The Minority Concept In The Turkish Context

The Minority Concept in the Turkish Context discusses the concept of minority in the specific Turkish context by using three different case studies: religious minorities in Turkey, Muslims of Greece and Turks in France.

In The Minority Concept in the Turkish Context, Samim Akgönül presents a conceptual discussion of the term 'minority' from various perspectives, most notably history, sociology and political science. The concept of minority has a specific understanding in the Turkish political, sociological and legal context due to the Ottoman Millet system approach. The conceptual discussion is illustrated by there case studies: religious minorities in Turkey that are the result of the elimination policies during the Turkish nation building process, Muslim minorities in Greece as heritage of the Ottoman domination until the 20th century, and new minorities originating from Turkey and living in France as the result of the Turkish immigration of 1960's and following decades. Book jacket.

European Union citizenship is increasingly relevant in the context of both the refugee crisis and Brexit, yet the issue of citizenship is neither new nor unique to the EU. Using historical, political and sociological perspectives, the authors explore varied experiences of combining multiple identities into a single sense of citizenship. Cases are taken from Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. These examples of communities being successfully incorporated into one entity are exceptionally useful for addressing the challenges facing the EU today.

This book addresses the constitutional journey of religious minorities in modern Turkey, specifically the Lausanne minorities, who have been both coded and blacklisted in the official records for decades. It focuses on the non-Muslim citizens who have maintained their lives with confidential codes without knowing that these codes have been instrumentally used for strategic purposes. In spite of such discriminatory practices, they are on the way to a new democratic and civil constitution. It is significant to note that this will be their first constitutional experience in post-republic history. The first book to document the role of religious minorities in constitution making in modern Turkey, it lists recent discussions and findings on this controversial process. One of the important findings of this study is that government-led initiatives endeavouring to be inclusive have had the opposite effect.

President Erdogan's victory in the April 2017 referendum granted him sweeping new powers across Turkey. The constitutional reforms transform the country from a parliamentary democracy into a "Turkish style" presidential republic. Despite being democratically elected, Turkey's ruling AKP party has moved towards increasingly authoritarian measures. During the coup attempt in July 2016, the AKP government declared a state of emergency which Erdogan saw as an opportunity to purge the public sector of pro-Gulenist individuals and criminalise opposition groups including Kurds, Alevites, leftists and liberals. The country experienced political turmoil and rapid transformation as a result. This book identifies the process of democratic reversal in Turkey. In particular, contributors explore the various ways that a democratically elected political party has used elections to implement authoritarian measures. They scrutinise the very concepts of democracy, elections and autocracy to expose their flaws which can be manipulated to advantage. The book includes chapters discussing the roots of authoritarianism in Turkey; the political economy of elections; the relationship between the political Islamic groups and the government; Turkish foreign policy; non-Muslim communities' attitudes towards the AKP; and Kurdish citizens' voting patterns. As well as following Turkey's political trajectory, this book contextualises Turkey in the wider literature on electoral and competitive authoritarianisms and explores the country's future options.

The Routledge Handbook of Turkish Politics pulls together contributions from many of the world’s leading scholars on different aspects of Turkey. Turkey today is going through possibly the most turbulent period in its history, with major consequences both nationally and internationally. The country looks dramatically different from the Republic founded by Atatürk in 1923. The pace of change has been rapid and fundamental, with core interlinked changes in ruling institutions, political culture, political economy, and society. Divided into six main parts, this Handbook provides a single-source overview of Turkish politics: Part I: History and the making of Contemporary Turkey Part II: Politics and Institutions Part III: The Economy, Environment and Development Part IV: The Kurdish Insurgency and Security Part V: State, Society and Rights Part VI: External Relations This comprehensive Handbook is an essential resource for students of Politics, International Relations, International/Security Studies with an interest on contemporary Turkey.

This book provides both a retrospective and prospective look at Turkey on the occasion of the country’s centenary. It covers numerous important issues, including political, economic, and cultural development, the role and performance of political institutions, and foreign policy and Turkey’s place in its region and the wider world. The Republic of Turkey’s centenary in 2023 is an opportune time to assess the country’s achievements and shortcomings as well as look ahead as to how Turkey may cope with current challenges. This volume, comprised of empirically rich and theory-informed analytical essays written by a global collection of leading scholars on contemporary Turkey, addresses many central issues that bear both on the Republic’s history as well as on major political, social, economic, cultural, and foreign policy issues that confront Turkey today. Much focus is given to particular “turning points” in the past as well as how 2023, during which Turkey had a highly-contested and polarized election, may also serve as a critical juncture for the country. Reflections on the Centenary of the Republic of Turkey will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of Middle Eastern studies and Turkish history, politics, and foreign policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Turkish Studies.