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In the early 1920s, Kilis was a mid-size town situated in the north of the Ottoman province of Aleppo. The border introduced in October 1921 between Turkey and French Syria passed right to the south of Kilis, leaving the landowning elites who lived in the city detached from their lands located in Syria. This article reconstructs the complex episodes that unfolded both before and after the introduction of this border, as the territorial future of Kilis’ agricultural hinterland intimately shaped how the town’s landed notables interacted with the coming of colonial rule to the region and the ensuing resistance efforts. In tracing these post-war developments in Kilis, this study is an attempt to come to terms with the complex ways in which historical actors operated in a world that was increasingly defined by the uncertainties of the future, and hopes to show how historians could best approach such key moments while navigating the study of futures past. As we will see, the immediate post-war years in Kilis not only led old problems to flare up with greater intensity, but also quickly resulted in the consolidation of new discursive positions in line with the emerging post-Ottoman order across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article puts Turkey's current state crisis into a historical perspective. During the transition to neo-liberalism after the hegemony crisis of the late 1970s, a critical objective for those in the high echelons of bureaucracy and ruling politicians was to ensure the security of state apparatuses. However, the policies implemented to achieve this led to fragmentation in both the state and the political spheres. Thus, during the second half of the 1990s and during the 2000s, the state became a field for open warfare between power networks that had established direct links between state apparatuses, political society, and civil society. These fragmentations – that is the parcellation of state apparatuses – triggered an intra-state crisis. Regarding the formation of the state and the political spheres in the neo-liberal era, this article shows that Turkey is a unique case in the debate on variegated forms of authoritarian statism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the Turkish and Irish republics took place nearly simultaneously, under the influence of the nationalist movement. This study discusses the cultural foundations of nationalism that emerged during the independence struggles and the necessity of transferring them to children in comparison. In particular, it is claimed that nations that have fought for independence want to create myths about these difficult times, immortalize them with works such as poetry, stories, and novels, and then pass them to the next generations. This study indicates that although they have different languages, religions, and traditions, these two countries tell fairy tales and epics for children in almost the same period for the same purposes. To illustrate this, two folk narratives of both cultures were compared in this study. In conclusion, these comparisons show that the Irish and Turkish nationalist movements exercise their freedom to 'conceive themselves' and hope to benefit somewhat from reflecting this on children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and under what conditions do ideologically similar nationalist parties adopt different positions and discourses about refugees and immigrants? We address this question by examining nationalist parties' approaches toward Syrian refugees in Turkey. Documenting these differences based on an original Twitter dataset and party manifestos, we argue that electoral dynamics under the new presidential system have shaped nationalist parties' discourses about refugees in the country. In particular, we explore how pre-electoral alliances and a strategic opening in the political space have motivated nationalist parties to amplify, ambiguate, or silence their otherwise conservative and nativist refugee discourses. Additionally, we maintain that urbanization has influenced the discursive strategies of nationalist party elites toward immigrants and refugees, giving rise to contradictory forms of nationalism in urban areas, including both far-right and liberal nationalisms. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into the complex interactions between refugee politics, electoral dynamics, nationalism, and urbanization in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absence of anti-fascist public education and debates, the marginalized majority, minority groups, and their political allies will continue to be brutalized in the region. Problematizing exclusionary politics is essential for recognizing the ongoing democratic struggles of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This article aims to stimulate more academic and public debates about fascism in MENA. Critically investigating the history of several waves of nationalism and their affinity with the first historical rise of fascism could enable us to better appreciate the challenges resistance movements in the MENA region have been facing. To that end, the persisting threat of fascism in Turkey, the Arab world, and Iran are examined critically. While the article applies the ideology form theory, a new critical theory of fascism, the soundness of the central argument regarding the significance of and the need for critiquing exclusionary, racist, and genocidal ideologies, movements, regimes, and politics does not rely on the theoretical application of the concept of fascism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking religious education as an important indicator in evaluating religious freedom in a country, this paper focuses on the religion courses in Turkey in order to evaluate Europeanisation and religious freedom in the country. The EU Commission's recent progress reports indicated that the conduct of religious courses in Turkey is incompatible with EU norms. Although important legal arrangements have been made in accordance with the adoption of minority rights in Turkey, it seems more difficult for change to happen in an ideological issue such as education. As religious freedom is an important value for the European Union, this paper aims to explore the impact of Europeanisation on the state of religious education in Turkey and the extent of Turkey's compliance with the European norms in a highly debated area like religious education. It also aims, in a broader sense, to shed a light on the place of religion in the national identity of Turkey today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a critical conceptualisation of human rights education (HRE), this study investigates how human rights were presented in a set of textbooks which were used in Turkey from 1950 to 2020. Findings show that the textbooks avoid human rights issues, struggles, campaigns, and activists by sustaining a de-politicised and de-contextualised narrative. They do not even refer to the Holocaust in explaining the historical development of human rights. These findings suggest that HRE gained a curricular status as a matter of window dressing, an 'escapist' model developed as a result. This model is characterised by a deliberate avoidance of anything that may be considered as 'political'. This study concludes that placing socio-political issues at the centre of HRE and encouraging learners to critically reflect on discrepancies between claims and realities of human rights can improve the transformative powers of HRE in nationalist contexts with no strong tradition of rights struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines state building in Dersim with reference to local demands and the state capacity. It first analyzes how the Turkish nationalists aimed to transform the Dersim region. The focus then shifts to the local responses towards the state policies following the military operations of 1937 and 1938. I posit that the Kurds' relation with the state relied on pragmatism and negotiation rather than outright hostility. Moreover, I demonstrate that the locals' expectations from the state overlapped with the Turkish state's pre-operation agenda for the most part. Despite the local endorsement, the limited state capacity constituted a major obstacle in implementing land redistribution policy and expanding road networks with limited progress. The opening of schools, however, produced somewhat mixed results in the sense that the enrollment rates did not correspond to the increase in the number of schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the emergence of Nobel Prize-winning Turkish scientist Aziz Sancar as a scientific persona model. After receiving the Nobel Prize in 2015, Sancar's nationalistic tendencies and close relationship with incumbent Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) leaders opened up a wide range of discussions on how a scientist's relationship with politics should be intellectually interpreted. Focusing on the case of Aziz Sancar, this article examines the specific contextual conditions in which a scientist expresses his identity and how it is interpreted by the public. To this end, the aim of this work is to present an in-depth analysis of the discussions that took place in Ekşi Sözlük, a popular social media platform acting as an online forum in Turkey, and news from the national media and to scrutinize how a scientific persona is conceived in Turkey and how Aziz Sancar has been 'de-scienticized' in the heavy polarized Turkish political atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on a theoretical frame developed in reference to an interdisciplinary research field, this article provides a critical analysis of Turkey's citizenship education (CE) curriculum with a view to revealing discourses that inhibit the promotion of cosmopolitan values of human rights, democratic citizenship and diversity. The analysis demonstrates that a complementary set of ethno-religious, statist and neoliberal discourses undermines the cosmopolitan values. The inharmonious patchwork of these two sets of conflicting discourses raises the question of whether CE in Turkey really empowers students to support democracy. This question reveals the significance of developing a CE curriculum underpinned by a consistent set of socio-political values in Turkey and elsewhere. [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]

To consolidate a predominant party system, an incumbent party will attempt to anchor voting behavior to social cleavages, a strategy called cleavage enclosure. However, does this strategy actually work? In Turkey, the incumbent AKP government has focused its campaigning on conservatives and nationalists. The analysis of the 2018 post-election survey reveals that the cleavage enclosure worked for conservatives but not for nationalists. Of the incumbent supporters in the previous election, conservatives replicated their support, whereas nationalists were less likely to support the incumbent than other identity holders. Nationalists tend to punish but not reward the incumbent party for its economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinking theoretically about three important and recent events affecting the Kurds can help us to understand better their political experiences.1 These events include (1) The breakdown of the Turkish Government-Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) cease-fire in July 2015; (2) the failure of the advisory referendum on independence that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq held on September 25, 2017; and (3) the Turkish military incursion into northeastern Syria (Rojava or Syrian Kurdistan) in October 2019. I first examine five different theories of international relations as well as the concept of levels of analysis and theories of nationalism. In doing so, I refer intermittently to these three important recent events concerning the Kurds and then describe them more fully to illustrate how thinking theoretically can help explain what happened and why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious populism features prominently in the global political landscape. This contribution focuses on this particular type of populism, and the political strategies employed by religious populist actors, with a focus on the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP) under the leadership of Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. Although there is an established literature on religious populism, there are still dynamics that need to be studied further. How religious populists outflank their rivals, especially those with relatively conservative ideologies and understandings of nationalism, remains unanswered, for example. In this study, I investigate how the AKP, as a religious populist party, has competed with and distinguished itself from other mainstream and conservative Turkish political actors and movements, and their respective nationalist ideologies: (a) the secular political establishment, including the Kemalist Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People's Party), (b) the tradition(s) the party was originally part of but is no longer viable, the Milli Görüş (National Outlook) movement, (c) other popular religious movements that have a claim to power (such as the Gülen, or Hizmet, movement), and finally (d) ultranationalist segments and parties such as the Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (Nationalist Action Party), each of which has their own interpretations of citizenship and nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's relations with the EU have gradually soured roughly since 2013. Today, Turkey and the EU have an erratic modus vivendi episodically bordering political crises. This study attempts to provide a critical constructivist account of Turkey's foreign policy change towards the EU between 2002 and 2017. This change in state behaviour analysed in relation to the paradigmatic shift in Turkish national identity discourses regarding civilisational self-understanding led by the AKP elites. The article asserts that this transformation in Turkish national self-perception made fluctuations in Turkey's policies towards the EU and gradual deterioration of relations 'thinkable' via the medium of national identity discourses. The impact of Turkey's new hegemonic civilisational self-understanding is pursued within the epistemological framework of conceivability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The national resistance movement that emerged in Anatolia and Thrace immediately after the end of World War I and that was eventually successful in overturning the peace settlement imposed on the Ottoman Empire by the victorious Entente, has become such an important part of the history of the emergence of the Turkish nation state, that it is studied almost exclusively in that context: as republican prehistory. As a result almost no effort has been made to locate it within the major global developments of the era. This article tries to remedy this by analysing statements coming out of the resistance leadership over the years 1918-1921 to establish where it fits the ideological currents of the day. It concludes that four major inputs can be discerned: loyalty to the Ottoman monarchy and state; Muslim nationalism; Wilsonian self-determination, and Boslevik-inspired anti-imperialism. These influences were not mutually exclusive. Apart from being influenced by contemporary ideological currents, the National Movement was also an influencer: as a movement to preserve an existing state (and not to create or carve out a new one) it was also a pioneer of the revisionist movements of the interbellum that aimed to undo the Paris peace arrangements. Supplemental data for this article is available online at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football, as other cultural products, has become a major part of the political field, since there has been an ongoing cultural battle between the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his dissidents. The country is divided into two, not only between social and cultural capital owners; two sets of ideological elements, namely 'doxas' in reference to Bourdieusian sociology, also define the political faultlines in Turkey. Football, imported in the final years of the Ottoman Empire by the modern elite, has been intertwined with Turkish modernism and its core elements, such as nationalism. The Erdoğan regime, while dismantling the old rule, has also tried to create cultural hegemony, which has been met with dissidence. This paper analyses the role of an old military song called the 'Izmir March', sung in the football stands against the Erdoğan regime, discussing the elements of the two doxas in Turkey, old and new. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of Europeanisation initiated in Turkey following the 1999 Helsinki summit witnessed a loosening of state control over the Patriarchate of Constantinople under the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In parallel with the AKP's reforms geared towards EU membership, the Patriarchate's activities became more transnational in their character, especially with regards to its organisation and influence over religious affairs within the Christian world. This contribution traces change and continuity in Turkish policy towards the Patriarchate under the AKP government. Key differences between the AKP government's stance on the Patriarchate and those of its predecessors are noted, with specific reference to prospects of EU membership and the strategy that has been devised by the AKP to that end. Specifically, the contribution shows that Turkey's bid to join the EU initially presented important leverage over Turkey, allowing the Patriarchate to reassert its transnational character. However, diminished prospects of EU membership together with a gradual return of nationalist sentiment now present an important challenge for the Patriarchate in its efforts to maintain transnational character and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long and complicated work history of women at Third World countries' national switchboard centrals is a crucial but largely overlooked aspect of the history of telecommunications and the feminist history of labour regimes. By focusing on the Turkish case between the 1950s and the 1980s, this article aims to unveil the authoritarian labour regimes that the telephone girls were exposed to in relation to the capitalist developmentalism, state-led cultural modernisation and nationalism policies of Third World countries. The archival and oral history research conducted with the female operators show that women at the centrals were expected to compensate for the deteriorated infrastructure, function as the surveillance apparatus of the state, and educate the male public to engage with modern and secular gender relations through their sacrificial and caring emotional work. Women have developed their own strategies of survival and struggle against this labour regime through their work practices and solidarity mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Turkey of the 1920s and 1930s was a complex place to live. Kemalism came to nurture and embrace a new citizen who had no other choice but that of being a Turk as stipulated by the 1924 constitution. It was particularly challenging for Christian minorities, or what was left of them, because of ultra-nationalism and the highly ideological nature of the one-party regime of the Kemalist era. Many Armenians, who chose to stay or had to stay in Turkey, were not at ease with the existing state of affairs. Most of them were still looking for ways to leave Turkey for safer places. It became a particular matter of contention in the initial years of the Cold War when the Soviet Union launched a policy of encouraging Turkish Armenians to migrate to Soviet Armenia. Based on Russian, Turkish, and Armenian sources, the article presents hitherto unexplored features of that policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main argument of this paper is that Turkey had close relations with Middle Eastern states during the Atatürk period, which is contrary to the literature that claims the opposite because of Turkey's Western-oriented ideology. The article asks why Turkey as a Western-oriented state sought to have close relations with Middle Eastern states. To answer this question, the article uses discourse analysis focusing on Middle Eastern leaders' visits as represented in Turkish public discourse. Accordingly, it proposes two main answers. Firstly, the paper argues that the new state's relations with Middle Eastern countries played an important role in legitimation of its Westernization projects in the eyes of its citizens. Secondly, the Turkish state marginalized rival political discourses, mainly Islamism, by proving that even Muslim majority countries wanted to imitate modern Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholarly interest in the influence of Tatar intellectuals on Turkish nationalism has been strong, less attention has been paid to the interactions between Russian Azerbaijani and Ottoman Turkish intellectuals. This study applies theoretical tools developed by Benedict Anderson in the study of ethnic nationalism in the late Ottoman and Russian Empires. In doing so, this study focuses on the works of one leading intellectual from each side, Hüseyinzade Ali [Turan] and Mehmet Ziya [Gökalp]. Particular attention is paid to the concept of Turan, which they defined and elaborated as both a political ideal and a key element of the nationalist ideology they espoused through four poems they authored, two of which have homonymous titles. Their different views of the limits of the Turanian 'imagined community' and the political operationalization of the concept shed light on the development of ethnic nationalism in the declining Ottoman and Russian Empires. Ever since, Turan has become a significant symbolic conceptual tool that has fired the imaginations of Turkic nationalists (without, yet, having led to the establishment of a serious political movement). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many existing studies on the war in Syria offer important insights but none fully engages the longue durée of history and its implications. Syria like many other states in Asia was established and institutionalized in the context of the growth and expansion of a capitalist world economy centred in Europe. The Franco-British reorganization of the Levant between the two world wars was supposed to support long-term processes of wealth accumulation and economic growth but forceful integration in the world economy set the stage instead for nationalist backlashes, economic crises, and war. Indeed, one of the driving forces of conflict in Syria as well as in other parts of the developing world has been the recurrence of struggles between those pushing for ever greater capitalist integration and those resisting such efforts in the name of alternative ideologies, including communism, Pan-Arab nationalism, and various distinct currents of political Islam. To demonstrate these dynamics, this paper will present a sweeping overview of the history of Syria and of the greater region, from Ottoman times to the present. It will also examine in detail the war that broke out in Syria in 2011, highlighting how it relates to broader struggles unfolding across the immediate region and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between religion and politics in current Turkish society, particularly since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) consolidated its power over state institutions and replaced the Kemalist establishment in the early 2010s. It argues that the AKP has re-instrumentalized the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and used its mosques to enact a performance of nationalism, deviating from a Kemalist, laicist-national identity towards a more encompassing, Ottomanist, religious one. After discussing the unique understanding of laicism in Turkey and the transformation of Diyanet as a state apparatus, content and discourse analyses are used to examine the texts of 1,200 Friday khutbas, weekly prayers that are ordinarily prepared and distributed nationwide by Diyanet. These indicate how citizens perform their nation simply by participating in gatherings, composing the congregation, listening to imams, and being exposed to the reminders of their (re-)identified nationality. The content analysis of Friday khutbas over three distinct periods—1927, 1997–2010, and 2011–2018—illustrates that, as political power shifts over time, the repetition of certain banal reminders used in the khutbas has resulted in different performances of the nation and that, under the rule of the AKP, a new performance has already begun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish television series gained their presence in the global entertainment market being dubbed as Turkey's soft power asset. However, in more recent years, together with increasing government control over Turkey's media landscape and rising authoritarianism, historical television series depicting the Ottoman Empire have flourished primarily on Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) public broadcasting. This paper argues that historical television series on TRT reflect the political elite's populist-nationalism and are in line with the AKP's (Justice and Development Party) political discourse. Therefore, television series aired on TRT are operationalized by the AKP government to advance their political agenda and are thus employed as propaganda tools in disseminating a populist-nationalist discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pro-Kurdish nationalist mobilization in Turkey was mostly built on the right to self-determination aligned with the Marxist-Leninist ideology for the insurgent Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the early 1980s and ethnic minority rights for the secular-leftist pro-Kurdish legal parties in the 1990s. The Turkish state mostly framed the legal and illegal pro-Kurdish mobilization as 'the enemy of the state' and 'the enemy of Islam' in its counter-insurgency efforts. However, in the 2000s, the PKK and the pro-Kurdish legal parties became more tolerant and inclusive toward Islamic Kurdish identity by mobilizing their sympathizers in events such as 'Civic Friday Prayers' and a 'Democratic Islamic Congress'. This move aimed to function as an antidote to the rising popularity of the ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Kurdish Hizbullah in the early 2000s. In other words, Islam and pious Muslim identity has increasingly become contested among Turkish Islamists, Kurdish Islamists, and the secular Kurdish nationalists. This article seeks to unpack why, how, and under what conditions such competing actors and mechanisms shape the discursive and power relationships in the Kurdish-Turkish public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the current ambiguous position of the cult of Atatürk in Turkish society and politics, as both a state cult that is not entirely desired by the ruling party and a fragmented and contested people’s cult. The article argues that the commodification and personal appropriation of the cult of Atatürk in the 1990s and 2000s blurred the lines between state and society and between political ideologies, eventually turning the cult into a much more inclusive realm than before, which enables debating national identity in Turkey despite the contentious political environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypothesised as a promising research concern for medical geographers, the therapeutic landscape concept promised to bridge divides between methods and approaches in humanistic, structural, and critical geographies. Despite early reference to ideology and the topic’s potential, engagements with political ideas and identity politics remain underdeveloped. Analysing a range of historical sources, this article examines the therapeutic landscapes of early republican Turkey from the vantage of its guiding philosophy and identity construct, Kemalism. In doing so, it reveals the politicised and ideological nature of many therapeutic landscapes and their place in one of the major projects of the modern era: nation-building. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The First World War in the Middle East swept away five hundred years of Ottoman dominion. It ushered in new ideologies and radicalized old ones – from Arab nationalism and revolutionary socialism to impassioned forms of atavistic Islamism. It created heroic icons, like the enigmatic Lawrence or the modernizing Atatürk, and it completely re-drew the map of the region, forging a host of new nation states, For many, the self-serving intervention of these powers in the region between 1914 and 1919 is the major reason for the conflicts that have raged there on and off ever since. Yet many of the most common assertions about the First World War in the Middle East and its aftermath are devoid of context. This article argues that, far from being a mere sideshow to the war in Europe, the Middle Eastern conflict was in fact the centre of gravity in a war for imperial interests. Moreover, contrary to another persistent myth of the First World War in the Middle East, local leaders and their forces were not simply the puppets of the Great Powers. The way in which these local forces embraced, resisted, succumbed to, disrupted, or on occasion overturned the plans of the imperialist powers for their own interests in fact played an important role in shaping the immediate aftermath of the conflict – and in laying the foundations for the troubled Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Republic of Turkey embraced international Olympic sport as an affair of the state. Sport, in particular, the ancestor sport of wrestling, was heralded as an important tool in the cultivation and propogation of an incipient Turkish national identity. The dominance of Turkish wrestlers at the 1948 summer Olympic Games in London revealed the nationalistic importance of sport in Turkey. Eager to recognize the accomplishments of their champion wrestlers, the Turkish public joined forces with journalists and governmental officials in launching an official cash reward scheme. In direct violation of the International Olympic Committee’s anti-profiteering rules concerning amateurism, Turkish Olympic medallists received monetary prizes. When the wave of nationalistic euphoria subsided, Turkish Olympic officials were forced to acknowledge the consequences of the nation’s magnanimity. On the eve of the 1952 Olympic Games, the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC) stripped the nation’s champion wrestlers of their amateur status and promptly prohibited them from competing in the Finnish capital. The TOC’s decision provoked a national outcry. High-ranking governmental officials called upon the TOC to reverse its decision. Unable to make late amendments to its roster of Olympic participants, the TOC reported that Turkey’s athletic heroes would not be permitted to defend their Olympic titles in Helsinki. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘Alevi openings’ launched in 2007 by the Justice and Development Party have been widely lauded as a historic and unprecedented step in the Turkish Republic. In contrast, this article places the ‘openings’ in a wider historical context, analyzing them in relation to processes of nation-building. Firstly, it is argued that the ‘openings’ marked continuity with previous interventions by state actors, including the military, dating back at least to the 1960s. Secondly, it is contended that these interventions should be regarded as a process of re-framing Alevism within a Turkish–Islamic framework, consigning it to ‘invisibility,’ rather than as democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study of families with members involved in the armed struggle for Kurdish nationalism led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations with a theoretical sample of six families in the area of Yüksekova, detailed discussions were held with twelve members of families with children, partners, or siblings involved in the conflict. Ethno-national exceptionalism plays a significant role in determining the motivations of political violence among groups, but with the additional background of the perceptions and realities of systematic racialization, de-territorialization, disenfranchisement, and cultural exclusion that affect certain Kurdish groups. The findings in this article offer critical sociological and anthropological accounts of the localized drivers of ethno-nationalism, and the motivations for and the experiences of conflict among families with members involved in the armed conflict and the “Kurdish question” in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Borne by people, intangible heritage is not tied to a territory, nor it is necessarily found within the borders of a single country. The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage recognises this transnational character of intangible heritage and encourages States Parties to submit joint, multinational, nominations to its lists when a cultural element is commonly found in their territory. Despite such encouragement, there have been very few multinational inscriptions on the Convention’s lists so far. This article examines nationalistic approaches to intangible heritage as a major obstacle in this situation. While the Convention calls for international cooperation to safeguard the world’s intangible heritage, it inadvertently fosters nationalist claims on cultural traditions on the ground. States Parties may treat the Convention as a ‘patent approval system’ and use its lists to register shared traditions as their own national heritage. Their listing on behalf of a single State Party generates conflicts among countries over their origin and ownership. This article examinesKaragözshadow theatre as a case in point. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the ever-growing literature on various aspects of the Kurdish question in Turkey, there are practically no normative discussions of Kurdish demands for the public recognition of their identities. This is all the more startling given the ascendancy of philosophical accounts in the literature on minority rights. This article will try to redress the balance by proposing a normative framework that could be used to justify Kurdish demands for recognition, drawing on the broader debates that revolve around Charles Taylor's seminal conceptualization of “the politics of recognition”. In this context, I will identify nationalism, a strategy used both by the state to suppress demands for recognition and by the minorities to put forward these demands, as the most serious hurdle in the way of the democratic resolution of the “Kurdish question” in Turkey and promote a form of recognition-based multiculturalism that (a) respects the basic rights of all citizens, not only those in whose name the said claims are made, but also those of the members of the majority against which the claims are voiced; (b) leaves room for alternative values or conceptions of the good life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1924, John Dewey travelled to Turkey to make recommendations on the Turkish educational system. According to many existing accounts, Dewey brought a sorely needed progressive educational perspective to a nation emerging from centuries of despair. On the whole, these accounts dismiss the Ottoman legacy and overlook how Dewey’s historical thinking coloured his view of Turkish democracy. This article draws on these considerations to offer a critical re-reading of Dewey’s trip, arguing that the visit, rather than supporting the expansion of a bottom-up democratic perspective in the Turkish educational system, actually helped advance top-down Turkish nation-building. In so doing, it explores the connections between history and democracy in Dewey’s thinking, reclaims the significance of the Ottoman legacy, examines the role of education in radically remaking the Turkish public, and points to the need for studying places and times where schooling is used to expunge history in the name of exporting democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the cultural construction of the school in Turkey in relation to the construction of Turkish nation-ness. By looking at how the modern school was fit together with a network of interrelated discourses available in early twentieth-century Turkey, the article investigates the ways in which the school became an object of thought in support of narrating and imagining Turkish nation-ness. In the article, I argue that the school was pivotal in the imagination and institution of Turkey not only literally but also symbolically. Juxtaposed with a radically contrasting image of the traditional educational establishment of the Ottoman dynastic past calledmahalle mektebi, the school was appropriated by the Republican elite as a statement of modernity, national character and a total break from the Ottoman past. Giving a visual expression to the new regime’s aspirations for the society, the school, with its very architecture, layout and disciplinary and hierarchical organisation, functioned as a clear symbol of enlightenment, civility, order and progress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kasbarian and Öktem explore the extent to which ‘political friendships’ between Armenians, Turks and Kurds—members of communities antagonized by the traumatic experience of genocide—can subvert hegemonic power arrangements of denial and nationalist mobilization. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with a group of Armenians and Turks in London, their paper explores how the members of this group experienced a transformation of their subject positions by facing each other's stories, gradually overcoming insecurities and fears of the Other. This dynamic process precipitated a shift of position, individually and collectively, enabling the formation of a community that acted beyond the confines of the reigning logics of nationalist projects. They argue that, in the relatively level playing field of the transnational, political and other friendships can develop to the point of becoming ‘moral communities’ that challenge established status quos and unequal power relations. Friendship and interpersonal relations that transgress these boundaries undermine reigning discourses and are, ultimately, political acts. However, these ‘low’ politics interactions still face the reality of ‘high’ politics, structured by the actions of an overbearing and semi-democratic Turkish state, the political expedience of third countries and a factious Armenian diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1923) as a huge multi-ethnic and multi-religious conglomerate spread across three continents, its successor, the modern Republic of Turkey, was confined in its current borders to mainly Asia Minor. Through the lens of physical culture, this article looks at the impact of the all-encompassing project of nation building as enacted by Ataturk. It traces the efforts for modernity and reform that already started in the nineteenth century but were later turned into a means to purge the newborn nation of Ottoman ‘backwardness'. Catching up with the West, including the introduction of new athletic disciplines, became imperative. In view of some selected physical activities, the article discusses how the ‘Sick Man of Europe', as the empire was called because its Balkan possessions were dwindling, was designed to turn into a proud and powerful, yet disciplined Turkish entity. Nevertheless, traditional sports in particular have somewhat retained and appropriated religion within a now officially secular society, providing an important cultural reservoir that could bridge some of the country's existing frictions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Cyprus occupies an unenviable position among a group of intractable international conflicts which transcend their national borders and whose resolution has eluded third-party mediation. The Cyprus dispute has preoccupied theorists and practitioners of conflict resolution ever since the United Nations stationed its peacekeeping force on the island in 1964. Even attempts by the United Nations to revitalise the Cyprus talks following the 2004 referendum on the Annan plan have not yielded satisfactory results. For decades, the Cyprus problem has challenged conventional international analysis and defied traditional approaches to negotiation and peacemaking. This article grapples with the question of why this conflict has not been resolved despite endless negotiations. By extrapolating three seemingly distinct variables—Cypriotisation, Europeanisation and post-Kemalism—this article alludes to changes in the conflict's contextual parameters that are conducive to a political settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss the ‘Kurdish question’ in Turkey within the framework of the current debates on the ‘death of multiculturalism’. Contra what I would call ‘multikulti-sceptics’, I contend that it is too early to compose an epitaph for multiculturalism, both as practice and as ideology, that there is no binary opposition between a form of rights-based multiculturalism on the one hand, and universal human rights, democratic constitutionalism or social cohesion on the other. The paper also focuses on ‘multicultural constitutional citizenship,’ based on democratic deliberation and dialogue, as a solution to Kurdish demands for the public recognition of their identities. I juxtapose Kurdish claims with similar demands made by national minorities in other contexts, and conclude by delineating the normative contours of multicultural constitutional citizenship and outlining the practical measures that are required to sustain it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper scrutinises citizenship education in Turkey from the foundation of the Turkish Republic (1923) to the present and explores the extent to which it encourages inclusive or exclusive concepts of national identity and citizenship. In Turkey, where there are citizens belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, civic education plays a prominent role for promoting tolerance among citizens. Using framing questions from phase one of the International Association for the Educational Achievement’s (IEA) research of Civic Education Across Countries, the civic education textbooks of Turkey are examined to determine the extent to which they promote democracy and human rights, make positive references to ethnic and religious minorities, and promote social cohesion. As Turkey was not included in phase one of the IEA study, the paper provides original information for comparative studies, reconsideration of citizenship education in multicultural societies and promoting an active national citizenry in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the history of Turkish opposition to the then European Economic Community (EEC) between 1967 and 1980. It traces how and why an overwhelming majority of the Turkish elite during these years was opposed to integration with Europe and why this opposition was experienced and performed through a national imagination. It argues that anti-EEC sentiment was informed by, and in turn formulated, a reassertion of nationalist thought that cut across Turkey's extant political and ideological spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turkish Republic that emerged from the collapsing Ottoman Empire offers an instructive example of a self-conscious deployment of history by political elites to build a nation fitting the new state. The purpose of official history has been to tie the population to the land and the State, and to the project of ‘modernization’ (meaning, mostly, Europeanization). It encompasses many apparent contradictions that nevertheless have had to be reconciled in the historical narratives presented to schoolchildren and what has been omitted from those narratives, such as the role of Europeans as wartime enemies versus the new Republic's European orientation. In order to explain how Turkish republican official history selectively synthesized and mobilized disparate potential historical sources of a modernizing national identity, I analyze history textbooks and curricular materials from the 1930s through the 1950s, applying a four-way analysis drawn from Nietzsche. Following the schema presented in his early essay ‘History in the service and disservice of life’ I show examples of how different elements of Turkey's past, as well as key events in European history, are deployed in monumental, antiquarian, and critical modes of representation. I discuss Nietzsche's main preoccupation in that essay, the importance of forgetting, and apply it to some of the occlusions in the history curriculum of the early Republic. The article sheds light on the content of the history curriculum and the challenges facing reformers today, and also illustrates an analytic schema that could be applied to other cases of national identity construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the gender policies of the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi—Justice and Development Party) government in Turkey. It is argued that AKP's period in government has been marked by the emergence of a new mode of patriarchy. The article aims at a tentative conceptualisation of this new mode of patriarchy in terms of neoliberal, nationalist and religious discourses in comparison with the already existing republican and liberal modes of patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite scholarly interest in the process of Turkey's candidacy for European Union (EU) membership, what is missing in the literature is a detailed examination of Turkish public opinion on the issue. Using Turkish Election Surveys, Eurobarometer surveys and International Social Survey Programme data, we test whether economic considerations, support for democracy, attachment to national identity and religiosity affect Turkish individuals' attitudes towards Turkey's EU membership. Perceived national economic conditions and national identity have a negative impact while satisfaction with democracy is positively linked to support for EU membership. Contrary to expectations, religion exerts no significant influence over membership preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we research the main discourses in Germany and Turkey on Turkish accession to the European Union. As we argue, these discourses may easily affect the current accession negotiations, through statements made by national political leaders. We identify three distinct discourses in Germany (multiculturalism, European consolidation and cultural incompatibility) and three in Turkey (Euro-optimism, pacta sunt servanda and Turkish pride and independence). Most of the discourses we found, in both Germany and Turkey, are incompatible with Turkish accession and will make Turkish accession a tough call. Even if further enlargement has significant economic benefits, emotional arguments appear to play an important role in setting the pace of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores what conditions or what specific issues lead to shifts in the positioning of the Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi, MHP) towards Turkey's European Union (EU) membership goal. The article first examines the MHP's background and characteristics and compares it with similar parties in Western Europe. Subsequently, the MHP's EU stance during 1999-2002 and in the post-2002 period is discussed. The article concludes that ideology matters for the MHP but that shifts in degrees of Euroscepticisim during particular periods can be explained by strategic considerations of the MHP, which respond to the party's electoral gains or losses, its position in the party political spectrum and whether it is in government, in opposition or outside parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union in general and the European Commission in particular are characterised by supranational governance. The enlargement policy gives the Commission the opportunity to export and promote supranational norms and define the boundaries of Europe as a supranational polity through the conditionality of membership and intensive contact with the candidate countries. This article analyses the discourses of the Commission on Turkey and gives us insights into how well Turkey fits the supranational model in the eyes of Commission officials. It demonstrates how the boundaries of supranationalism are set and even challenged by the prospects of Turkey's accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cenk Saracoglu conceptualizes the antipathy towards Kurdish migrants manifesting in certain cities of Turkey since the early 2000s as 'exclusive recognition' in his article ''Exclusive recognition': the new dimensions of the question of ethnicity and nationalism in Turkey' published in Ethnic and Racial Studies 32(4). According to the author, these recent developments represent 'a historically specific ethnicization process' and its sources cannot be found directly and only in historical discourses and policy of mainstream Turkish nationalism. In this note, I contradict the author's claims by asserting that the recent manifestations of anti-Kurdish sentiments are an extension of the ongoing policies of Turkish national identity based on Turkish nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]