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In the 1940s, Islam started to re-emerge in the Turkish public sphere after the secular reforms of the Kemalist revolution. Two public intellectuals, Nurettin Topçu and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, played a decisive role in modelling Islamic activism in the new Republican environment. This paper will focus on these two intellectuals’ activism and personal stories of intra-faith conversion, as well as their encounters with the Naqshbandi Sufi order, which survived the official ban on religious orders because of its informal structures and practices. On the one hand, the Naqshbandi practices inspired in these two authors a new methodology to propagate religion within the strict limits of secular Turkey. On the other hand, the new ‘modern’ intellectual environment also forced Islamist intellectuals to change their way of advocating religiosity through academically accepted standards and values.

Turkish politics is directed through 'informal' tools and informal relations. My paper will attempt to understand more in depth some aspects of informal politics in the Turkish context with two case studies. The first example is built on 2009 electoral campaign in Istanbul's district of Üsküdar. The results of a field work and a survey in the district clearly show that the parties' strategies are built on a friendly relation with voters rather than on a formal campaign. Presents, a chat around a glass of black tea, hemŞehri networks, and women networks appear to be much more influential than any media strategy. Indeed, voters do not recall even the slogans of the political parties. The second case shows the influence of 'chieftains' (ağa) in the Şanlıurfa province on electoral behaviours; the power of the 'chieftains' seems to be deriving from a mix of coercion, well rooted values of respect and tribal loyalty, and strong ties with the central authority. Even if this system often results in the imposition of unequal social relations, it appears to be widely accepted by the broader society through a validation process instigated by its democratic connotation. In this sense, with transformations in the demographic, social, economic and political spheres, tribal identities as well as hemŞehri networks did not disappear but evolved into a functional network of patronage. An analysis of patronage and informal relations as well as their influence on political mobilisation may lead to a more informed understanding of political practices in Turkey, and to a specific assessment of the influence of informal politics upon electoral behaviours.

In 1934, NurettinTopçu returned to Turkey after becoming the first Turkish student to obtain a doctorate in philosophy at la Sorbonne. Strongly influenced by Turkish conservative ideas, in France, Topçu became passionate of Maurice Blondel and Louis Massignon as wellhhu as the strengthening European extreme right. Back to his homeland, the Turkish intellectual worked as a publisher and teacher until his death in 1975. His articles and books became very popular among a new religious generation that were disappointed by the Republic and the secular elites. Topçu gave a re-interpretation of nationalism, provided new basis to reconstruct Muslim thought in a secular context, and a methodology to operate without clashing with the secular establishment. Indeed, Topçu is particularly important because he invented a new and peculiar lexicon for Turkish Islamism. NurettinTopçuis a key author to understand Islamism in republican Turkey as he is the author that contributed most to the shaping of Islamist lexicon and values. The present paper will then try to understand the genesis of his ideas and some aspects of them'mainly modernity, nationalism, and state', which characterized his generation of Islamist intellectuals and deeply influenced the following generation.

This paper briefly examines the life of the Ottoman statesman Said Halim Pasha and focuses more extensively on his political ideas, stressing the Pasha’s criticisms of Europe and his attempts to propose an Islamic alternative system. Despite the great influence that European political thought had on Said Halim Pasha, he advocated the use of original ideas for political reforms; however, these ideas appeared when the Islamist movement debacle was already in the making. Although his importance was realized many years later in Turkey, Said Halim Pasha’s ideas are valuable but contain some incongruities with the contemporary understanding of democracy and human rights.

Türk siyasal partilerinin 29 Mart 2009 yerel seçimlerindeki oy toplama stratejilerini ve bunun seçmen üzerindeki etkisini araştırma konusu edinen bu çalışma İstanbul’un Kadıköy, Küçükçekmece ve Üsküdar ilçelerinde sürdürülen seçim kampanyalarını kapsamaktadır. Merkez sağı temsilen Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Ak Parti) ile merkez solu temsilen Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) çalışma konusu edilmiş ve bu iki partinin üç ilçedeki seçim kampanyaları üzerinde çalışılmıştır. İstanbul’da gerek büyükşehir, gerekse ilçeler düzeyinde seçim yarışı genel olarak Ak Parti ile CHP arasında geçmiştir. Bu bakımdan çalışmamız, İstanbul bağlamında iki partiyi araştırma konusu ederek merkez sağla merkez sol arasındaki çekişme noktalarını ve çalışma stratejilerini ortaya koymaktadır.