Parties In Turkey Research Articles

Propositions for the emancipatory potential of urban spectacle

During the last few decades, the role of the spectacle within urban settings has produced groundbreaking research, mainly in Euro-American and Southeast Asian settings. However, its full potential to account for creative forms of encounter and political engagement has not by and large been part of the rich scholarship on cities, particularly with regard to regions lacking full democratic rights. Toward this end, this article investigates the emancipatory potential of urban spectacle as an anchor for new forms of dissent by groups without access to conventional political channels. Specifically, it explores how, in the early 2000s, pro-Kurdish parties in Turkey, who were either banned by the state or denied access to parliament by targeted legal restrictions, used urban spectacle to develop a mass oppositional movement. In the southern city of Diyarbakır, these groups organized a number of themed mass demonstrations and urban festivals, such as the movement of civil disobedience and Newroz festivals, to enhance their public visibility, create new opportunities for popular mobilization, and support practices of active citizenship. The article concludes that an awareness of the emancipatory potential of urban spectacle can contribute to understanding the multiple dimensions of public space and its relationship to democratic action.

The rural roots of the rise of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey

ABSTRACTThis paper puts forward four main arguments regarding the persistence of significant rural support of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) in Turkey since late 2002. Firstly, since the previous coalition government implemented the harshest neoliberal measures in the agricultural sector, small farmers do not directly associate neoliberal assault with the AKP administration. Secondly, villagers have utilized both the ballot box and direct action in order to bargain with the AKP. Thirdly, although the AKP government did not fundamentally depart from neoliberalism, the return of agricultural subsidies, significant expansion of social assistance, and rapid infrastructure construction have secured a large rural following for the party. Finally, the AKP government has effectively used coercive methods to prevent the emergence of an emancipatory political alternative.

Turkey's attempts to improve its reputation during the making of the post-war Turkish-American rapprochment (1945–1950)

ABSTRACTMaking use of archival material and newspapers, this article argues that Turkish concerns over reputation played a central role for Turkey in the making of the post-War Turkish-American rapprochement. Both government and opposition parties in Turkey as well as Turkish journalists, diplomats and students who were studying in the United States waged a campaign to make Turkey appear to be a reputable, modern, and civilized ally of the United States. Establishing an information bureau in New York, trying to prevent the exhibition of American movies that misrepresented Turkey and gladly hosting American journalists who visited Turkey, Turkish authorities tried to give the message that Turkey was under the Soviet threat and deserved to be included in the Marshall Plan.

Evaluation of Health Care Services Provided in Political Public Meetings in Turkey: A Forgotten Detail in Politics.

Political parties in Turkey execute political public meetings (PPMs) during their election campaign for members of the parliament (MoP). A great number of people attend these meetings. No guidelines exist regarding preparation and organization of health care services provided during these meetings. Furthermore, there is no study evaluating health care problems encountered in previous PPMs. Political parties arranged PPMs in 2015 during the election campaign for general election of MoP. The present study aimed to investigate the context of health care services, the distribution of assigned health staff, as well as the number and the symptoms of patients admitted in health care tents in these PPMs. Two general elections for MoP were done in Turkey on June 7, 2015 and November 1, 2015. Health care services were provided by the City Emergency Medical Services Department (CEMSD) in the cities. Demographic characteristics, symptoms, comorbid conditions, treatment, discharge, and hospital transfer of the patients were obtained from patient medical registration records. Information about the distribution and the number of the assigned staff was received from local CEMSDs. The impact of variables such as the number of attendees, heat index, humidity, and the day of the week on the number of patients and the patient presentation rate (PPR) were analyzed. A total of 97 PPMs were analyzed. The number of total attendees was 5,265,450 people. The number of patients seeking medical help was 1,991. The PPR was 0.5 (0.23-0.91) patients per 1,000 attendees. Mean age of the patients was 40 (SD=19) years old while 1,174 (58.9%) of the patients were female. A total of 1,579 patients were treated in the tents and returned to the PPM following treatment. Two-hundred and three patients were transferred to a hospital by ambulance. Transfer-to-hospital ratio (TTHR) was 0.05 (0.0-0.13) patients per 1,000 attendees. None of the patients suffered sudden cardiac death (SCD) or cardiac arrest. Medical conditions were the main cause for admission. The most common symptoms were dizziness, low blood pressure, fatigue, and hypertension, respectively. The most commonly used medical agents included pain killers and myorelaxants. The number of attendees, heat index, and weekend days were positively correlated with the number of the patients. The majority of medical conditions encountered in PPMs are easily treatable in health care tents settled in the meeting area. The number of attendees, heat index, and weekend days are factors associated with the number of patients. CeyhanMA, DemirGG, GülerGB. Evaluation of health care services provided in political public meetings in Turkey: a forgotten detail in politics. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(6):607-613.

Inter-party competition on Facebook in a non-election period in Turkey: equalization or normalization?

ABSTRACT Equalization and normalization theses explain the impact of social media on the competition among political actors, such as political parties and candidates. In this context, this study analyzes whether the equalization or the normalization thesis is valid in terms of inter-party competition on Facebook in a non-election period in Turkey by using an automated cluster analysis, T test analysis and Mann-Whitney U test. The main research question of this study is whether the use of social media favours major or minor parties in Turkey. The findings of the analysis show that the inter-party competition on Facebook in Turkey generally confirms the claims of the normalization thesis.

Political Islam (The Justice and Development Party in Turkey) Versus the Gülen Movement

Islam has been interpreted by individuals since its birth and Political Islam is one of them. Moderate Muslim Scholars have identified some of its interpretations as extreme due to their consequences and negative effects on Muslims and others. Political Islam has a long history and the Justice and Development Party (the AKP) is a new face of it in 21st Century. The purpose of this paper is to explore the defining political Islam, especially in the characteristics of the Ruling Party (Justice and Development Party) and compare its Islam to Hizmet (service) Movement. Although the AKP has long benefitted from the valuable support of Fethullah Gülen and his followers in the way of democratizing the state and its institutions the two allies have clearly separated from each other since 2013 maybe a little bit earlier. This separation has created a massive impact on Muslims as well as on other people. Due to a great polarization, hatred and enmity between the two groups and its huge effect on society it has become a necessity to analyze the interpretation of Islam by these two groups.

Conceptions of ‘the international’ beyond the core: Turkey in the post-Cold War era

ABSTRACTInternational relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of ‘the international’ based on the experiences of core actors. A burgeoning literature has asked what IR would look like if non-core actors’ conceptions of ‘the international’ were also considered. This article analyzes conceptions of ‘the international’ in Turkey as an example of a non-core context. In doing this, the article develops and offers a new analytical framework which breaks down the components of conceptions of ‘the international’ into three questions: ‘what’, ‘who’, and ‘where’ of world politics – namely, the main dynamics of world politics, the main actors of world politics, and the location where world politics takes place. I utilize this framework to empirically analyze the election manifestos and party programs of the political parties in Turkey, and tease out their conceptions of ‘the international.’ The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for IR scholarship in general.

The Ideological Transformation of the Republican People's Party in Turkey (1965-1980) : Kemalism, Populism, and Social Democracy

The Ideological Transformation of the Republican People's Party in Turkey (1965-1980) : Kemalism, Populism, and Social Democracy

Wolves in sheep clothing or victims of times? Discussing the immoderation of incumbent Islamic parties in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the “immoderation” of incumbent Islamic parties – defined by the pursuit of a moral agenda and by an unwillingness to compromise with the opposition – through a comparative study of four incumbent Islamic parties in the socio-politically different regimes of Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. Building on literature from religion and politics, social psychology, sociology of religion, and on the inclusion-moderation hypothesis, this study argues that (1) Islamic parties’ strong organizations resulted both in their success and in the absence of internal pluralism and that (2) their dominant status in the party system consolidated their majoritarian understanding of democracy. Through its discussion of “immoderation” this study aims to contribute to the interdisciplinary literature on religion and politics.

Obscuring the control of the state in Turkey: the articulation of discourse of private Islam

ABSTRACTIn 2012, the main opposition party in Turkey, the CHP, accused the ruling AKP of making ideological and unscientific educational reforms. By using discourse analysis, this study examines the debate in the Committee on National Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and scrutinizes how politicians articulate the discourse of private Islam. Furthermore, it explicates how this discourse obscures the state’s power over Islam. Although the parties advocated different educational policies in the 2012 debate, their articulation reinforces the hegemonic configuration of power by which the state as a public institution controls private Islam.

Neoliberal populism and governmentality in Turkey

This article is based on the question “How does the current governing party in Turkey, namely Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), reproduce its social power?” In order to answer this question, it is suggested that a combination of the different techniques of governmentality of the ruling party should be analyzed, with particular reference to the policies and institutions reconfiguring the role of the state and the notion of public deliberation in the midst of the rising discontents of neoliberalism in Turkey. As an instance of such a technique of neoliberal governmentality in populist content, the formation of the communication centers by the AKP in Turkey will be investigated. For this purpose, firstly, the rise of the populism will be related to the increasing need for channels of political participation and a solution to public demands in the midst of rising authoritarian tendencies, in order to solve the political legitimacy crisis as well as creating new forms of representation for the politically excluded masses. Then, secondly, the main cornerstones of the AKP populism will be analyzed and the formation and the future of the communication centers as a particular case will be discussed in details. Lastly, it will be argued that those centers do not only reflect the populist concerns of the governing party but also serve as a crucial source of electoral success, as well as managing tensions stemming from the neoliberal configuration of the public sphere and state–citizen relations.

Political Islam, Marriage, and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

The plethora of pathways leading to family formation decisions has made the causal assessment of the influence of politics and religion on marriage and fertility difficult. The authors exploit the unique opportunity offered by the emergence of a new political party in Turkey, and the electoral features of the country’s majoritarian system, to estimate the effect of politics and religion on marriage and fertility. The AK Parti (Justice and Development Party), with an explicitly Islamist platform, won Turkish elections in 2002, taking both a pro-natalist and pro-family stance, with increasing welfare expenditures and an explicit neoliberal agenda on macroeconomic issues. The authors analyze the results of the 2004 local elections using a regression discontinuity design and show that fertility and marriage rates have been significantly higher in districts where the AK Parti won. They argue that increased local welfare provision is the main explanatory mechanism, also discussing other alternative and complementary mechanisms.

Communist Party of Turkey and Soviet Foreign Policy

The 1920s were the heyday of anti-imperialist struggle for the Bolsheviks. The relationship between anti-imperialist nationalist movements and communism was articulated and generally supported by Moscow. In 1919, the Communist International (Komintern) was established in Moscow to coordinate the activities of the foreign communist parties around the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. For better or worse, the communist parties thus emerged in foreign lands as the ideological allies and foreign policy instruments of the Soviet Union. Komintern, the Third International, in a radical departure from the precedents set by both the First and Second Internationals, was no longer to be a series of national parties, but more like a single communist party with branches in different countries. Between congresses, the highest authority was to be the Executive Committee, which would have powers parallel to and superseding the powers of the Central Committees of the individual parties. It was to be a directive center of the world revolution. Turkish nationalists and Russian Bolsheviks found themselves threatened by the Western imperial powers. Common struggle against the Western imperial powers threatening both sides led to a mutually advantageous collusion between Moscow and Ankara. In the encouraging atmosphere of friendship between the Bolsheviks and Turkish national movement, left-wing activities gained momentum with the emergence of a number of left-socialist organizations in Turkey. The most important socialist movement was the Communist Party of Turkey.

Do Party Lists Matter? Political Party Strategies in Legislative Candidate Nominations1

In electoral systems with closed party lists, it is argued that the importance of central party organisation increases at the expense of individual candidates’ role in candidate nomination processes. This logic also underestimates individuals’ electoral potential and focuses on individuals’ allegiance to the leadership as the main asset for increasing their chances of being nominated. We argue that forming a party-list is a strategic decision based on the principle of furthering the interest of the party as a whole rather than rewarding individuals’ commitment to the party and is conditional on inter-party competition. We conveyed an original dataset of candidate lists for major parties in Turkey’s parliamentary elections between 1999 and 2015 and found empirical evidence for the significance of candidate lists as being used as strategic tools in inter-party electoral competition.

The Gülen Movement and Surviving in Exile: The case of Australia

ABSTRACTIn 2010, cracks began to emerge in the tacit alliance between the ruling Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party in Turkey, AK Party) and the Gülen Movement (GM) and escalated into an all-out struggle in 2013. Following the failed 15 July coup in 2016, Erdoğan sought to eradicate the movement completely, seizing $11 billion in GM assets and purging over 150,000 people from all sectors, public and private. However, Erdoğan is aware that victory at home will not defeat the GM, as it operates in around 160 countries. As a result, he has put pressure on many nations to crackdown on the GM and their activities. While this approach has had some success in the Gulf Countries, Africa and South East Asia, it has been largely ineffective in the West, and Australia is no exception. Therefore, this paper will explore the Australian case and look at the factors behind continued local support for the GM. It will argue that the GM has made excellent use of opportunity spaces and structures in both academia and the NGO sector where it has been able to control its own narrative and engage effectively in cultural diplomacy, particularly amongst the political class.

Observation of the Ankara 16th Penal Court hearing of case against former co-leader of People’s democratic party (HDP) Figen Yuksekdag 4 July 2017

In July 2017, The Human Rights Committee of the Norwegian Bar Association conducted a trial observation in the trial of Mrs. Yuksdekdag, former co-leader of the HDP party in Turkey. The observer was together with 14 other international observers denied entrance to both the courtroom and the press conference in Ankara, and has given a detailed written statement on these accounts. The observation report summarizes the current situation of the Rule of Law in Turkey and the increasing international concerns, exemplified by the case against Mrs. Yuksekdag. The Human Rights Committee of the Norwegian Bar Association express deep concern regarding the independence of the Turkish Judiciary, the extensive use of emergency decrees, the seemingly arbitrary dismissal of thousands of public servants, along with the Turkish government's criminal persecution of amongst others human rights defenders, journalists, politicians, lawyers, prosecutors and judges.

Online political trolling in the context of post-Gezi social media in Turkey

Abstract Drawing on the approach suggesting that the analysis of social media in relation to democracy should be provided within its own social context, we outline the social media activities adopted by the ruling populist political party in Turkey, namely, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed at reinforcing its political ideology. We also unpack the ‘political online trolling’ as a manifestation of online practices driving the post-truth politics in Turkey. Following the Gezi protests, when social media and, in particular, Twitter gained trust and popularity as a news source due to severe censorship and polarization in the traditional mass media, the AKP adopted an aggressive strategy to attack and destroy all opposition as well as to manipulate public opinion through their political trolling activities. Employing the approach of digital ethnography and drawing on the archive of mass media outputs about the trolling events, we discuss how the ruling party has adopted online political trolling as a strategy, one that is deeply embedded in the political system, politicians and mainstream media. We also explain how trolling practices are facilitated by the coordinated work of these institutions to silence all critical opposing voices, in particular journalists and how they stifle public debate that is grounded in truth and evidence. We have also concluded that the chilling effects of political trolling lead to quitting social media, self-censorship and less participation in public debate of unprotected citizens who are the most vulnerable targets for the trolls. The trolls have targeted the dissent voices not only for criticizing the government publicly, but also to brand them as terrorists and traitors through increasingly polarizing and discriminating language based on nationalist and religious perspectives, which peaked in the aftermath of the 15 July coup attempt and the debates on the presidential regime. Far from condemnation of the trolling activities along with their polarizing and hateful rhetoric, the mainstream culture and public discourse seem to have been taken over by an increasing trolling subculture, which inhibits public debate, discredits the sources of truth, fosters fanaticism and encourages a hate discourse and violence, all of which are undermining democracy.

Editorial

The three articles published in this issue cover a wide range of topics. Sociologist Joost Jongerden’s article, “A spatial perspective on political group formation in Turkey after the 1971 coup: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party of Turkey (PKK)”, examines the Kurdistan Revolutionaries, the milieu from which the PKK emerged in 1978. The second article in our October issue shifts focus to the Kurdish diaspora in Europe. Psychologists Ruth Kevers, Peter Rober and Lucia De Haene in their collaborative piece titled “The role of collective identifications in family processes of post-trauma reconstruction: An exploratory study of Kurdish refugee families and their diasporic community”, engage in the study of a group of five families in Belgium. The third article in our issue is titled “Kurds in the USSR, 1917-1956” and penned by J. Otto Pohl, a historian of the Soviet Union.

FUTURE SCENARIOS OF TURKISH- ISRAELI RELATIONS UNDER AKP (2002-2016)

The historical development of relations between Turkey and Israel, including the recent changes wrought by the AKP, show that Turkey’s stance regarding Israel is driven by a mix of religious ideology and political expediency. In the early relationship between the two countries, although they experienced periods of stress, they managed to forge a strong relationship based on the mutual military and economic benefits of their relations. However, the rise of Islamist political parties in Turkey, including the NSP and the Welfare and Virtue Parties, directly harmed Turkey’s relations with Israel while simultaneously strengthening Turkey’s ties with Arab nations and Hamas. The current party in power, the AKP, is a continuation of Islamist parties that were previously banned, and the AKP’s initial promises of reform were misleading, perhaps to reduce the chances of its being removed from power by the Turkish military, a strong defender of Turkey as a secular State. With Erdogan’s 2014 presidential election victory, he has gained a chance to tighten both his and the AKP’s grip on Turkish politics, an outcome that makes the future of Turkish-Israeli relations even more tenuous.

What was the ‘Kurdish opening’ all about? A qualitative text analysis of parliamentary group speeches in Turkey

This study explores the use of four discourses – socio-economic, relative deprivation, pro-Islamist and terrorism oriented – used by political parties in Turkey to address the Kurdish issue and the resulting political party strategies during the Kurdish opening in Turkey. Although the factors that influence the Kurdish issue have drawn attention, no research has analysed Turkish political parties’ perspectives on the Kurdish issue in primary political documents. By examining 188 parliamentary group speeches delivered during the Kurdish opening process with qualitative text analysis, this study reveals that the mainstream parties in the Turkish Parliament employ socio-economic, relative deprivation and regional terrorism approaches, while the ethnic parties use either regional terrorism and pro-Islamist approaches or the relative deprivation approach. Due to the overlap in their discourses, the mainstream parties have developed a new strategy: compartmentalization of the ethnic issue by creating sub-ethnic categories. This research contributes to revealing political parties’ approaches to the Kurdish question and their strategies for mobilizing the ethnic median voter.