Browsing by Subject "Islamism"

Now showing 1 - 19 of 19

Open Access
Claiming the Neo-Ottoman mosque: Islamism, gender, architecture
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) Batuman, Bülent; Raudvere, Catharina; Petek, Onur
This chapter focuses on the gender politics of mosque architecture within the current context of Turkey in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has encouraged the neo-Ottoman idiom. This particular idiom produced distinct ideological meanings within different political contexts. Currently, it serves the absorption of nationalism and the remoulding of the nation-state by the AKP’s Islamism and the making of the Islamic nation—millet. The AKP has also been promoting the mosque as a social space. A significant aspect of this process has been the gradual increase in women’s involvement as users and designers of space, demanding to have a say in the spatial organization of women’s sections in the mosques. The overlap between women’s demands and the governments agenda to endorse mosques also played role in the promotion of neo-Ottoman mosque architecture. The chapter discusses the instrumentalisation of gender politics to legitimise the government’s approach to mosque architecture. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Open Access
Curbing Kurdish ethno-nationalism in Turkey: an empirical assessment of pro-Islamic and socio-economic approaches
(Routledge, 2010) Sarigil, Z.
Within the debates on curbing Kurdish ethno-nationalism in Turkey, the pro-Islamic approach puts emphasis on empowering the notion of 'Islamic brotherhood' between Turks and Kurds. The socio-economic approach, on the other hand, draws attention to improving the socio-economic status of the Kurds. By using World Values Survey data, this study tests these two distinct approaches. Logit estimates provide strong support for the socio-economic approach. Individuals with a better socio-economic status (i.e. higher level of education and income) are less likely to support Kurdish ethno-nationalist formations while religion-related factors do not have a significant impact. Some theoretical and policy implications are also provided. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.
Open Access
Designing mosques for secular congregations: Transformations of the mosque as a social space in Turkey
(Locke Science Publishing, 2011) Özaloglu, S.; Gürel, M. O.
This study examines contemporary meanings and uses of the mosque in Turkey by arguing that productive architectural plans require understanding both the socio-historical development of the mosque and the socio-political transformations that have led to the mosque's current position in society. Mosque space is conceptualized as a physical environment that cultivates the formation and transformation of individual, social, and collective memories. The study questions whether the mosque still exhibits the qualities of a social space and whether new and innovative mosque designs reflect - programmatically, architecturally, and spatially - transformations related to their current uses and social meanings. These questions are explored through interviews, two questionnaires, and a worksheet, all of which involve a case study of Dogramacizade Mosque in Ankara. On one hand, the findings underscore the changing relationship between Muslim women and mosque space as a result of the transformation of congregations into citizens of a contemporary secular nation and suggest that spatial designs of mosques should take present-day behaviors and practices into consideration rather than ignoring this social aspect through which transformations occur. On the other hand, the collective memory of congregation members resists changing the allocation of prayer halls in the mosque. Members are in favor of continuing the traditional layout of separated spaces based on gender differences. The resistance implies that collective memory changes much slower than behaviors or lifestyles in terms of gender issues. Additionally, parallel to the findings, modernization of the mosque brings forth the idea of resurrecting the mosque s historical form as a social complex that fundamentally conflicts with secularity.
Open Access
Emergent local initiative and the city: the case of neighbourhood associations of the better-off classes in post-1990 urban Turkey
(Sage Publications Ltd., 2007) Erman, T.; Yıldar, M. C.
This article investigates the voluntary local organisations of the better-off classes in the Turkish urban context. Based on empirical research conducted with four neighbourhood associations (NAs), information is provided regarding their process of establishment, leadership, autonomy, goals and projects, resources and obstacles, which points to the significance of context. The research demonstrates that Turkish NAs differ from those in the West in terms of their commitment to ideological as much as pragmatic issues. In their response to the 'Islamist' versus 'secularist' polarisation in society, they seek to create their own localities as the places of secular and cosmopolitan people; and in their response to the increasingly unregulated and poorly serviced city, they struggle to create orderly localities protected from unlawful rent-seeking practices and equipped with adequate amenities. The NAs may be regarded as civic initiatives that empower the locality. Yet, by doing so, they may cause uneven development in urban space.
Open Access
From Islamic Radicalism to Islamic Capitalism: The Promises and Predicaments of Turkish-Islamic Entrepreneurship in a Capitalist System (The Case of İGİAD)
(2014) Madi, O.
The rise of Turkish Islamic capitalism, and with it an Islamic bourgeoisie and the accompanying lifestyle has profound implications for the Muslim world, since the Turkish Muslims have been backed by a relatively successful democratic and liberal system that has allowed them to integrate more easily into the global system. Focusing mainly on the members of the Islamic-oriented Association of Economic Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics (İGİAD), the aim of this article is to demonstrate the inherent (in)compatibility and contradictions between Islam and capitalism in contemporary Turkey, and by extension in the Muslim world. From the start, for the Turkish Muslim bourgeoisie, the burning questions were 'how to earn' and, more importantly, 'how to consume' within a capitalist system while still not transgressing Islamic boundaries. In order to overcome these challenges, the article argues that, rather than creating an 'alternative Islamic economic system', Islamic actors have reduced - in some cases, even eliminated - this discursive and ideological tension between Islam and capitalism by (a) trying to introduce Islamic morality into capitalism and (b) redefining both Islam and capitalism. Through these mechanisms they have also broadened and deepened Turkish modernity. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.
Open Access
Future of Turkey in the European Union
(Elsevier, 2005-05) Güney, A.
Turkey’s future in the European Union (EU) is a subject of intense debate both in Europe and in Turkey today. Although Turkey first applied to join the EU 45 years ago, it is the only candidate country, which has not yet started accession negotiations. On the one hand, any future enlargement that includes Turkey is a controversial topic for the EU, since Turkey would be the only Muslim member in the EU, which has accepted 10 new members in May 2004. On the other hand, it is too late to exclude Turkey from the future of the EU since it has put the issue of the EU accession at the top of its national agenda and is the only candidate country that has completed the Customs Union with the EU. This article aims to explore future scenarios regarding Turkey’s inclusion to or exclusion from the EU and assess their short and long term implications.
Open Access
Future of Turkey-EU relations: a civilisational discourse
(Pergamon Press, 2005) Tekin, A.
Should or can Turkey join the European Union (EU)? This paper argues that there are three alternative scenarios of the EU decision to grant membership to Turkey: 'privileged relationship offer,' 'wait and see attitude,' and 'start of full membership negotiations.' It then gauges each alternative path, and argues that the most likely scenario is a decision to start the negotiations, followed by the scenario of 'wait and see.' The EU decision will be conditioned by its future vision of global governance and the role foreseen for Turkey inside, outside or at the margin of it. The paper concludes that the EU decision will have significant implications for the future of relations between Europe and Turkey on the one hand, and Europe and the Islamic world on the other.
Open Access
Islamists and the state: changing discourses on the state, civil society and democracy in Turkey
(Routledge, 2018) Köseoğlu, T.
Once an oppositional ideology in the 1990s that united Muslim intellectuals around a radical critique of the state based on the ideals of democracy, civil society and pluralism, how has Turkish Islamism transformed into a state-centric and conservative world-view? This paper aims to document this transformation by scrutinizing the writings of a group of intellectuals in the context of (I) the 28 February 1997, military memorandum and the subsequent events which culminated in the AKP’s first electoral victory in 2002; and (II) the series of trials that started in 2008 known as the Ergenekon trials through which the AKP gained the upper hand in Turkish politics. In so doing, the paper problematizes the prevalent narratives on the relationship between Islam, on the one hand, and democracy and civil society, on the other, that miss how formulations and articulations of Islamism evolve in changing political contexts.
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Kosova’dan Türkiye’ye bir göç hikayesi: Cafer Güvercin
(Bilkent University, 2024) Şengül, Neslihan; Aygün, Doğa; Uygun, Selma Beyza; Baloğlu, Mehmet Ali; Kaplan, İlayda
Balkan ve 1. Dünya Savaşları Yugoslavya’nın siyasi yapısını büyük ölçüde etkileyen savaşlardır. Bu savaş dönemlerinde ve o dönemleri takip eden yıllarda, bu topraklarda yıllarca barış içinde yaşayan uluslar arasında iç çatışmalar ve dini görüş ayrılıkları ortaya çıkmıştır. Özellikle Sırpların baskısı oldukça artmış bu da özellikle Müslüman asıllı grupların hayatlarını derinden sarsmıştır. Kosova Arnavut’u olan Cafer Güvercin bu zor durumla karşı karşıya kalan yüzlerce insandan biridir ve o da diğerleri gibi Türkiye’ye göç etmeye mecbur kalmıştır. Bu araştırma yazısının konusu olan Cafer Güvercin’in göç hikayesi, oğlu ve torunundan alınan bilgiler ve anılar, gazete haberleri, yayınlar ve de özel aile fotoğraflarından yararlanılarak hazırlanmıştır. Cafer Güvercin’in anıları, o dönemlerde aynı şeyleri yaşayan yüzlerce göçmenin göç öncesi ve sonrası yaşadıkları zorlukları anlamak, göç ettikleri yerleri saptamak ve adaptasyon süreçlerini incelemek açısından büyük önem taşımaktadır.
Open Access
Nation and nationalism according to Islamists during second constittutional period, a case study : Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad
(2014) Gündoğdu, Şenol
This study examines Islamist understanding of nation and nationalism during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918) by examining the most important Islamist journal of that era; Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad. Islamism emerged as a reactionary ideology against Western threats toward the ‘backward’ Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire. This ideology sought to establish genuine Islam by looking back into original sources and the Golden Age (Asr-ı Saadet). This process aimed to revitalize the Islamic world and unite Muslims against the Western threats. As an Islamist journal in the Second Constitutional Period, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad presented an Islamic modernist understanding dependent upon the revival of Islam and the Ottoman Empire with reference to real Islam against the Western threats. However, according to Islamists ethnic and secular nationalisms corrupted the unity of Muslims. This study argues that the journal, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad, was against separatist nationalism(s), especially Muslim nationalism(s) for the sake of the Ottoman Empire’s survival and Islamic unity (Pan-Islam). This study begins by presenting a general discussion of Islamism in the historical context of the Ottoman Empire, examining the history of the Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad journal, and its emphasis on nation, nationalism and their relation with Islam and the Ottoman Empire. This study assess how selected texts from the Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad represent Islamist understandings of the nation and nationalism and how Islamists identified the Islamic nation concept. In summation this study argues that Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad had an Islamist national understanding which aimed to save first the Ottoman Empire, then the Islamic world through the revival of Islam.
Open Access
The partition of Khorezm and the positions of Turkestanis on Razmezhevanie
(Routledge, 2008-09) Karasar, H. A.
Cold War historiography, in many instances, explained the delimitation of borders in Central Asia as a part of Moscow's divide and rule policy in Turkestan. However, the viability of this approach can be challenged by an examination of the archival documents of the time and the actual publications of the nationalities commissariat under Stalin. Among the Bolsheviks of Turkestan, Uzbeks were leading the drive towards the repartition of Turkestan, along with their Turkmen comrades who were trying to gain land from the former Khivan Khanate, at that time the People's Soviet Republic of Khorezm. The partition of Khorezm between three newly created administrative divisions, Uzbekistan, Turkmenia and Kirgizia, played a key role in the demarcation of borders in 1924. However, from the point of view of communists from the European parts of the former Tsarist Empire, as well as others from the region, delimitation was first a betrayal of internationalism; second it was an immature project both economically and theoretically; and third, it was believed that the liquidation of the traditional Muslim states of Turkestan, namely the Bukharan Emirate and the Khivan Khanate, would have a negative impact on the image of the Soviet revolution in the eyes of reformers in other Muslim countries in the Middle East.
Open Access
Religion and ethno-nationalism: Turkey's Kurdish issue
(John Wiley & Sons, 2013) Sarıgil, Zeki; Fazlıoğlu, Ömer
One approach within the Islamic camp treats Islam, which emphasizes overarching notions such as the 'Islamic brotherhood' and 'ummah', as incompatible with ethno-nationalist ideas and movements. It is, however, striking that in the last decades, several Islamic and conservative groups in Turkey have paid increasing attention to the Kurdish issue, supporting their ethnic demands and sentiments. Even more striking, the leftist, secular Kurdish ethno-nationalists have adopted a more welcoming attitude toward Islam. How can we explain such intriguing developments and shifts? Using original data derived from several elite interviews and a public opinion survey, this study shows that the struggle for Kurdish popular support and legitimacy has encouraged political elites from both camps to enrich their ideological toolbox by borrowing ideas and discourses from each other. Further, Turkish and Kurdish nationalists alike utilize Islamic discourses and ideas to legitimize their competing nationalist claims. Exploring such issues, the study also provides theoretical and policy implications. © ASEN/John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2013.
Open Access
Rendering responsible, provoking desire: women and home in squatter/slum renewal projects in the Turkish context
(Routledge, 2017) Erman, T.; Hatiboğlu, B.
This article is situated at the intersection of urban restructuring, cultural conservatism and neoliberalism in the Turkish context to understand the new subject formations of poor women as they are relocated to high-rise apartment blocks in slum/squatter renewal projects by the prospect of homeownership via long-term mortgage loans. It contributes by showing the gendered effects of urban transformation on poor women as neoliberalism and conservatism interact. It draws upon two ethnographic studies that reveal women’s experiences embedded both in neoliberalism and patriarchy. In neoliberalism, women’s participation in the informal job market was promoted as they were made responsible for contributing to mortgage payments, and they were brought into consumption as they were provoked the desire for good homes via furnishing, and in patriarchy, women’s traditional roles in social reproduction were demanded in spite of their new roles and responsibilities. The study ponders women’s differentiated negotiations with patriarchy which resisted radical challenges when the family and the home framed women’s new responsibilities and desires. The rising conservatism rooted in Islam in Turkey, which prioritizes the family over individual women, created the conditions for it. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Open Access
Saudi influence on islamic institutions in Turkey beginning in the 1970s
(Middle East Institute, 2012-12-01) Koni, H.
This article investigates the influence of Saudi Arabia on aspects of Islamic social, political, and economic life in Turkey. Since the 1970s, long before the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of today, Turkish-Saudi Arabian relations have been characterized by an increasing degree of cooperation, solidarity, and partnership centered on certain economic, diplomatic, social, and cultural activities with a good deal of Islamic content. Turkey's orientation toward the Middle East in general and Saudi Arabia in particular traces to the global oil crisis that started in 1973 and its severe effects on the Turkish economy; it also stems from some of Turkey's foreign policy goals with regard to the Cyprus issue and its relations with regional and global actors. Examples of Saudi influence have included the involvement of Saudi-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) in Turkey, Turkey's membership in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and Turkish labor migration to Saudi Arabia, with a spillover effect in a wide range of other arenas. This particular aspect of Turkish-Saudi Arabian relations is analyzed using the theory of complex interdependence, which underscores the importance of economic, social, and cultural issues in international relations in addition to that of traditional political, diplomatic, and military goals. © Middle East Institute.
Open Access
Transformation of Islamist political thought in Turkey from the empire to the early republic (1980-1960) : Necip Fazıl Kısakürek's political ideas
(2001) Duran, Burhanettin
This thesis aims at situating the transformation of Turkish Islamist thought from the Ottoman empire to the early Republic as a case study within the contemporary analyses of Islamism. Islamist thought in Turkey contains new elements, but it also has deep roots in the tradition of Islamic political thought. As such by devotion to the traditional renewal (tajdid), it reflects a continuing dimension of Islamic political theory. It is also important to understand the specific intellectual settings within which Turkish Islamism has evolved. Islamist depictions of state and democracy whether in the Empire through Islamist identification of shura with constitutional regime or in the Republican period through Necip Fazıl Kısakürek’s totalitarian Başyücelik State, seem to be influenced by the political ideologies of their times such as liberal constitutionalism (in the Empire), and totalitarian aspects of communism, fascism, and Kemalism (in the Republic). Hence, Islamists of the second constitutional period perceived Islam a “soft ideology” whereas Islam became a kind of “hard ideology” in Kısakürek’s formulation, determining every aspect of political, societal and individual life. These analyses are also related to another argument that the tradition of Islamic political thought is open to different Islamist readings, both as authoritarian/totalitarian formulations and as democratic openings. This study also argues that Islamist intellectuals have a tendency of mixing modern notions such as progress and ideology with traditional material/grammar to face the challenge of western modernity. In order to reach an Islamic modernity, the concept of Islamic civilization constitutes a platform for the transformation and interaction of the elements of continuity (traditional grammar) and change (progress and ideology). This dissertation also suggests that Islamists are basically keen to see democracy as the limitation of an arbitrary/despotic rule and as the establishment of the rule of law, implying a rather Schumpeterian conceptualization of democracy: a type of government and procedure in electing those who rule people. The question of whether Islam is compatible with democratic values should be reworded in the way that whether Islamist interpretations/reconstructions of Islamic tradition were/are compatible with democratic values or not. This thesis also tries to give an insight about the Islamist stance towards Kemalist ideology and the impact of Kemalism on Islamism.
Open Access
Turkish conservatism from a comparative perspective
(2002) Kolat, Gül
This thesis serves for the aim of understanding the Turkish conservatism by making comparative analysis and by focusing on the emergence of conservative attitudes. This study aimed to examine the role of conservatism in the modernization process of Turkish Republic. Modernization, or Westernization, has been one of the most discussed issues of Turkish politics. Since conservatism was associated with reaction against the modernization movements, it is important to look upon how radical changes were perceived by conservatives and what kind of responses were given to them in terms of understanding the modernization attempt of Turkey. Conservatism emerged in Europe as a reaction to the ideas and movements that became apparent with French Revolution. Since conservatism firstly emerged in Europe, it provided an example for the other conservative experiences. The significant examples of European conservatism are German, French, and British conservatisms. In order to explore the affinity between the Turkish and European conservatisms in terms of their initial phases, a kind of comparative analysis is necessary. Firstly, I explore the basic characteristics of conservatism and focused on the European conservatism by briefly giving the peculiar characteristics of three examples. Then in order to understand the Turkish conservatism I focused on responses of Turkish conservatism on modernization, change, nationalism and Islamism. Under the light of these, I compare Turkish conservatism with European conservatism. Under the framework of above procedure, this thesis indicates that, although there are similarities between European conservatism and Turkish conservatism on basic characteristics of conservatism, conservative experiences have been shaped according to peculiar historical, political, social and economic characteristics of each context.
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Türkiye’de radikal İslam düşüncesinin öncülerinden: Ercümend Özkan
(Bilkent University, 2021) Öztürk, Dilem Deren; Yardımcı, Simay; Gökçeyrek, Ceren; Aydın, Melike; Turalı, Mehmet Yiğit
Bu proje kapsamında, Türkiye’de İslamcılığa yön veren ve üstünde birçok çalışma yapan Ercüment Özkan’ın yayımladığı İktibas dergisi, Özkan’ın Türkiye’de İslami düşünceye katkıları, dönemin sosyo-politik altyapısı, Özkan’ın düşüncelerinin oluşma süreci, bu düşüncelerin hangi olaylardan ve kaynaklardan etkilendiği, Özkan’ın belirli bir dönem üyesi olduğu Hizbu’t-tahrir Örgütü ve Özkan’ın buradaki süreci araştırılacaktır. Aynı zamanda Özkan’ın tasavvufa bakış açısına, politik ve teolojik terimleri nasıl yorumladığına değinilecektir. Özkan’ın Çağdaş Müslüman düşüncedeki yeri ve Radikal İslami düşünce önemi incelenecektir.
Open Access
Understanding the experiences of the politics of urbanization in two gecekondu (squatter) neighborhoods under two urban regimes: ethnography in the urban periphery of Ankara, Turkey
(The Institute, Inc., 2011) Erman, T.
This article investigates the politics of urbanization in the Turkish context. It is built upon the premise that the "urban coalition" in the era of nationalist developmentalism, which was populist in nature, is replaced by a "new urban coalition," a neoliberal one, since the 1980s. I argue that the bargaining power of gecekondu (squatter) residents with municipal authorities for their "extra-legal" practices in building their houses in the former era was lost after neoliberal policies were adopted. This argument is substantiated by the ethnographic fieldwork in which the experiences of gecekondu residents in building, improving and (not) defending their houses and neighborhoods were obtained. Two ethnographic studies were conducted in two different sites in Ankara: a neighborhood where the Alevis were the majority, which became the site of leftist mobilization in the 1970s, and a district where conservative Sunnis lived, who supported right-wing politics. By situating the two neighborhoods in the context of the two different urban regimes, namely, those in the populist and neoliberal eras, the article points out the changing relationship of the gecekondu residents with the state, showing variances with respect to the differing political positions and social compositions of the two neighborhoods. © 2011 The Institute, Inc.
Open Access
Vulnerable identities: Pious women columnists' narratives on Islamic feminism and feminist self-identification in contemporary Turkey
(Elsevier Ltd, 2015) Unal, D.
This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study on pious women columnists' negotiation of feminist self-identification in contemporary Turkey. Given the rise of the anti-feminist gender politics under the pro-Islamist AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) [Justice and Development Party] rule, it discusses how pious women columnists as crucial intellectual figures in the public sphere interpret feminism, Islamic feminism, and feminist self-identification. In this frame, the main aim of this study is to put forward the complexities of pious women columnists' positions in the public sphere and how this positionality affects their narratives about feminist self-identification in contemporary Turkey. Making use of the theoretical perspective provided by concepts such as "positionality" and "situatedness," this study concludes that negotiation of identity categories always takes place within the frame of reference, the contours of which is mapped out by one's position in the power configuration in society. Moreover, it brings into the open that the dialectical openings of Islamic feminism in pious women columnists' narratives can enhance the feminist coalitional politics in contemporary Turkey. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.