CIAO DATE: 02/2009
Volume: 10, Issue: 3
July - September 2008
Turkey’s Northern Iraq Policy: Competing Perspectives
Tarik Oğuzlu
This article argues that Turkey’s approach towards the Kurds of northern Iraq provides analysts with an opportunity to demonstrate that the traditional frontiers between foreign and domestic policy realms have gradually become blurred. The main contention is that the way of defining Turkey’s foreign and security policy interests vis-à-vis northern Iraq has been increasingly informed by domestic concerns to re-construct Turkey’s national identity at home. In this context, two alternatives discourses vie for influence. The first is the so-called liberal-integrationist approach, advocated mainly by pro-European liberals, the AKP leadership, and the Kurdish elites who are currently doing politics under the roof of the Democratic Society Party within Parliament. The second is the so-called realist-exclusivist approach supported by the traditional security elites in Turkey as well as the main opposition party in the Parliament, namely the Republican People’s Party.
Turkish-Kurdish Relations: A Year of Significant Developments
Robert Olson
This article examines the challenges of Kurdish nationalism within Turkey and of Kurdish nationalist movements emanating from Iraq during the period between the 22 July 2007 elections and the crises of March 2008. In particular the article discusses the following developments: First, the domestic political scene, particularly the consequences of the 22 July elections and the surprisingly strong wins of AKP deputies in the southeast and east of Turkey versus the relatively poor showing of the DTP; second, the efforts of the Turkish Armed Forces and businessmen’s associations to ameliorate economic grievances in the southeast; and third, the increase in PKK terror activities and the TAF’s subsequent air and land attacks on northern Iraq. The conclusion addresses the implications of the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq for Turkish-Kurdish relations, and discusses the trade-offs of different instruments utilized by Turkey to resolve the Kurdish problem.
Turkey’s New Approaches toward the PKK, Iraqi Kurds and the Kurdish Question
Ertan Efegil
In a sharp break from the past, Turkey’s AK Party government now openly accepts the existence of a domestic Kurdish problem, and views it moreover as being mutually interrelated with the rise of separatism among Iraqi Kurds and the problem of PKK terrorism. Turkey now has official contacts with the Iraqi Kurds and is working to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem by implementing socio-economic and cultural measures in addition to the military one. While the Iraqi Kurds, the American administration and Turkey are beginning to reconcile their differences concerning the Kurdish issue, Turkey faces internal division; certain parties such as the General Staff, the National Movement Party and the Democratic Society Party continue to push for radical measures. Today, there seems to be little opportunity to find common understanding. But as existing conditions deteriorate and pressure mounts both within the domestic sphere and from the international community, it grows increasingly important for Turkey to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish issue.
The Kurdish Issue: Can the AK Party Escape Securitization?
Rabia Karakaya Polat
The Kurdish question has been a source of domestic conflict since the inception of the Turkish Republic. It has been one of the mostly securitized issues in domestic politics. Despite the continuation of the securitizing agenda, and years of denial by the state, in the mid-1990s alternative discourses on the cultural rights of the Kurds started to emerge. The AK Party government departed from previous attitudes by repeatedly emphasizing the Kurds’ right to express their culture and identity. This article analyzes the developments regarding the Kurdish issue during the AK Party government and asks whether they can be seen as a desecuritization process. The article argues that although there are significant signs of desecuritization, Turkey continues to swing between forces, agendas, and actors of securitization and desecuritization when it comes to the Kurdish issue.
Islam and Democracy: A False Dichotomy
Hayrettin Özler, Ergün Yıldırım
As the AK Party government struggles to keep the ‘EU dream’ alive, and as Kemalist ideocrats work to keep back the AKP’s dominion, lingering Turkish disputes about Islam and democracy resolve into new forms and disputing parties change their positions. More and more, the conservative Islamists of the past have taken on liberal, democratic, or pan-European stances, while some liberal democrats of the past have taken on a conservative, even reactionary discourse. Thanks again to the EU membership prospect, the relation between Islam and democracy is being transformed to the extent that the debate now focuses on the question of whether Islam and its societal dynamics are hindering or facilitating the formation of a democratic structure in accordance with EU standards. Nevertheless, the Islam “vs.” democracy debate has not yet been superseded, and the dispute seems far from being resolved. We suggest that there are now three intellectual groups with a stake in the discussion.
Secularism in Turkey: Myths and Realities
Ahmet T. Kuru
The Prosecutor of the High Court of Appeals opened a closure case against the ruling AK Party by presenting it as the center of anti-secular reactionism in Turkey. The indictment largely reflected four myths embraced by the Turkish establishment: 1) Secularism is a way of life and a constitutional principle; 2) Secularism does not allow religion’s impact on social life; 3) Islam, unlike Christianity, is incompatible with secularism; therefore, secularism in Turkey should be restrictive; and 4) Turkey cannot be compared with the US, which is not a secular state, but is similar to France, which is secular. The Turkish Constitutional Court has justified restrictive policies on the basis of these myths. The court should no longer be bounded by its misleading past opinions. It can play an historical leading role with its future decisions by providing new, myth-free perspectives on secularism in Turkey.
Culture of Co-existence in Islam: The Turkish Case (PDF)
Ali Bardakoğlu
This article aims to show how exchanges between religion and secularism, Islam and democracy and cross-cultural relations over many years have shaped Turks’ perception of Islam and their position towards freedom of religion and co-existence of different faith communities. Muslims are generally attributed a monolithic identity marked by intolerance despite the fact that they have considerable diversity in their understanding of Islam and its practice. The Turkish case challenges such essentialist views by demonstrating that despite some isolated events, Turkey succeeds in managing religious diversity because the perception of Islam has developed in connection with a variety of current and historical events. The perception that emerged in the course of Turkish cultural and political history provides strong grounds for peaceful co-existence within the shared social order. Turkey’s achievement in establishing a political culture and a perception of Islam that facilitates religious pluralism can be attributed to factors as such democracy and secularism and Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union.
Revisiting the Self: Researching Minorities in Turkey
Kerem Karaosmanoğlu
Minorities have always been the subject of academic, journalistic and popular research in Turkey. The general trend of most of these analyses is to conceive of minorities as part of a wider international political structure, be it the international system, imperialism or an anti-national conspiracy against ethnic Turks. Within such pictures, a member of a minority group can hardly be recognized as an individual self with a sense of subjectivity. Thus, what is missing in most minority research in Turkey is an analysis of the self. This article argues that cultural studies can provide resources and inspiration for a new research paradigm for the study of minorities in Turkey through its use of qualitative anthropological methods such as participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups. Only then can the minority self have a chance to say something of his/her own, breaking the shield of silence and the stigma of conspiracy discourse.
Book Reviews (PDF)
Graham E. Fuller, The New Turkish Republic: Turkey as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World
Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2008, 160 pp., ISBN 1601270194, US$14.95 (paper).
by Kıvanç Ulusoy
Angel Rabasa, F. Stephen Larrabee, The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey
Santa Monica: The Rand Corporation/National Defense Research Institute, 2008, 113 pp., ISBN 978-0-8330-4457-0, US$ 24.50 (paper).
by Frank Hyland
Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar, The Politics and Poetics of Translation in Turkey, 1923-1960
Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2008, 331 pp., ISBN 978-90-420-2329-1, € 66.00 (paper).
by Celia Kerslake
Ümit Cizre (ed.), Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey: The Making of the Justice and Development Party
London: Routledge 2007, 238 pp., ISBN 041539645X, US$130.00 (hardcover).
by Ali Balcı
Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat (ed.) & Richard Falk (foreword), Human Rights in Turkey
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, 376 pp., ISBN 978-0-8122-4000-9, US$69.95.
by Masaki Kakizaki
Kent E. Calder, Embattled Garrisons: Comparative Base Politics and American Globalism
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007, 340 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-13143-6 (hard¬cover) ISBN: 978-0-691-13463-5 (paper)
by Selin M. Bölme
Rob Johnson, Oil, Islam and Conflict: Central Asia since 1945
London: Reaktion Books, 2007, 272 pp., ISBN 1861893396, £15.95 (paper).
by Hasan Ali Karasar