Becoming Turkish

Becoming Turkish PDF Author: Hale Yilmaz
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815652224
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Becoming Turkish deepens our understanding of the modernist nation-building processes in post—Ottoman Turkey through a rare perspective that stresses social and cultural dimensions and everyday negotiations of the Kemalist reforms. Yilmaz asks how the reforms were mediated on the ground and how ordinary citizens received, reacted to, and experienced them. She traces the experiences of the subaltern as well as the experiences of the elites and the mediators in the overall narrative—highlighting the relevance of class, gender, location, and urban and rural differences while also revealing the importance of nonideological, social, and psychological factors such as childhood and generations.

Becoming Turkish

Becoming Turkish PDF Author: Hale Yilmaz
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815652224
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
Becoming Turkish deepens our understanding of the modernist nation-building processes in post—Ottoman Turkey through a rare perspective that stresses social and cultural dimensions and everyday negotiations of the Kemalist reforms. Yilmaz asks how the reforms were mediated on the ground and how ordinary citizens received, reacted to, and experienced them. She traces the experiences of the subaltern as well as the experiences of the elites and the mediators in the overall narrative—highlighting the relevance of class, gender, location, and urban and rural differences while also revealing the importance of nonideological, social, and psychological factors such as childhood and generations.

Borders of Belief

Borders of Belief PDF Author: Gregory J. Goalwin
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978826508
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Religion and nationalism are two of the most powerful forces in the world. And as powerful as they are separately, humans throughout history have fused religious beliefs and nationalist politics to develop religious nationalism, which uses religious identity to define membership in the national community. But why and how have modern nationalists built religious identity as the foundational signifier of national identity in what sociologists have predicted would be a more secular world? This book takes two cases - nationalism in both Ireland and Turkey in the 20th century - as a foundation to advance a new theory of religious nationalism. By comparing cases, Goalwin emphasizes how modern political actors deploy religious identity as a boundary that differentiates national groups This theory argues that religious nationalism is not a knee-jerk reaction to secular modernization, but a powerful movement developed as a tool that forges new and independent national identities.

Sovereignty Suspended

Sovereignty Suspended PDF Author: Rebecca Bryant
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252217
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
A journey into de facto state-building based on ethnographic and archival research in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus What is de facto about the de facto state? In Sovereignty Suspended, this question guides Rebecca Bryant and Mete Hatay through a journey into de facto state-building, or the process of constructing an entity that looks like a state and acts like a state but that much of the world says does not or should not exist. In international law, the de facto state is one that exists in reality but remains unrecognized by other states. Nevertheless, such entities provide health care and social security, issue identity cards and passports, and interact with international aid donors. De facto states hold elections, conduct censuses, control borders, and enact fiscal policies. Indeed, most maintain representative offices in sovereign states and are able to unofficially communicate with officials. Bryant and Hatay develop the concept of the "aporetic state" to describe such entities, which project stateness and so seem real, even as nonrecognition renders them unrealizable. Sovereignty Suspended is based on more than two decades of ethnographic and archival research in one so-called aporetic state, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). It traces the process by which the island's "north" began to emerge as a tangible, separate, if unrecognized space following violent partition in 1974. Like other de facto states, the TRNC looks and acts like a state, appearing real to observers despite international condemnations, denials of its existence, and the belief of large numbers of its citizens that it will never be a "real" state. Bryant and Hatay excavate the contradictions and paradoxes of life in an aporetic state, arguing that it is only by rethinking the concept of the de facto state as a realm of practice that we will be able to understand the longevity of such states and what it means to live in them.

What the West is Getting Wrong about the Middle East

What the West is Getting Wrong about the Middle East PDF Author: Ömer Taspinar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755607163
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The West's actions in the Middle East are based on a fundamental misunderstanding: political Islam is repeatedly assumed to be the main cause of conflict and unrest in the region. The idea that we can decipher Jihadist radicalization or problems in the Middle East simply by reading the Qur'an has now become symptomatic of our age. This dangerous over-simplification and the West's obsession with Islam dominates media and policy analysis, ultimately skewing intervention and preventing long-term solutions and stability in the region. Ömer Taspinar, who has 20 years' research and policymaking experience, explains here what is really going on in the Middle East. The book is based on three of the most pressing cases currently under the spotlight: the role of Erdogan and the unrest in Turkey; the sectarian clashes in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon; and the existence of the so-called Islamic State. Islam is often seen as the root cause of the challenge associated with these cases. But by unpacking the real issues, such as entrenched authoritarianism, vast energy resources, excessive defense spending, and the youth bulge, the book demystifies what is happening and cites governance and nationalism as the main drivers of conflict. The book shows the importance of treating the causes – which are economic, social and institutional – rather than the symptom – the continued and growing success of Islamist parties and jihadist movements in assessing the Middle East. In revealing exactly how Islamism is activated and by analyzing the structural challenges of the region, this unique insider's account provides a map to understanding Middle Eastern wars and conflicts and the prospects for the future.

Turkey Beyond Nationalism

Turkey Beyond Nationalism PDF Author: Hans-Lukas Kieser
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857731335
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Nationalism was a defining characteristic of Turkey in the twentieth century and was a central driving force in Kemal Ataturk's foundation of the Republic in 1923. How did the prominence of Kemalist ways of political thinking affect its people and policies? Is Turkey making progress towards post-nationalism or post-Kemalism in the twenty-first century? To what extent has Turkey's EU candidature been a vehicle of transformation since 1999 and what would EU membership mean for modern Turkey? This book explores the historical impact of Turkish nationalism, anti- liberalism and Westernization and examines the conditions that have contributed to the country's evolution from a quasi-religious Kemalism. Tracing the development of nationalism from its founding period before the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 to Kemalism and the present AKP government- and analysing key factors such as the position of minorities in the Turkification process and the influence of religious politics-this strong and significant contribution casts a new light on a vivid international debate.

Figures That Speak

Figures That Speak PDF Author: Matthew deTar
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815655274
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
If the surface of Turkish politics has changed dramatically over the decades, the vocabulary for sorting these changes remains constant: Europe, Islam, minorities, the military, the founding father (Atatürk). This familiar vocabulary functions as more than a set of descriptors of institutions, phenomena, or issues to debate in public. These five primary “figures” emerge from national identity, public discourse, and scholarship about Turkey to represent Turkish history and political authority while also shaping history and political authority. These figures unify disparate phenomena into governable categories and index historical relations of power that define Turkish politics. As these concepts circulate, they operate as a shorthand for complex networks and histories of authority, producing and limiting ways of knowing Turkish modernity, democracy, and political culture. These figures not only are spoken and discussed in public, but they also produce the context into which they are projected, in a sense speaking on their own. Figures That Speak explores the diverse mobilization and production of history and power in the primary figures that circulate in discourse about Turkey.

Citizenship and Identity in Turkey

Citizenship and Identity in Turkey PDF Author: Basak Ince
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857722077
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Is Turkish nationalism simply a product of Kemalist propaganda from the early Turkish Republic or an inevitable consequence of a firm and developing 'Turkish' identity? How do the politics of nationalism and identity limit Turkey's progression towards a fuller, more institutionalised democracy? Turkish citizenship is a vital aspect of today's Republic, and yet it has long been defined only through legal framework, neglecting its civil, political, and social implications. Here, Basak Ince seeks to rectify this, examining the identity facets of citizenship, and how this relates to nationalism, democracy and political participation in the modern Turkish republic. By tracing the development of the citizenship from the initial founding of the Republic to the immediate post-World War II period, and from the military interventions of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to the present day, she offers in-depth analysis of the interaction of state and society in modern Turkey, which holds wider implications for the study of the Middle East.

Turkey's Democratization Process

Turkey's Democratization Process PDF Author: Carmen Rodriguez
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135044376
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Since the end of the 1980 coup d’état Turkey has been in the midst of a complex process of democratization. Applying methodological pluralism in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of this process in a Turkish context, this book brings together contributions from prominent, Turkish, English, French, and Spanish scholars. Turkey’s Democratization Process utilises the theoretical framework of J.J. Linz and A.C. Stepan in order to assess the complex process of democratization in Turkey. This framework takes into account five interacting features of Turkey’s polity when making this assessment, namely: whether the underlying legal and socioeconomic conditions are conducive for the development of a free and participant society; if a relatively autonomous political society exists; whether there are legal guarantees for citizens’ freedoms; if there exists a state bureaucracy which can be used by a democratic government; and whether the type and pace of Turkish economic development contributes to this process. Examining the Turkish case in light of this framework, this book seeks to combine analyses that will help assess the process of democratization in Turkey to date and will be of interest to scholars and researchers interested in Turkish Politics, Democratization and Middle Eastern Studies more broadly.

Patterns of Nationhood and Saving the State in Turkey

Patterns of Nationhood and Saving the State in Turkey PDF Author: Serhun Al
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429756690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Patterns of Nationhood and Saving the State in Turkey tackles a theoretical puzzle in understanding the state policy changes toward minorities and nationhood, first by placing the state in the historical context of the international system and second by unpacking the state through analysis of intra-elite competition in relation to the counter-discourses by minority groups within the context of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. What explains the persistence and change in state policies toward minorities and nationhood? Under what conditions do states change their policies toward minorities? Why do the state elites reconsider the state-minority relations and change government policies toward nationhood? Adopting a comparative-historical analysis, the book unpacks these research questions and builds a theoretical framework by looking at three paradigmatic policy changes: Ottomanism in the mid-19th century, Turkish nationalism in the early 1920s, and multiculturalism in Turkey in the early 2000s. While the book reveals the role of international context, intrastate elite competition, and non-state actors in such policy changes, it argues that state elites adopt either exclusionary or inclusionary policies based on the idea of "survival of the state." The book is primarily an important contribution to studies in ethnicity and nationalism. It is also an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Comparative Politics, Middle East Studies, the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey.

Islam, Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey

Islam, Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey PDF Author: Soner Cagaptay
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134174489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This book examines Turkish and Balkan nationalism, arguing that the legacy of the Ottomon millet system which divided the Ottoman population into religious compartments called millets, shaped Turkey’s understanding of nationalism during the interwar period.