Political Culture Of Turkey In The Rule Of The Akp

Where is Turkey heading? The internal and external policy reorientation of the AKP since the year 2002 makes this question justified. According to the political language of the ruling AKP elite, Turkish society has entered a phase of a 'new Turkey' with more democracy and economic development. One thing is certain: with the rise in power of the AKP, Turkish politics is gaining a new dynamic, which is full of conflict and is leading to reform of the political domain. This anthology explores these processes of change and the continuity of Turkish political culture during this period. It devotes particular attention to the influence of the AKP government's policy on Turkey's political and cultural order. The individual contributions it contains are therefore concerned with the question of the changes in and continuity of political and cultural patterns. With this focus, they allow conclusions to be drawn concerning Turkey's political order and, in particular, the question of democratisation.

This book examines the decade in office of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its efforts to transform the Turkish republic toward a more Islamist-oriented system. If it succeeds, Turkey’s dramatic shift will be the most important change in the Middle East power balance since the 1979 Iranian revolution and will have equally devastating effects on Western interests. For more than 80 years Turkey has been ruled by the secular democratic structures created by Kemal Ataturk. Now, however, the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its series of electoral victories are creating a new system. Whilst portraying itself as a centre-right reform party, the AKP has been accused of having an Islamist agenda. After almost a decade in power, there is serious evidence that this claim is true. At home, the AKP has been changing basic Turkish attitudes and institutions, from buying up a large portion of the country’s media to revising its laws, and even taking the lead in the writing of a new constitution. Internationally, Turkey has moved away from the West and Israel toward Iran and radical Islamist groups. While its intentions—and ability to fulfil them—are still unclear, the AKP has been leading the most important transformation of Turkey since the formation of the republic after World War I. This book systematically examines the AKP’s ideology, support base, actions in office, and goals. This book was published as a special issue of the Turkish Studies.

Exposing the strategy of Turkey's ruling elite to obtain cultural hegemony, this book examines the AKP's efforts to rewrite Turkish public memory by promoting its ideas through TV series, movies, propaganda videos, school curricula and material culture in urban public spaces.

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: 2, University of Flensburg, language: English, abstract: The political and economical relations between Turkey and European countries date back to 11 century when Turks migrated from Asia to Anatolia and later conquered Constantinople establishing Ottoman Empire. Since then Turks became familiar with European culture and political, economical system of European countries. There were always conflicts between Turkey and European countries because culture and religion divided them deeply. After collapse of Ottoman Empire Turkey chose a different path for the future of the country under leadership of Mustafa Kamal Pasha Ataturk. It was European integration which actually started on 31 July of 1959 when Turkey applied for associate membership in European Community. In 1963 Ankara agreement was signed in this regard which strengthened Turkish and European relations. An important aspect that made EU and Turkey closer during this period was threat of Soviet Union and collaboration within the framework of NATO.

This book aims at exploring the logic of political survival in Turkish politics studying the case of the AKP and using evidence from elite interviews, party documents, public speeches, and developments and changes for exploring AKP’s political survival in the chapters. These evidences indicate that there are four independent variables of dependent variable which is AKP’s political survival; -- the legitimization of AKP’s conservatism (2002-2007), AKP’s power struggle with Kemalist elites (2007-2011), AKP’s populism and authoritarianism (2011-2014) and the instrumentalization of Islamism and nationalism under Erdogan’s leadership (2014-2018) -- within the AKP’s four terms. In other words, this research offers a cause-and-effect mechanism between the four different policy approaches of the AKP’s four periods and the AKP’s political survival. Indeed, the AKP has been the most successful political party at the point of ensuring political survival throughout its 16-year rule. In the literature, there are few studies analyzing the 16-year rule of AKP government integrally. As a result of this limitation, the original contribution of this research is that it offers a holistic approach of the AKP government between 2002 and 2018 with using the concept of political survival which is not explored for the AKP case in the literature.

This book examines some of the most pressing issues facing the Turkish political establishment, in particular the issues of political Islam, and Kurdish and Turkish nationalisms. The authors explore the rationales of the main political actors in Turkey in order to increase our understanding of the ongoing debates over the secularist character of the Turkish Republic and over Turkey’s longstanding Kurdish issue. Original contributions from respected scholars in the field of Turkish and Kurdish studies provide us with many insights into the social and political fabric of Turkey, exploring Turkey’s secularist establishment, the ruling AKP government, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Institutions of the European Union. While the focus of concern in this book is with the social agents of contemporary politics in Turkey, the convictions they have and the strategies they employ, historical dimensions are also integrated in their analyses. In its approach, the book makes an important contribution to a widening investigation into the making of politics in the contemporary world. Incorporating the importance of the growing transnational connections between Turkey and Europe, this book is particularly relevant in the light of the ongoing negotiations over Turkey’s membership to the European Union, and will be of interest to scholars interested in Turkish studies, Kurdish studies and Middle Eastern Politics.

While the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has dominated Turkish politics for a decade and a half, recent years have seen a qualitative change, culminating in the 2017 referendum on the move to a presidential system. This volume focuses on the later years of AKP rule after the first direct presidential election in 2014. It shows how during this period the AKP has changed the political system and societal dynamics, maintained its electoral predominance, and ultimately opened the way for regime change. This collection of key chapters offers indispensable reading for everyone who wants to understand current Turkish politics and the continued hegemony of the AKP in the country’s political life. Chapters 2–10 previously published as articles (Vol 19: issue 2 to Vol 22: issue 3) in South European Society and Politics.