or minorities, versus the Turkish-Muslim "self." This discourse is transforming not only the notion of national identity but also Turkey's relations with the rest of the world, and particularly with the European Union.




Turkey, a Century of Change in State and Society


Book Description

The Republic of Turkey celebrates the centenary of its proclamation in 2023. Founded on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, one of the world’s greatest empires both in terms of its geographical extent and its longevity, Republican Turkey has gone through a century of profound and constant changes and transformations from politics to society, economy to religion, or culture to history. These changes have been produced by inner and foreign policies carried out and implemented by the country’s leaders – from Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current Turkish President in 2023 - but also under the influence of the regional and international context. This collective work aims to take stock of the great achievements of the Turkish republican project. It attempts to draw a general presentation of the evolution of contemporary Turkey in six main areas which constitute six major issues for the country: the general political evolution of Turkey focusing on the issue of citizenship; the transformations in the Turkish economy through a political economy analysis; the evolution of the relationship between religion, state and society; Turkey’s nation-building and the Kurdish question, which still seeks a solution; the changes in Turkish foreign policy focusing on the relationship between Turkey and the West; the relationship between Turkey and Europe, caught between the model of civilization for the republican regime and the prospects of accession to the European Union. Several “focus points” also concentrate on specific subjects such as the Alevi issue, the Cyprus issue or the Turkish soft power with an accent on Africa.




Turkey in Transition: Politics, Society and Foreign Policy


Book Description

This book expands upon transitions in political and societal fabric of Turkey together with its eventual reorientation of foreign policy in broader regional and global contexts during the Justice and Freedom Party era.




The Turkish Deep State


Book Description

The deep state ranks among the most critical issues in Turkish politics. This book traces its origins and offers an explanation of the emergence and trajectory of the deep state; the meaning and function of informal and authoritarian institutions in the formal security sector of a democratic regime; the involvement of the state in organized crime; armed conflict; corruption; and massive human rights violations. This book applies an innovative methodological approach to concept formation and offers a mid-range theory of deep state that sheds light on the reciprocal relationship between the state and political regimes and elaborates on the conditions for the consolidation of democracy. It traces the path-dependent emergence and trajectory of the deep state from the Ottoman Empire to the current Turkish Republic and its impact on state-society relations. It reads state formation, consolidation, and breakdown from the perspective of this most resilient phenomenon of Turkish politics. The analysis also situates recent developments regarding AKP governments, including the EU accession process, civil-military relations, coup trials, the Kurdish question, and the Gülen Movement in their context within the deep state. Moreover, this case-study offers an analytical framework for cross-regional comparative analysis of the deep states. Addressing the lacuna in academic scholarship on the deep state phenomenon in Turkey, this book is essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in democratization, politics and Middle East Studies.




Transforming Socio-Natures in Turkey


Book Description

This book is an exploration of the environmental makings and contested historical trajectories of environmental change in Turkey. Despite the recent proliferation of studies on the political economy of environmental change and urban transformation, until now there has not been a sufficiently complete treatment of Turkey's troubled environments, which live on the edge both geographically (between Europe and Middle East) and politically (between democracy and totalitarianism). The contributors to Transforming Socio-Natures in Turkey use the toolbox of environmental humanities to explore the main political, cultural and historical factors relating to the country’s socio-environmental problems. This leads not only to a better grounding of some of the historical and contemporary debates on the environment in Turkey, but also a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of framings around more-than-human interactions in the country in a time of authoritarian populism. This book will be of interest not only to students of Turkey from a variety of social science and humanities disciplines but also contribute to the larger debates on environmental change and developmentalism in the context of a global populist turn.