Development Party Rule Research Articles

Dyplomacja religijna Republiki Turcji

The aim of this article is to analyse the religious dimension of Turkey’s foreign policy in the era of Justice and Development Party rule and the forms of its implementation. The article argues that the Republic of Turkey, in the era of AKP rule, is becoming one of the main state actors in international relations, which is beginning to use religion as an instrument of soft power in its foreign policy. At the same time, using “religious diplomacy” as a formal tool to strengthen the state’s image in the international arena. „Religious diplomacy” is the primary tool of Turkish soft power to strengthen the country’s international position after the Cold War. It aims to promote the Turkish model of Islam as a moderate type of Islam that can coexist with modernity and multiculturalism. It also promotes Turkish language and culture alongside religious curricula by linking Sunni Islam and Turkish nationalism.

The effect of international relations on democratization of Turkey between 2002-2010 during justice and development party rule

Democratization takes place under different conditions in every country. The social structure and that of state play important roles, and there are many other internal and external factors for this process. Turkey also went through different phases for democratization processes. This is a qualitative study and formed by reviewing related literature and evaluating. It focuses on external factors between 2002 and 2010 because there was a struggle and long-lasting conflicts between secular elites and conservative democrats during this time. With the help and encouragement of European Union (EU), Justice and Development Party governments were able to eliminate the status quo inherited from 1980 military coup. Although democratization of Turkey proceeded with the effect of many different factors, the effect of international relations in this era was priceless for the governments of that time. Especially Turkey’s candidate process to membership of EU enforced conditionality by these countries. Even more the ruling party consented to democratize. Under the control of them, Turkey made a relatively smooth transition to more democratic state.

Turkey’s syrian policy under justice and development party rule after 2009

The Justice and Development Party's Syria policy has followed a volatile and pragmatic line. Prior to 2011, when the Arab Spring began in Syria, strategic cooperation was established within the framework of liberal and zero-problem policies with neighbors. When Turkey's democratic reform proposals against the opposition movements that emerged in 2011 did not realize, Turkey changed its position against the Assad regime and started to support the opposition. During this period, weapons aid was also given to the dissidents. Later, with the involvement of Russia and the USA, the balances in Syria changed and Turkey turned to defensive policies that would protect its internal and border security. In this context, military operations were carried out against Syria. However, these operations were carried out with the consensus of Russia and the USA. Although the JDP declared the Assad regime to be an enemy after 2011, it has come to the point where it is possible to negotiate with the Assad regime in the later period. This study makes a process analysis of Turkey's changing Syria policy.

Sociological Interpretation of Revolution: Understanding Transformation under Justice and Development Party Rule

Sociological Interpretation of Revolution: Understanding Transformation under Justice and Development Party Rule

Flexible Nation: The Turkish Nation under the Justice and Development Party’s Rule

AbstractThis article explains how the Turkish nation’s composition has changed under Justice and Development Party rule. Turkish nationalism and Turkish national identity have dramatically changed since 2010, when the Kurdish Opening process was started by former prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Syrian refugee crisis and the influx of Syrian refugees into Turkey created another change in Turkish national identity. Increasing religiosity in Turkey and the use of Islam by the Justice and Development Party created a flexible nation, where all Sunni Muslims can be considered members even though they are not ethnically Turkish. The author uses primary sources, such as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s speeches since 2010, to show how his discourse became more embracing of non-Turkish Muslim groups and created a dynastic understanding of nationalism based on religion rather than the idea of an ethnically homogenous, secular Turkish nation.

Studying autocratization in Turkey: political institutions, populism, and neoliberalism

AbstractIn this review article I classify the literature on the Turkish political regime during Justice and Development Party rule as two waves of studies, and a potential third wave. The first wave was prevalent at least until the Gezi uprisings in 2013. I argue that, in this wave, the main debate was between two rival and largely culturalist perspectives with conceptual toolkits that tended to interpret regime change through the lens of social transformations. I also maintain that scholarly works written from the hegemonic perspective of this wave, utilizing center–periphery and state–society dichotomies, and a narrow range of concepts from the democratization literature (from defective democracy to democratic consolidation), have misidentified/misinterpreted burgeoning autocratization in Turkey as democratization, albeit with problems. The Gezi uprisings brought to the fore already existing authoritarian features of the Turkish political regime and led to the second wave of studies. In the second wave, the focus was on naming Turkey’s new political regime as a diminished subtype of authoritarianism, and thick descriptions of different facets of Turkey’s new authoritarianism. Finally, I suggest that there is a need for a third wave that builds on recent studies and focuses on explaining Turkey’s autocratization process and democratic breakdown, as well as the impact of autocratization on other aspects of Turkish politics and society.

THE ROLE OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS IN TURKISH DEMOCRACY HISTORY

This paper is an attempt to analyze the impact of the external relations of Turkey upon its process of democratization. By considering main developments in Turkey’s democratic transition, the aim is to trace the influences of Turkish foreign policy choices on strengthening democracy in Turkey. In this context, this study argues that westernization had been a modernization project of Turkey with the strategic and economic concerns until the end of the Cold War. In the post-Cold War period, the political Europeanization project of Turkey has made significant contributions to the process of democratization since the Helsinki Summit of 1999. However, with the problematic relationship of Turkey-EU after the golden years (1999-2005) of rapprochement, Turkey went to a redefinition process of its orientation in modernization, democratization and foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party rule in the last decade.

Nationalism in Turkey under Justice and Development Party Rule: The Logic of Masculinist Protection

This study analyzes how the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) understanding of new nationalism, or neo-Ottomanism, incorporates the logic of masculinist protection in its discourse. This necessitates a security-oriented state that firmly connects domestic politics with foreign policy. The concept of the logic of masculinist protection, borrowed from Iris Morrison Young, refers to the reinforcement of a gender hierarchy in politics, and signifies a paternalistic state charged with protecting a society identified with femininity.

CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS DURING THE PERIOD OF THE JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY IN TURKEY

In recent years, under Justice and Development Party rule, intervention by the Turkish military into politics via formal and informal mechanisms has decreased. This article aims to explain why the Turkish military’s influence in politics through both formal and informal mechanisms has been decreasing under Justice and Development Party rule since the 2002 elections. We argue that the two main reasons for the military’s decreasing role in politics in this period are the impact of the reforms intended to democratize civilmilitary relations within the context of the Turkey’s harmonization packages to European Union acquis and the alleged Ergenekon organization and coup plans. In the first stage, the formal mechanisms of the military decreased substantially with the introduction of the harmonization packages in 2003 and 2004. However, the military continued to intervene in politics largely through informal mechanisms such as speeches, press statements and declarations given by the senior members of the military on domestic and foreign policy issues. Since 2008, with the beginning of the second stage, as a result of the alleged Ergenekon organization and coup plans, the military has been inclined, to a great extent, to use informal mechanisms not as a way of intervening in politics but rather to protect its own public prestige.

Turkey and the European Union: Europeanization Without Membership

This article analyzes Turkey's relationship with the European Union (EU) against the background of the latest Turkish parliamentary elections in June 2011. The main argument is that Turkey's European transformation at home and abroad will continue under the third term of the Justice and Development Party rule, yet Turkish rulers will increasingly find it difficult to put EU membership issue at the center of this process. At present, it appears that neither is the EU eager and flexible as to offer Turkey credible membership prospects nor is Turkey's ruling party maintaining the same degree of commitment to the EU as it had during its first term in government. Rather than the dynamics of the accession process, the growing need to find a solution to the decade-long Kurdish dispute in a liberal-democratic fashion as well as Turkey's ability to deal with the rising foreign and security policy challenges in the context of the Arab Spring will shape Turkey's European transformation in years ahead.