Political Parties In Turkey Research Articles

The Stability of Party Power in Turkey after President Erdogan's Victory in the 2023 Elections

The present research aims to identify the impact of Erdogan's victory on the basic budgets in Turkey and its impact on the opposition parties and the strength of the opposition, as well as on the Turkish economy, as the economic factor played a significant and influential role in the results of the Turkish elections, which led to the rise of the Justice and Development Party with Erdogan's victory. This party has an effect on the political and democratic process in the country. Thus, the investigation includes two axes: the first, political parties in Turkey, and the second, the Turkish elections in 2023 AD.

Mekanisme Pembubaran Partai Politik: Perbandingan Indonesia dan Turki

Political parties are not sacred, so they can be dissolved according to the provisions of the applicable laws. The mechanism for dissolving political parties in each country is certainly different. So this research aims to examine the differences in mechanisms for the dissolution of political parties in Indonesia and Turkey. This research is legal research with a statutory and conceptual approach. The results of this research show that the mechanism for dissolving political parties in Indonesia and Turkey is both submitted to the Constitutional Court. Still, specifically for Turkey, it must go through the Court of Cassation first. The applicant who can apply for the dissolution of a political party in Indonesia is the Government which can be represented by the Attorney General and/or the Minister assigned by the President while in Turkey the person who can apply is the Chief Public Prosecutor. The reasons for the dissolution of political parties in Indonesia are because (i) the ideology, principles, objectives, and programs of political parties conflict with the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia; (ii) carrying out activities that endanger the integrity and safety of the Republic of Indonesia; and (iii) adhere to, develop and spread the teachings or understanding of communism/Marxism-Leninism. Meanwhile, the reasons for the dissolution of political parties in Turkey are: (i) the statutes and programs, as well as the activities of political parties be contrary to the independence of the State, its indivisible integrity with its territory and nation, human rights, the principles of equality and rule of law, sovereignty of the nation, the principles of the democratic and secular republic; (ii) aim to promote or establish class or group dictatorship or dictatorship of any kind, nor shall they incite citizens to crime; and (iii) receive financial assistance from abroad.

Turkey’s Political Parties’ Asia Policies: Visions, Contacts, Issues

ABSTRACT Traditionally, Turkey has been an ally of the transatlantic bloc. As a NATO member, with a majority Muslim population and a free market economy, it was even hailed by Western powers as a model country in the 2000s. However, due to its acquisition of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, its desire to be a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and its military presence in Syria and Libya, many analysts have argued that Turkey’s foreign policy has experienced a pivot to Asia recently. This article systematically examines the current positions of various political parties in Turkey in this context using first-hand data. Through semi-structured interviews with 14 political party representatives, and by analysing their party programmes, the vision of different political parties in respect of Asia, their relations with Asian actors, their stance on Asian foreign direct investments and its environmental impacts, the Uyghur issue, and their thoughts on the period that will follow the Ukraine-Russia war are studied.

Polarisation over the meaning of democracy: The case of political parties in Turkey

As the primary means of political organisation, political parties remain vital to contemporary democracies, making it important to investigate their understanding of democracy. This study explores the themes with which five largest political parties in Turkey associate democracy. We studied tweets posted by official accounts of these parties’ headquarters and branches, as well as by other Twitter accounts that are institutionally linked to these parties. We found significant differences between the government bloc and the opposition bloc as well as between People Alliance and Nation Alliance in terms of the themes with which they associate democracy. The government bloc and People Alliance use themes such as national will and military coups while referring to democracy. The opposition bloc and Nation Alliance emphasise themes such as equality, freedom of the press, and justice. We conclude that parties’ and blocs’ different attitudes towards democracy are indicators of political polarisation in Turkey.

Two waves of Kurdish politicians in exile: a comparative analysis

ABSTRACT This article provides a tour d’horizon of the recent emigration of the Kurdish political elite from Turkey and contextualizes it in its historical course. Specifically, the article discusses the similarities and differences of the exilic waves at the two ends of the chain of pro-Kurdish political parties in Turkey, i.e., the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democracy Party (DEP). Based on semi-structured elite interviews, a comparison of the patterns of integration with and differentiation from the Kurdish diaspora organizations in Europe, in particular, reveals significant variation between these two exilic waves despite their common root cause. Such variation, coupled with tensions derived mainly from the hierarchal structure of the Kurdish diaspora organizations, fuels a rivalry that may alter the composition of Kurdish political elites in Europe.

Turks versus the West: Civilizational Populism in Turkey’s Ruling Coalition

Civilizational populism is readily observable in Turkish politics. This study analyzes how the ruling political parties in Turkey (Islamist JDP and ultra-nationalist NAP) reframe extant civilizational ideas into a populist format to reproduce civilizational populism for ideological and pragmatic reasons. The research implements a two-level analysis of civilizational populism. On the first level, the article reveals the intellectual origins of the ideas on civilizations. On the second level, it analyses how these ideas are used by political actors in constructing populist civilizational discourse in daily politics. This methodological approach to civilizational populism shows that politicians use old ideas that are well-known by their supporters while framing them as their populist narrative. Thus, civilizational populism occurs in Turkey as a continuity. This study finds out that (i) Civilizational populism is a salient phenomenon proving how Islam and nationalism are socially and politically coded as friendly categories in Turkey; (ii) Political actors are the agents of populism but not the inventors of the many ideas they instrumentalize; (iii) Civilizational populism in Turkey is constructed on an anti-Western narrative which is essentialist and culturalist. Consequently, the article reveals that the culturist and essentialist critique levelled by other civilizations at Western political actors can be levelled similarly at the Muslim political elite.

Turkish parliamentary debates about the international recognition of the Armenian genocide: development and variations in the official denialism

ABSTRACT The main source of animosity in modern Turkish – Armenian relations is the debate on the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. To provide an evidence-based and thorough perspective on the Turkish political stance in this discussion, this article explores all the relevant speeches in Turkish parliamentary records. It pays particular attention to political parties’ stances, the historical evolution of the debate, and the significance of the individual profiles of parliamentarians who contributed to the discussion. The findings show that most political parties in Turkey articulated versions of denial, except for a few marginal anti-denial voices. The study concludes that while political parties’ ideological orientations predominantly shape the Turkish debate on the international recognition of the Armenian genocide, historical contexts, local memories, and the individual backgrounds of parliamentarians seem to inspire minor variations in their tones.

Measuring the Level of Party Institutionalization in Turkey

The main aim of this research is to combine theoretical approaches to party institutionalization with empirical operationalization. This study provides a systematic operationalization of the concept of party institutionalization using different indicators in the case of Turkish democracy. Although there has been extensive literature on the Turkish party system, there has been little discussion on party institutionalization in Turkey. The main weakness of most research is the failure to address how to quantify and measure party institutionalization. To overcome this problem, this paper offers the Party Institutionalization Index (PII). The PII is produced by the systematic operationalization of four dimensions of party institutionalization: stability, systemness, reification, and rootedness. The research shows that a political party may have significantly different scores in each dimension. This study argues that political parties with higher membership strength, geographically large-scale units, higher chronological age, more leadership changes, lower electoral volatility, and greater electoral success will become more institutionalized and survive longer. The results indicate that the CHP is the most institutionalized party in Turkey. This study also shows that political parties in Turkey, except for the HDP, display a relatively high level of institutionalization. 

Siyasal Partilerin Kriz Dönemlerinde Sosyal Medya Kullanımı: COVİD-19 Pandemi Dönemi Örneği

Societies experience various turning points in the historical process. These turning points often emerge as crises. Although crises are not always financial, each crisis affects populations in socio-economic terms. The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest crisis experienced today. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has directly affected Turkey as well as the entire world since March 2020. In this arduous process, the government has taken precautions to keep public health under control in Turkey, like in all other countries. Besides the government in Turkey, political parties as influential opinion leaders have also taken an active role in the pandemic process and tried to benefit the people segments they address. In this study, the use of social media and websites by political parties in Turkey during COVID-19, which is a crisis period, was evaluated by comparative analysis method, and also the shared contents were subjected to discourse analysis method. The study has concluded that AK Parti and MHP exert an effort to announce the strategies created to the public and other parties represent a critical attitude towards the ruling party, bringing the issues that citizens suffer during the pandemic to the fore.

Examining the Programs of Political Parties in terms of the Structure of the Turkish National Education System

Education systems are largely shaped by the policies of political parties. Political parties try to express their policies regarding the structure and functioning of the education system through party programs. As in all countries, policies regarding the education system have an important place in party programs in Turkey. The aim of this study is to examine the programs of political parties in Turkey in terms of the structure of the Turkish National Education System; the aim is to present their views on “Pre-School Education”, “Primary Education”, “General Secondary Education”, “Vocational Technical Secondary Education”, “Higher Education” and “Non-Formal Education-Adult Education-Continuous Education”. In this context, it is important to express the similarities in the objectives of the political parties regarding the structure of the Turkish Education System. In this study, the qualitative research method was used. The data of the research were collected through document analysis. The study population consisted of all the political parties in The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT). The sample of the study consists of five political parties selected according to the criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposive sampling methods. These political parties can be listed as follows according to the number of members: 1.Justice and Development Party (JDP), 2.Republican People's Party (RPP) 3.Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) 4.National Movement Party (NMP) 5.Good Party (GP). The data sources of the study are the party programs of political parties. The documents regarding the party programs were taken from the official websites of the parties. In the context of suitability for the purpose of the study, the documents were analyzed by the content analysis method. The findings of the research are given without adding the researcher's comment, according to the themes and codes created. According to the findings, there are quite a lot of statements about the structure of the Turkish National Education System in the programs of political parties. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that there are many similarities in the programs of the five parties, although there are many differences in the objectives of the parties regarding the structure of the Turkish Education System.

The Impact of Economic Factors on Voter Preferences: The Case of Turkey

The current study investigates the relationship between the votes of political parties and per capita gross domestic product, unemployment and inflation rates in Turkey for the years between 1990 and 2019. ADF, PP and Carrion-i-Silvestre unit root tests with structural breaks were used to determine the degree of stationarity of the variables. Maki cointegration test and ARDL bounds test were used under multiple structural breaks to determine the cointegration and short and long-term relationships between the variables. Finally, Todo-Yomamoto Granger causality test was used to determine the causality relationship between the variables. The results revealed that per capita gross domestic product positively affects the vote rates of political parties in the short-term, and inflation affects the vote rates of political parties negatively in the long-term. As a result of the Granger causality test, a one-way causality relationship was determined between inflation and the vote rates of political parties. According to this result, it is seen that the increase in the inflation rate causes a decrease in the vote rates of political parties in Turkey. Another important finding is that the unemployment rate has no effect on the vote rates of political parties.

Public Management Approach in Programs of Political Parties in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis for the Period 2002-2020

Sosyal ve ekonomik değişimler, kamu yönetimi uygulamalarını etkilemiştir. 1980'lerden sonra dünyada Ulus-devlet, piyasaya karşı gücünü kaybedip düzenleyici bir role dönüşürken Türkiye’de Geleneksel Kamu Yönetimi anlayışının etkisi azalmıştır. Wilson'ın siyaset ile yönetimi birbirinden ayırmayı amaçlayan ve “yönetim yönetimdir” şeklinde de özetlenebilecek ikili yaklaşımı ile bürokratik ve hiyerarşik organizasyon şemaları yeni çağın ihtiyaçlarını karşılamada yetersiz kalmaktadır. Yeni Kamu Yönetimi (YKY) anlayışı, özellikle Kuzey Amerika ve Batı Avrupa'da piyasa ile devletin uzlaştırılmasıyla yaygınlaşmıştır. Türkiye'de Özal ile başlayan neo-liberal politikalarla ekonomiye uyum süreci, YKY için uygun bir ortam yaratmıştır. “Yeni Sağ” olarak kabul edilebilecek siyasi partiler, özelleştirme, yatay örgütlenme, katılım gibi YKY fikirlerini savunmaktadırlar. Geleneksel muhafazakâr siyasi partiler ve sol partiler, geleneksel kamu yönetimi anlayışından kısmen de olsa etkilenmeye devam etmektedirler.

The Analyses of the Idelogy and History of National Outlook Movement in Turkey

This article examines and analyzes the history of the formation and development of the National Outlook Movement in Turkey, its ideology and social base and the main driving forces, as well as the main political parties and their activities. The article also analyzes the historical circumstances that influenced the formation and development of the movement, including the role of the movement's leader, prominent scientist and researcher, professor Najmeddin Erbakan, as well as the reasons for his entry into the political arena and its consequences. The role of N. Erbakan in the political life of Turkey was investigated and tried to be evaluated. It was noted that, the main ideology of the National Outlook parties is a free market economy without interest, the strengthening of production, the establishment of a just society in which basic human rights are protected, and so on.The first openly political Islamist political party in Turkish history was the National Order Party, formed on January 30, 1970. However, the party did not last long and was closed in 1971 by a decision of the Constitutional Court. Instead, party representatives formed the National Salvation Party in October 1972. This party, like all other political parties in Turkey, was closed after the 1980 coup. However, it became a partner of the government for the first time, and one of the most important decisions of this government was send of Turkish forces to Cyprus.With the permission of the National Security Council, the Welfare Party (WP) was formed in 1983 under the leadership of Ahmet Tekdal, representing the same direction. After the lifting of political bans, N. Erbakan was re-elected party leader. The 1990s marked a new stage in the development of the National Outlook movement. The Welfare Party's reputation began to rise. In the 1995 elections, the party won 21 percent of the vote. In 1996, N. Erbakan formed a coalition government with the True Path Party, led by Tansu Chiller. This government resigned as a result of the February 28 process, and the party was dissolved. The members of the party formed the Virtue Party. Disagreements between innovative and conservative groups within the party led to the formation of two political parties, the Justice and Development Party and the Felicity Party, after the party was dissolved in 2001.

SEÇİM ŞARKILARININ LİDER İMAJINDAKİ ROLÜ

Music has the power to convey everything that is in human life. It deeply affects people's emotions and thoughts. This has enabled the use of music in different disciplines. One of these areas is politics. There has been a relationship between music and politics since ancient times. It served as a bridge between governing and managed. Music has been used in politics for purposes such as mutual emotions, showers and ideas. During the election periods, it aims to reach voters through songs and music. The messages that politicians want to convey are conveyed through music and songs. The aim of this study was to examine the songs written for leaders of political parties in Turkey and also in the examination reveals that this how it affects the image of the leader of the lyrics. The government and the main opposition party leaders’ songs were examined with the content analysis method after 2000 years in Turkey. As a result of the analysis, it was found, what the themes and lyrics in the songs mean. It determined to reveal how these songs affect the leader images.

Current Educational Policies of Political Parties in Turkey

The education system is one of the most important stakeholders for its ever-changing and effective development and competitiveness. Education systems are important for raising qualified individuals and bringing them into society. In order for education systems to be regular and long-lasting, qualified education policies should be determined and used in educational management practices. In education policy in Turkey it is known to be important for both the state and government programs. Government policies are long-lasting. Government policies change more frequently. One of the problems in educational policies: instability as a result of frequently changing governments. The space community the confidence of political parties and the government authority determines that the current education policies in the quest to create in Turkey, is important for the Turkish education system. In this study, current educational policies in surpassing the threshold into parliament in the general elections on June 24, 2018 Date of political parties in Turkey 6 of the program were examined. Considering the educational policies of the political parties in the parliament; it is seen that the education policies of all political parties are formed according to different ideological views. The education policies of AK Party, which marked the determination of the training programs of the last 15-20 years, are considered to be important in terms of theory and practice. It is thought that this research will contribute to studies on Turkish education system, management and policies. Keywords: Education management, Education policies, Political parties, Legislative power Special Issue of Educational Sciences DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-06-07

Türkiye’de Siyasal Partilerin Sağlık Politikalarına Bakışının Mukayeseli Analizi

Hakim iktisadi anlayışın şekil ve içeriğini belirlediği sosyal politikalar içerisinde sağlık politikaları önemli yer tutmaktadır. Bu kapsamda Keynesyen iktisadi anlayış içerisinde sosyal refah devleti uygulamaları karşımıza çıkmıştır. Sosyal refah devleti uygulamaları sağlık politikalarını kamunun tek elden tüm vatandaşlara anayasal hak olarak eşit ve ücretsiz sunumunu öncelemektedir. Ancak Neo-liberal iktisat, sosyal refah devleti uygulamalarını terk etmeyi, sağlık politikalarını kamu-özel sektör ve gönüllü kuruluşlar eliyle kamunun düzenleyiciliğinde yürütmeyi öngörmektedir. İşte bu doğrultuda söz konusu politikaları küresel düzlemde yaymayı amaç edinen Dünya Bankası başta olmak üzere uluslarüstü örgütler Türkiye’de 2003 sonrası hayata geçirilen “Sağlıkta Dönüşüm Programı”nı mali desteği ile hayata geçirilmesinde anahtar rol üstlenmişlerdir. Artık siyasal partilere de Türkiye özelinde düşen parti programı ve seçim bildirgelerini Neo-liberal İktisat çerçevesinde uyarlamaktır. Çalışmanın konusu bu doğrultuda Türkiye’de siyasal partilerin benzeşen ve farklılaşan yönleri ile sağlık politikalarını değerlendirmektir.

Party-voter congruence in Turkish politics: the ivory tower argument tested

ABSTRACT ‘Ivory tower’ is frequently used phrase when Turkish executive politicians question the representativeness of other parties or their members. The intention of this claim is to provoke other parties into a discussion about the legitimacy of the targeted party. This research aims to shed a light on the problem of party-voter congruence in Turkish politics, which has important implications for the representativeness of Turkish political parties. Comparing the three major political parties in Turkey; the current study investigates to what extent these political parties’ manifesto documents, fail to connect with their constituencies’ policy positions on four prominent issues in Turkish politics: Left-right political positioning, democratic support, support for the military, and support for a controlled economy. Party level Manifesto Project data and aggregated individual level World Values Survey (WVS) data were combined for the analysis of this research and analysed by using a series of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis. The findings suggest that the ivory tower claim is largely correct for all three political parties investigated. Finally, these findings also have important implications for the legitimacy of the Turkish democratic political system.

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.

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.

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.