Browsing by Subject "Right and left (Political science)--Turkey."
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Item Open Access Articulating socialism with nationalism : a critical analysis of nationalism in the Turkish leftist tradition in the 1960s(Bilkent University, 2010) Doğan, ErkanIn this dissertation, it is argued that nationalism was one of the most important characteristics of the socialist movement in Turkey in the 1960s. When we look at the socialist movement in Turkey in this period, we encounter with the concept of nationalism, in other words, Turkish socialists’ deliberate attempt at articulating socialism with nationalism, presenting themselves as the real representatives of nationalism in Turkey. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the uneasy relationship between nationalism and the Turkish left in the 1960s in particular and between socialism and nationalism in general. The main issue of this study is to explore why and how the Turkish left of the sixties incorporated nationalism into its political discourses, strategies, and programs. One important concern of this study is to investigate the internal sources of the articulation of socialism with nationalism in Turkey. A ‘leftist’ variant of Kemalism, becoming a hegemonic discourse within the ranks of the Turkish left in the 1960s, played a very crucial role in the attempts of the leftist intellectuals of the period at accommodating nationalist principles within the idiom of socialism. Turkish left in the 1960s re-invented Kemalism as a progressive, anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and developmentalist outlook. This study, in this sense, argues that Kemalism (together with nationalism) as the founding ideology of the Republican regime has not just only been the basis of the mainstream political parties and movements, but can also be found, in certain forms and amounts, among the ranks of the different factions of socialist movement in Turkey. The sources of Turkish socialists’ engagement with nationalism cannot be fully grasped merely by reference to the Turkish context. Rather, it should be located within an international context and perspective. Turkish socialists were not alone in their efforts to reconcile nationalism with socialism. The history of the ideological and practical accommodation between socialism and nationalism from mid-19th century to the post-colonial era reflects a change from “socialization of the nation” to the “nationalization of socialism” and shows us how this relationship changed from hostility to affinity. Turkish socialists of the 1960s received an important part of their strategic and tactical inspirations from those international experiences. But, their main sources of inspiration were Stalinism and the Third Worldism of the post-colonial period. In this sense, this study analyzes Turkish left’s experience with nationalism also by reference to international experiences, with a special emphasis on the Third Worldist variant of the articulation of socialism with nationalism. The main primary sources of this study are the journals, papers, books, pamphlets, programs, regulations, congress reports and resolutions, election manifestos and other published documents, generated during the political activities of the main factions of the socialist movement in Turkey in the 1960s. These primary sources are evaluated within the general literature on nationalism, its Marxist interpretations, Third Worldism, economic nationalism, develomentalism, imperialism, dependency, and the concepts of imitation and uniqueness.Item Open Access "Sol" searching: dilemmas of the Turkish left(Bilkent University, 1999) Ball, BenThis thesis examines the Turkish left throughout the republican period (1923- 1999), with a specific focus on the period after 1965. The goal of the study is to examine why the left in Turkey has not obtained electoral success. The ultimate conclusion is that this is due not only to external factors (the right wing, foreign pressures, the Turkish electorate), but also to internal factors within the left wing itself, such as electoral strategy and ideological constraints. The study also examines the progress of extra-parliamentary groups such as militants, labor unions, and the media in an attempt to paint a more holistic picture of the many incarnations of the left in Turkey.Item Open Access Typology of the center-right in Turkey(Bilkent University, 2014) Osmanbaşoğlu, Gülsen KayaThis dissertation analyzes the center-right in Turkey regarding its domestic politics and discourse through three main parameters which are democracy, state and secularism. A set of theoretical explanations helps to delve into the issue more deeply. In that regard, the three main connotations of the left and the right which arose out of the French Revolution, the socioeconomic reading and post-materialist vs. materialist divide would shed light onto the dynamic and instable nature of these concepts. Then, underlining the contextual differences influencing the interpretation of the left and the right as well as the significance of the concept of the center, the center-right in Turkey is analyzed through three parameters. Regarding the center-right’s position on democracy, this dissertation argues that the Turkish center-right is eager to employ democracy as a procedural tenet rather than a substantial one. Thus, the Turkish center-right parties are eager to concentrate on winning the elections, catching the people, representing the majority’s expectations and struggling for the will of nation rather than putting emphasis on the ends of a democratic system, equality related issues and so on. The center-right parties have an affinity to take democracy as the rules of the game. Center-right parties’ relationship with the state in Turkey is analyzed within two subtopics. First of all, in terms of power, center-right parties, represent the periphery, located in opposition to ‘center’ which brought about a reciprocal suspicion between these parties and the center. Changing the character of the system also toyed with the very concept of the center which was occasionally dominated by the CHP, bureaucracy, military and so on. Secondly, the allocation of state resources and the state’s position on the economics set another characteristic of the center-right parties. These parties intensively stress liberal economic options in their programs and discourses. Nevertheless, until ANAP tenure, the reflection of that discoursive position to the policies was quite limited. On the other hand, as service-oriented parties, center-right in Turkey to a large extent deals with development and technical progress which differs from the cultural and symbolic developmentalist insistence of the left. On the other hand, center-right parties engage in cliental or patronage relationships through the utilization of service for political gains. All in all, regarding both power and economics axes, the center-right’s position vis-à-vis the state brings us the conclusion that it was actually a love and hate relationship. Given the militant character of the very Republican ideology in Turkey, center-right digresses from that compulsive secularism and tries to lift the bans on religious oppression by trying to liberalize the visibility of religion in the public sphere, adopt new schooling, banking and other such measures to support religious followers , and to perceive religion as a cultural instrument through which it may communicate with the people. Nevertheless, the center-right in Turkey is very aware of the fragility of the secularism issue and does not promote a state system based on religion. On that subject, the center-right parties in Turkey tend to introduce a passive version of secularism and stay within the boundaries of the regime without challenging the state structure at all. In conclusion, the procedural employment of democracy, a love and hate relationship with the state and passive secularism are three main defining notions of the center-right in Turkey. If these parties move toward from these main three principles, they lose their ground and begin to collapse. In other words, if any of the following options occurs, it will stand as a proof of having moved beyond these three principles, and the center-right parties will be weakened: The drastic increase of authoritarianism without concerning democracy (even its procedural or majoritarian means), paying much more emphasis on the love side of the coin regarding its relations with the state and positioning next to the militant secularism.