Erdogan’s Turkey Islamism, Identity and Memory

This book explores the role of religion in the transformation of Turkey under the reign of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP). It attempts to come to terms with the current political crisis in Turkey and the government’s move toward authoritarianism. The chapters included in this book examine various ideological, political and social factors that have driven the transformation of the AKP. The book seeks to answer questions about how and in what direction have the AKP’s objectives and strategies changed in the last two decades the party has been in power, and the divergence between professed ideals and practices. The book also focuses on the major repercussions that the 15 July 2016 coup d'état attempt has had on key Turkish state institutions and policies, and how it has also affected Turkish foreign policy toward regional and international powers. The book addresses the many gaps and omissions in earlier studies of the AKP, and posits that there have been a more complex set of circumstances impacting Turkish politics since 2002 and that it makes little sense to continue to view Turkish politics as just a clash between Islam and secularism. Erdogan’s Turkey is a significant new contribution to the study of Turkish politics and politics in general, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers and advanced students of Political Science, International Relations, History, Geography and Sociology. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journalMiddle East Critique.

Introduction M. Hakan Yavuz and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk 1. Faulty Assumptions about Democratization in Turkey Paul Kubicek 2. Populism and the Politics of Belonging in Erdogan’s Turkey Fumiko Sawae 3. Understanding Contemporary Turkey’s Nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire and Neo-Ottomanist Approaches in Turkish Politics Umut Uzer 4. Governing Anxiety, Trauma, and Crisis: The Political Discourse on Ontological (In)security after the July 15 Coup Attempt in Turkey Umut Can Adisonmez and Recep Onursal 5. The Evolving Kurdish Question in Turkey Mehmet Gurses 6. Positive and Negative Diaspora Governance in Context: From Public Diplomacy to Transnational AuthoritarianismBahar Baser and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk 7. Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy Toward Syria: The Return of Securitization Hasan Kösebalaban 8. The Turkish-Armenian Historical Controversy: How to Name the Events of 1915? M. Hakan Yavuz

M. Hakan Yavuz is Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. His current projects focus on transnational Islamic networks in Central Asia and Turkey; the role of Islam in state-building and nationalism; ethnic cleansing and genocide; and ethno-religious conflict management. He has authored 9 books and around 60 articles on Islam, nationalism, Kurdish question, and modern Turkish politics. He has published in Comparative Politics, Middle East Critique, Middle East Journal, Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, SAIS Review, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Current History, Central Asian Survey, Journal of Islamic Studies, and Journal of Palestine Studies. Some of his articles have been translated into Arabic and Bosnian. He is an editorial member of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs and Critique. Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at London Metropolitan University, Coventry University and GIGA in Germany. He is also an associate researcher (Chercheur Associé) at Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes, fellow at ELIAMEP and editor of EdinburghStudies on Modern Turkey and International Journal of Religion. He was a Swedish Institute Pre- and Post-Doctoral Fellow at theInstitute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), at Linköping University, Scholar in Residence at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is the author of more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, numerous policy reports, opinion pieces and co-editor of four special issues on religion and politics and Turkish politics. Dr Öztürk is the co-editor of Authoritarian Politics in Turkey: Elections, Resistance and the AKP (2017), Ruin or Resilience? The Future of the Gulen Movement in Transnational Political Exile (Routledge, 2018) and Islam, Populism and Regime Change in Turkey (Routledge, 2019). His first solo-authored book, Religion, Identity and Power: Turkey and the Balkans in the Twenty-First Century was published in January 2021. He is a regular contributor to media outlets such as Open Democracy, The Conversation, Huffington Post and France 24.