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The past 22 years in Turkey can be divided into two sub-periods: during the 2002–10 period, the first AKP era, the party was broadly positioned as a moderate Islamist party with a clear intent to revive the failing economy of the country. The Turkish economy, in terms of mainstream standard criteria used by international organizations like the IMF, improved significantly during this period, in particular until the global financial crisis of 2008, through liberalization and reinforcing the country's EU candidacy bid through a series of economic and democratic reforms. The second period, from 2009–11, and particularly from 2013 onwards, marked the second AKP era, which was defined by serious economic problems and an explicit authoritarian shift. The country's political and institutional environment experienced serious backward steps in terms of both economic reform and democratization during this second decade of the AKP regime. Several significant incidents marked the increasingly authoritarian style of the regime: the Gezi protests of the summer of 2013, the intra-Islamist split between AKP and the Gülen movement in late 2013, the presidential election of 2014, and the failed coup attempt of July 2016 and the harsh authoritarian reaction that followed. Although it was still possible to label Turkey a flawed or illiberal democracy before mid-2015, the developments since the June 2015 elections and particularly after the July 2016 coup attempt (and counter-offensive) have led more observers to opt for sub-categories of authoritarianism instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article undertakes an examination of the pro-government İsmailağa movement and the Adnan Oktar movement in Turkey, delving into the nuances of their affiliations with the AK Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party) and, specifically, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following the coup attempt in 2016. It seeks to address the following questions: How did the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey impact the dynamics shaping the AK Party government's interactions with religious movements such as İsmailağa and the Adnan Oktar movement, and what factors contributed to the intricacies and shifts observed in power dynamics within this framework? Furthermore, what potential ramifications do these transformations entail for political and religious influence within the nation? The thesis posits that despite Erdoğan's reliance on religious movements as a voting bloc and a critical element in efforts to fill the void left by the exclusion of the Fethullah Gülen movement from governmental positions, religious movements do not enjoy the same degree of autonomy as they did prior to the coup attempt. Moreover, Erdoğan has adopted a more circumspect and distrustful stance, not only toward dissenting movements but also toward pro-AK Party movements. By concentrating on İsmailağa and the Adnan Oktar movement, we can discern Erdoğan's disposition toward religious movements and the shift that has manifested in the relationship between the government and religious movements. This article draws upon a diverse array of sources, including deliberations from Turkey's Grand Assembly, to glean insights into the interactions between the government and religious movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diaspora groups have increasingly become active and influential transnational actors, whose mobilization strategies react to strategic opportunities and constraints. The article explores how the GM diaspora embeddedness in specific contexts affected the trajectory of its transnational mobilization. It argues that the Turkish EU candidacy status, the rise of the AKP-GM alliance and the Czech accession to the EU created new opportunity structures for the GM in Czechia but they could not maintain the momentum the critical juncture opened in the Czech public debate due to the closing opportunity structures in Czechia. Their political activism has also been undermined by the strategically selective state-led transnationalism and heavy transnational repression, which intensified the interdependency between transnationalization and localization of the GM activities. The article contributes to the study of state-led transnationalism in deeply polarized societies and its impact on diaspora activism before and after a critical juncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the AKP has dismantled secularism in Turkey through stealth Islamization. Defined as incremental and top-down Islamization of social and political life, this process entails four processes: (1) institutionalization of Turkish Islamist political imaginary; (2) redesigning the Diyanet and public education system to spread Islamic beliefs and practices (da'wa); (3) the privileging of Muslim identity at the expense of secular choices, whose costs have increased substantially; and (4) return of Islam to the public space through changes in the built environment. This article unpacks these four processes, which entails AKP's colonization of the state to Islamize society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sohbet (conversation) is a weekly, informal, religious-learning gathering that has been conducted by members of the Islamic Hizmet/Gülen Movement since its inception. The movement was established in Turkey in 1966 by Fethullah Gülen and his followers. It has evolved into a transnational social movement through educational, dialogical, and humanitarian aid/entrepreneurial activities. The movement was held responsible by the Turkish government for the so-called coup attempt in 2016. Tens of thousandsof members fled, and the movement's centre of gravity shifted from Turkey to the diaspora. This ethnographic research project addresses the transformations within the movement during the diaspora phase. Focusing on a female sohbet group in Helsinki, I investigate the participants' understandings of sohbetand how the sohbet has evolved since 2016. Thematic analysis reveals three predominant themes for understanding: socialization, belonging to a community, and a quest for piety. This article illustrates that sohbet is a space for religious learning, social interactions, and affirming a shared identity that shapes the hizmet habitus. Furthermore, sohbet revitalized the hizmet habitusfollowing the forced migration. This study contributes to the existing literature on the sohbet by investigating it post-migration. Simultaneously, it contributes to studies on religious movements and how migration affects them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic research with the devout members of Gülen movement displaced in the aftermath of the coup attempt in 2016, this paper studies the existential crisis these formerly "proper Turkish citizens" have been experiencing after being targeted by the Turkish State. This existential crisis, as argued in this paper, is significantly informative in understanding how privilege-based ethical self-making emanates fragility. The paper, thus, both parallels Sunni-Turkish-ness with whiteness and provides a reading of ethical self-making processes the Gülenists developed vis-à-vis the notions of critique and comfort. It first looks closer at the two Islamic revivalist movements, Milli Görüş as the predecessors of Turkey's ruling AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi/Justice and Development Party) and the Gülen Movement, their rivalry over claiming the canon and the ways in which they differ in their notions of politics, political Islam, and critique. Although critique and self-critique are integral components of ethical self-formation processes, Gülen movement takes a somewhat inconsistent approach in implementing them to the heteronomous layers of self. Meaning, that while self-critique is an essential part of ethical self-making, critiquing the movement itself, the state, nation, and ancestors (as they were imagined) are not seen as ethical acts. It concludes with an analysis of how this discrepancy results in a sporadic distribution of ethical self-formation, leading to an existential crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, Turkey rapidly adjusted its national security strategies to align with the principles of a security state, resulting in a notable increase in human rights violations during the declared State of Emergency. Enforced disappearances, previously used by the State against Kurdish dissidents in the 1990s, resurfaced as a brutal method in the name of "State survival" following the failed coup attempt. This research examined the systematic and organized nature of these enforced disappearances, their prevalence, specific targets, and the human rights abuses resulting from this practice. Twenty cases of enforced disappearances that occurred after July 15, 2016, were analyzed to achieve this. Three main themes emerged from the analysis: (1) enforced disappearance methods, (2) ineffective investigation, (3) torture. The examination revealed that enforced disappearances followed a systematic and widespread pattern. The narratives highlighted commonalities in the methods of disappearances, a preference for individuals affiliated with the Gülen Movement, and the subjecting of victims to severe violations, including torture. Fundamental human rights should have remained non-derogable even during the State of Emergency, as international human rights treaties to which the Turkish State is a signatory protect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the scholarly vigilance against the 'culture talk' should not behold the studies over the Middle East, Islam, and Islamism from studying ideas. There has been a significant progress in recent years to overcome essentialist approaches to Islam, Muslims, and the region. Instead of explaining all issues that are related to Muslims with the unchanging and archaic nature of Islam or Islamic culture, there are increasingly more studies that bring economic, political, and historical context to forefront. Yet, without falling into the culturalist trap, ideas can play a significant role in explaining the real world. By using the case of the conflict between the Justice and Development Party and the Gülen Movement (GM), this study shows the causal role of ideas in interplay with material environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Turkey in Africa: Turkey's Strategic Involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa" by Federico Donelli explores the growing importance of Africa in international politics and Turkey's foreign policy towards the continent. The author argues that emerging powers like Turkey are adopting non-military forms of soft balancing, such as economic and diplomatic actions, to increase their influence in Africa. The book examines the historical bases of Turkey's relations with Africa and analyzes the factors behind Turkey's recent engagement with sub-Saharan Africa. It also highlights Turkey's distinctive approach, which combines economic, political, and social development with Islamic humanitarianism. However, the book acknowledges that Turkey's domestic situation and illiberal trend may undermine its efforts in humanitarian diplomacy and developmental aid. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive examination of Turkey's evolving role in Africa and emphasizes the need for more scientific knowledge of Africa and its peoples in Turkey. [Extracted from the article]

This study highlights the experiences of Turkish asylum seekers who have been persecuted, victimized, stigmatized, labeled, discriminated against, prosecuted, segregated, and targeted following the Turkish government crackdown after the failed coup attempt in July 2016 and settled in the United States, Canada, and European countries. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field notes, and documentation, conducted, and subsequently analyzed using the principles of Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis. After examining the most frequently repeated concepts in the interviews, the following three themes emerged: 1) labeling, 2) targeting, and 3) social pressure and psychological status. This study showed the depths of the psychological pressure, discrimination, torture, and humiliation that detained and jailed participants who were excluded from society endured. The paper ends with several recommendations for Turkey to rejoin the community of nations protecting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious majoritarianism was established in Turkey with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Diyanet became the new home for the Ottoman Sunni ulema and supported the implementation of Sunni majoritarianism by assimilating minorities, e.g. Alevis. With the AKP government in power in the last decades in Turkey, Turkish majoritarianism has come to the fore. Turkish majoritarianism consists of Sunni Islam along with Turkish cultural and political dimensions. Diyanet imams function as important transmitters of Turkish majoritarianism to the Muslim community. At the same time, imams in Germany are seen as mediators for German integration policies. German politicians set the framework for integration with the expression 'majority society' (Mehrheitsgesellschaft) in policies regarding Islam, although a concrete definition of this seems to be problematic. Elements of Christian religion and German culture are used as elements in the construction of a 'majority society'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both coming from conservative Anatolia, Fethullah Gülen and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have, respectively, set up a movement and a political party that continue to make their mark on Turkey. Based upon the same vision of Islam and with a strategy of neutralizing their common opponent, the Kemalist establishment, an alliance, was founded between the two in 2002 when the AKP came to power. However, as it had been ambiguous from the start, this alliance did not resist the gradual emergence of numerous political and social differences between the two leaders. Less than 10 years after it was founded, the alliance between the two cracked and then shattered in 2013. Since then, the Gülen movement has been banned in Turkey and its representatives exiled abroad, particularly in Western countries. Under Gülen's leadership, still based in the United States, they are trying to reorganize themselves into a new political structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a review of the book "Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements" edited by Muhammad Afzal Upal and Carole M. Cusack. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the various sects and movements within Islam, with a focus on their manifestations in Central and Eastern Europe. It explores the diversity and complexity of Islam, highlighting the differences and similarities among different strands of the religion. The review emphasizes the importance of this reference source for scholars of religion in the region and recommends that libraries make it accessible to their patrons. [Extracted from the article]

This paper focuses on framing as a social movement’s transnational strategy. Applying the cultural approach to framing analysis, it investigates how the Gülen movement, as a social group with restricted access to national gatekeepers, uses discourse to internationalise a domestic power struggle with a powerful opponent. Moving the struggle to the international arena presents a discursive opportunity that determines which ideas become visible and legitimate both internationally and nationally. The importance of such internationalization increases in times of conf lict and the media play a vital role in this process. The paper argues that the editors of the pro-Gülen movement foreign online platforms established after the movement was forced into exile following the failed 2016 coup, use strategic framing to tailor their frames for the host context and culture. That increases the resonance of their frames and the potential of the discursive opportunity. The article confirms the previous findings that media are a crucial resource for transnational social movements because policymakers are sensitive to public opinion, which is shaped by media frames.

Copyright of Amme Idaresi Dergisi is the property of Public Administration Institute for Turkey & the Middle East (TODAIE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper seeks to illustrate how religion can affect international relations and international order. Given that religion has been neglected as an important factor in political science, and then in theories of international relations, this paper will try to provide a modest contribution to the study of religion in the theory of international relations by analyzing the influence of transnational religious actors on the existing international order. The transnational religious actor analyzed in this paper is the Gülen Movement - Hizmet Movement. Hizmet Movement is a transnational Islamic movement formed in the Republic of Turkey in the 1960s by the former Turkish Imam Muhammad Fethullah Gülen. Today, this Islamic movement has many institutions, organizations and members around the world. The Gülen Movement aims to create a transnational society - the Golden Generation of Ideal People (Altın Nesıl), and thus represents a challenge for the existing international order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though Turkey's ruling party's (Justice and Development Party, the AKP) nation-building and desired citizen creation policies have been studied, its use of necropolitical narratives and propaganda in education has not been investigated. This paper addresses this gap by examining how the Turkish state ruled by the AKP has propagated its religious necropolitical narrative through the national curriculum and Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in school textbooks, and magazines and comic books for children. The paper shows that these texts and comics try to indoctrinate children into a religious cult of martyrdom in different ways by encouraging them to view tragic death and getting killed for the nation as a positive event. This paper argues that these propaganda efforts are part of a religious necropolitical indoctrination campaign that seeks to create a new Islamist and jihadist generation of lifelong supporters of the AKP, which portrays itself in the educational texts as the embodiment of Islam, the Muslim Turkish nation and even the global Muslim community (ummah). This new religious generation is expected to believe that dying for the Islamist populist authoritarian regime is the greatest honour a person can bring upon themselves. This paper contributes to the necropolitics literature by showing that not only adults but also children have been targeted by authoritarian rulers' necropolitical propaganda attempts to create desired citizens who are ready to die for the regime, believing this is a religious obligation. Further research is needed to assess if and to what extent this propaganda has an impact on children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Aksaray University Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences / Aksaray Üniversitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Aksaray University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the Cold War, which broke out between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc after the Second World War, the Strategic Partnership was established between Turkey and the United States (US). As a result, the two states acted together against the Soviet Union threat. Turkish-American relations, which continued well from the early Cold War to the early 1960s, have been strained from time to time because of developments in the 1960s. These relations have also had some positive (lucky) and negative (unlucky) consequences for Turkey. This study reviews Turkish-American relations between 1945 and 1964. Turkish-American relations against the Soviet Union threat and communism, described as a common fall in the early years of the Cold War, were strained by what was written to Turkey by US President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, known as the Johnson letter. The study examines the breakdowns in Turkish-American relations during this period. We evaluate the impact of the development of Turkish-American relations on Turkey within the framework of the Nova effect, while the results of positive and negative development of relations were vaguely good or bad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Türkiye's human rights situation continues to deteriorate, especially since the failed coup attempt in 2016. Many of the provisions introduced under the state of emergency remain in force and anti-terrorism laws as well as provisions regarding national security have been used to curtail fundamental rights and freedoms. In 2021, violations of the freedom of expression and the rights to liberty and security ranked first and second respectively in the ECtHR decisions against Türkiye. In the same year, Türkiye ranked first in amounting to the highest number of cases filed against a country with the ECtHR. Türkiye's new "Disinformation Law" (Law No. 7418) has raised further concerns regarding freedom of expression in the country. This survey seeks to illustrate some of the most important developments regarding human rights in Türkiye in 2021 and 2022, particularly focusing on freedom of expression and the right to liberty and security (arbitrary detentions). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cumhuriyet Ilahiyat Dergisi / Cumhuriyet Theology Journal is the property of Cumhuriyet Universitesi, Ilahiyat Fakultesi / Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Theology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Diasporas do not arise from fixed connections to objective circumstances such as dispersion or relation to a homeland, but instead constantly are negotiated and re-constituted. Ranging from internal gradual change to sudden exogenous change, the re-making of a diaspora can take diverse forms. Despite the prevalence of constructivist and processual approaches, however, research on diaspora identity change has been limited. This paper takes a comparative historical perspective to the post-2016 diasporization of the Gülen Movement (GM) and discusses how the GM responded differently to sudden exogenous shocks in 1997, 2007, and 2016. In both historical institutionalism and rational choice theories, the sudden exogenous shocks do the heavy lifting to explain change; however, it is rather the endogenous parameters that account for the variation in the GM's responses to those shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the settings of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, this paper traces the relationship between state power, agency and media. On 15 July 2016, reports emerged through social networking sites and other mainstream media of armoured military tanks blocking the entrances to the Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges in Istanbul. Appearing via FaceTime on CNN Türk, President Erdoğan called people onto the streets to confront the occupying forces. Following the foiled coup attempt, officials praised the public for using communication technology to topple the coup plotters. I juxtapose the different settings where the coup unfolded to argue these events are symbolic phenomena, underscoring how the imaginary of 'national unity' is mediated to (re)affirm state power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role that naval forces and maritime considerations have played in the Ukraine war, and how it holds insights for naval strategy and planning. Topics include build a strategic understanding of Russia's objectives and locate maritime factors within that structure; and to understand the role of naval power in Russia's strategic reorientation in Ukraine and American naval strategy and capabilities that naval considerations have played.

This article examines Turkish domestic politics and the country's foreign policy behaviors under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), using Joe Hagan's three alternative political strategies: accommodation, insulation, and mobilization. The first AKP administration used an accommodation strategy to avoid confrontations with military and judiciary institutions, resulting in restrained foreign policymaking. During its second tenure, the AKP leadership successfully insulated domestic opposition, allowing for implementation of a new foreign policy agenda. In the post-failed coup period, to discredit domestic adversaries, unify the public, legitimize leadership positions, and demonstrate a capacity for maintaining the nation's security, the AKP has adopted a mobilization strategy and manipulated Turkish foreign policy through a 'diversionary war' in Syria and periodically escalated tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean region. This strategy has helped contain domestic opposition, while diverting public attention from divisive domestic problems to Turkish military activities abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resurgence of religion worldwide proved that secularization is not a de facto reality of modernity and the initial chaos that came along with the birth of postmodernity evolved into uniquely developing combinations that recognized cosmopolitan, multicultural, and hybrid (i.e., fluid and hyphenated) identities. Universal values became more instrumental than ever to connect members of hyper diverse societies while ethnocentric, nativist and exclusivist patriotism expired (and only recently starting to attract far right and white supremacist groups alone). Most Islamic revivalist movements emerging from this context have had minimal interactions with non-Muslims and influence on mainstream societies. Being in search of a solution to respond to the overwhelming effects of the West on Muslim societies, these revivalist movements could not change (and maybe contributed to) the binary positioning of Islam and the West. On the contrary, the Hizmet movement, inspired by Muhammed Fethullah Gülen and his predecessor Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, appeared in the global arena as an Islamic revivalist movement whose discourse resonated with the commonly shared universal values of every culture, ethnicity, and religion. The Hizmet movement did not position itself as an antithesis to Westernization, secularism, and modernity; the movement adopted a universalist and all-inclusive attitude, which re-introduced to the world that Islam is universal religion with the capacity to accommodate people of diversity and meet the needs of every age. This paper explores the Hizmet movement's historical, theological, and social roots as a transnational Islamic revivalist movement. It analyzes the movement's outreach across multicultural societies and its capability to adapt to a changing world through its educational and interfaith and intercultural activities across the globe. While unpacking thirty years of the Hizmet movement's activities and the contribution to the literature, the paper also addresses some of the criticisms that have emerged regarding the movement and its activities, particularly in the wake of the 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey. It should be noted that much criticism toward the movement emerged in recent years, and the movement did not face much backlash in its early years of development. With this in mind, this paper explores the development of the Hizmet movement and how much of its initiatives rapidly left a positive mark on diverse societies around the world. The paper is thus structured chronologically, tracing the birth, growth, stagnation, and transition (or according to some collapse) of the movement. The paper, by extension, too, positions the Hizmet movement within the phenomenon of contemporary Islamic revivalism as this movement is born out of similar conditions as are other Islamic revivalist movements but taking a slightly different direction, which is that it challenges the prevailing binary 'us and them' discourses produced mostly in ethno-centric political discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the 1990s, Gülen and his movement acquired a highly controversial character in the public debate in Turkey. The first is a Gülen community, generically defined as a "House" which probably coincides with one of the Light Houses ( I Isik Evleri i ) that constitute the basic organizational unit of the movement. Other contradictions and ambiguities within the discourse produced by the Gülen movement and between discourses and practices have been highlighted by various authors. Life and Politics of Brotherhood in Modern Turkey, written by Fabio Vicini. [Extracted from the article]

The military rule that was inaugurated by the coup d'état of 12 September 1980 plays a key role in the history of modern Turkey. With this seizure of power, the third since the foundation of the republic, the military promoted a set of reforms that radically reshaped the political system, the institutions, and society. Even though elections were held three years later, the regime left an enduring legacy that remains hard to come to terms with. At the same time, studies on the military era have started to flourish almost simultaneously and the regime never ceased to be a prominent research object. This article maps the historiography on the 1980 era by discussing a selection of publications that in the past forty years opened the debate or led it in new directions. The article engages with the work of scholars from various disciplines and academic traditions, without neglecting publications by journalists and other authors. Even from this mapping, that includes a small and not exhaustive sample of studies, the 1980 era emerges as an undoubtedly complex period, whose understanding can count, however, on a set of landmark publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political context of the current war crisis in Ukraine has at least three layers. To start from the bottom, the first layer is the crisis of the Minsk Accords.1 After the anti-Russia coup in Kyiv in February 2014, pro-Russia popular movements consolidated in several regions of Ukraine. In Crimea, this developed into separating from Ukraine and integrating into Russia. In several other regions like Odessa and Kharkov, such movements were forcefully suppressed. But in the two regions, Donetsk and Lugansk, they managed to survive as de facto, unrecognized states, fighting Kyiv. To stop that war, two Minsk accords were concluded with the mediation of Russia, France, and Germany. The accords provided ceasefire and political reform, including constitutional amendments, to give these pro-Russia regions special status within Ukraine. However, these accords were never fully implemented. Kyiv temporized because the nationalistic movements in Ukraine strongly opposed their implementation. One of the central elements of Volodymyr Zelensky's presidential campaign in 2019 was the promise of peaceful reintegration of Donetsk and Lugansk separatist regions, which implied implementation of the Mink accords. After his election, however, President Zelensky came to the position of denying the Minsk agreements. Now Russian officials claim that Ukraine was preparing for a military assault on the separatist regions in 2022 to reintegrate them by force rather than through the implementation of the Minsk Accords. The sabotage and finally denial of the Minsk Accords logically implied the return to warfare, which these accords put an end to in 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey has become a powerful example of rising ethno-religious nationalism since the ruling Justice and Development Party allied with the Nationalist Movement Party in 2016. Conceptualising the political ideology in power as Islamic nationalism, I expose ways in which this ideology is articulated in the education reform discourse of 'new Turkey' through a critical analysis of a foundational education reform report (the Report). The analysis shows various aspects of ethno-religious construction of education reform discourse through a focus on citizenship education (CE) partly because the prominent configuration of power relations manifests itself in considerations of CE. The analysis finds that the Report vilifies CE and proposes an alternative for it: social entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it presents Turkey's diverse population as a monolithic homogenous mass and makes no mention of democracy and human rights values. These findings call out the research community to investigate the negative implications of rising ultra-nationalism for CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Folklor / Edebiyat is the property of Cyprus International University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers information on the historical context of Turkish nationalism and the state's use of the Grey Wolves, Turkish far-right organization and movement, specifically to persecute the Kurds. It further discusses policy recommendations to resolve the question of Kurdish autonomy in Turkey; Grey Wolves emerged during the Cold War as an anti-communist paramilitary group; and increased nationalist movements among the Kurds.

This paper charts how the Gülen movement (GM)'s allegiance and effectiveness has changed over the past two decades. It examines how the GM has moved from being a fellow Islamist actor in Turkish politics to close ally during the first ten years of the AKP government with the joint aim of decreasing the Kemalist hold on the establishment. The paper then examines how the GM has been delegitimised by the AKP since it became more of a risk than an asset amidst disagreements over policy direction. It argues that the GM has transitioned from being a rival to an ally of the AKP in order to facilitate policy; going from a non-state actor pre-2002 to a quasi-state actor during its alliance. The alliance was a mutually beneficial 'marriage of convenience' which enabled both parties to consolidate power often through illiberal means. However, since 2013 the AKP-Gülen relationship has deteriorated markedly and the movement is now an enemy of the AKP and a victim of the same authoritarian drift it was previously complicit in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the first period of the Greek Marxist-Leninist movement, from its birth in 1963 until the military coup of 1967, which brought this period to an abrupt end. The movement is often referred to as 'Maoist', but, as will be detailed in brief, this is a misnomer in the Greek case. Before discussing the all-important 1963-1967 period, I will provide a brief pre-history of the movement, tracing its roots back to the 1950s. The central discussion within the article is the various activities of the Greek Marxist-Leninist movement in the 1963-67 period - namely, its publishing, trade union activity and student activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has Argentine tango dance, that appears to represent publicly an erotic relationship between the female and the male, found the space to expand in Turkey pioneered by urban Istanbul despite the conservative JDP regime? While the tango dance shifted to a global entertainment and culture industry in the 21st century providing global belongingness, it locally became one neoliberal semi-public space of secular upper and middle class Turkish Muslims to reflect and reproduce their self-identity by distinguishing themselves from new Islamic bourgeoisie as well as lower social classes. This character provided the grounds for its spread even under the conservative government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and it is still on practice despite such a conservative rule, even existing online during the Covid-19 Pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the religious policies of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) targeted at promoting Islam among the Turkish Cypriot community. For the secular circles of the Turkish Cypriot community, the AKP's imposed religious policies constitute a threat to its fundamental features and social fabric. Islamisation policies are regarded as cultural imperialism of the AKP government, with the aim of generating a religious youth, a conservative mentality, and more widespread religious practice in North Cyprus. Within this context, this article analyzes the historical account of the secularization experience of the Turkish Cypriot community, the politicization of religion with reference to education, and the penetration of AKP's religious policies in North Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on framing as a social movement's transnational strategy. Applying the cultural approach to framing analysis, it investigates how the Gülen movement, as a social group with restricted access to national gatekeepers, uses discourse to internationalise a domestic power struggle with a powerful opponent. Moving the struggle to the international arena presents a discursive opportunity that determines which ideas become visible and legitimate both internationally and nationally. The importance of such internationalization increases in times of conf lict and the media play a vital role in this process. The paper argues that the editors of the pro-Gülen movement foreign online platforms established after the movement was forced into exile following the failed 2016 coup, use strategic framing to tailor their frames for the host context and culture. That increases the resonance of their frames and the potential of the discursive opportunity. The article confirms the previous findings that media are a crucial resource for transnational social movements because policymakers are sensitive to public opinion, which is shaped by media frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on framing as a social movement’s transnational strategy. Applying the cultural approach to framing analysis, it investigates how the Gülen movement, as a social group with restricted access to national gatekeepers, uses discourse to internationalise a domestic power struggle with a powerful opponent. Moving the struggle to the international arena presents a discursive opportunity that determines which ideas become visible and legitimate both internationally and nationally. The importance of such internationalization increases in times of conflict and the media play a vital role in this process. The paper argues that the editors of the pro-Gülen movement foreign online platforms established after the movement was forced into exile following the failed 2016 coup, use strategic framing to tailor their frames for the host context and culture. That increases the resonance of their frames and the potential of the discursive opportunity. The article confirms the previous findings that media are a crucial resource for transnational social movements because policymakers are sensitive to public opinion, which is shaped by media frames.

Based on long-term fieldwork among members of the formerly influential Sunni Muslim Hizmet community in Istanbul in 2015, this contribution traces the 'un/veiling trajectory' of a woman called Lale, referring to her shifting engagement with the headscarf over a period of almost three decades. Rather than exemplifying a fragmented religiosity, these shifts are understood as articulations of Lale's aspiration to align her Islamic commitment with the secular boundary for public religiosity, which is defined – and frequently redefined – by the Turkish state. Drawing on the notion of 'pious citizenship', Lale's un/veiling trajectory constitutes the ethnographic ground for unravelling how, in Turkey, the secular boundary for public religiosity has reshaped Islamic ethical practice in three different ways: through state-imposed restrictions, as citizenly self-discipline, and by animating contestation between different religious Muslim groups. The contribution thus argues that Lale's shifting engagement with the headscarf articulates a mode of Islamic commitment that is intimately, yet uneasily, intertwined with secular discourses, aesthetics, and sensitivities. In so doing, it brings forth an interplay between Islam and secularism that is much more intricate than the image of a binary opposition allows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the 'nationalist movement' of Ahıska, a forcibly displaced people who have been arriving in Turkey from various parts of the former Soviet Union since the early 1990s. I focus on how members of this community attempt to define the Turkish nation, how they invoke migration to Turkey as a patriotic and nationalist act, how they criticize the state's responses to this migration as insufficiently nationalist, and how they respond to the movement of non‐Turkish others into the territorial and documentary space that they seek to inhabit. This nationalist movement, albeit small in number, demands our attention because it is born of a phenomenon that is intimately familiar to displaced people and not commonly associated with nationalism – the longing for rest. This longing animates Ahıska efforts to organize themselves and engage with the Turkish state. What possibilities and limitations does this genre of nationalist movement hold for displaced people across the world? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that the relationship between religion and neoliberalism in non-Western contexts cannot be understood without paying attention to the contested, dynamic, and fluid production of local knowledge. In order to substantiate this argument, I trace debates about development, equality, class, labor, and wealth that circulate in the Islamic intellectual field in Turkey. Specifically, I analyze the viewpoints of three contemporary Turkish Muslim intellectuals who make different claims about Islam's economic teachings. Mustafa Özel proposes "entrepreneurial Islam" as an alternative to state-regulated capitalism, Ihsan Eliaçık argues that "social Islam" ordains Muslims to redistribute wealth, whereas Lütfi Bergen suggests that "pastoral Islam" precedes Western capitalist modernity. I find that the disputed notion of a just economy is what unifies and divides this intellectual field as a constitutive question that is disagreed upon. This article thus calls for a recognition of the contingency, multiplicity, and indeterminacy of Islamic-neoliberal assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past fifteen years, Turkey has tried to achieve the status of global actor. Enhancing ties with the global South has been one policy to achieve this objective. The article aims to analyse the changing trajectory of Ankara's approach towards a non-traditional orientation of its foreign policy, the southern dimension, by focusing on the determinants of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) foreign policy in the last decade. The key argument is that the southern orientation of Turkish foreign policy has lost its constructive and developmental direction due to the complex interactions between the regional crisis in Turkey's neighborhood and domestic democratic backsliding, coupled with Erdogan's executive centralization, especially after the failed coup of 2016. As a major finding, the agenda securitization and the increased personalization of Turkey's domestic and international agenda have polluted an attractive foreign policy, even in non-priority regional areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian Ephemera Collection (late 1980s–1990s) at Harvard Library is a monumental primary source collection for the study of the late Soviet and post-Soviet era. It was acquired in the 1990s along with the collection of Independent and Post-Soviet Press, but remained "hidden" until 2013–2014, when it was cataloged and digitized. Digitization played a role not only in the preservation but also in the discovery of the collection. The ephemera cover various subjects, ranging from purely political (elections, the 1991 coup d'état attempt, rallies, political parties and politicians, independence movements, ethnic conflict) to cultural, religious and business-related topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that religious and secularist identities complement and intersect in political ways with race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality and that they inform writing center practice because belief exists along a spectrum that involves all writing center inhabitants and affects all writing-centered conversations. We suggest that this spectrum of faith is evocative of the spectrums that theorists of race, gender, and sexuality in particular have discussed, yet often faith has been overlooked in discussions of identity in writing center work (Denny, 2010). We propose that theories of race, gender, sexuality and other identities that have served as springboards for professional development in writing centers can help to facilitate the development of a greater literacy of faith and secularism as complicated and nuanced identities. Specifically, we believe theories involving intersectional social justice work and hybridity can help to facilitate self-reflective and productive interfaith dialogue or dialogue about faith and secularism. Thus, such theories can help writing center professionals dismantle stereotypes about believers and secularists and problematic notions of what faith, or a conversation about faith, is or should be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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