Browsing by Subject "Secularization"

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Arabesk’s role in Türkiye’s cultural development
(Bilkent University, 2023) Coşkun, Abdurrahim; Saeedi, Salar; Alqolaq, Youssef; Younis, Yassin; Abu-Irhayem, Ziad
Arabesk is a hybrid musical mixing classical Turkish folk music and Arabic music with a light trace of western elements. It is important to study the genre since its evolution, and the public’s reactions to it tell a story about a young nation-state struggling to find its identity after World War I. Arabesk’s development paralleled that of Turkish culture as a whole in the last century. The genre grew popular with the dawn of industrialization in Türkiye and was mainly listened to by migrants coming from isolated villages that have not been a part of the state’s plan of westernization. It was instantly opposed by white-collar urbanites. In the end, Türks came to reconcile and live as one and enjoy the same type of music together.
Open Access
The Closure of the political as a problem of democracy : a critique on democratic thought in Turkey
(2009) Tombuş, H. Ertuğ
This thesis examines the analysis of Turkish politics in the works of three key social scientists in Turkey: Niyazi Berkes, #erif Mardin and Metin Heper. Berkes’s account on the development of secularism in Turkey, Mardin’s center-periphery model and Heper’s strong state tradition argument and his idea of rational democracy are the subjects of the critical evaluation in this study. The main question of this thesis is whether the perspective they develop in their analysis can provide a critical democratic vision, which locates the political at its center. My project is to evaluate these three accounts from a radical democratic theory based on the ideas of Bonnie Honig and Jacques Rancière. By drawing on the writings of Honig and Rancière, I aim to elucidate the meaning of democracy and the political in order to frame my theoretical and conceptual position. Additionally, from this theoretical perspective I define the meaning of the closure of the political and argue that it is the fundamental problem of democracy. My analysis focuses on the conceptions of politics and the binary oppositions in Berkes, Mardin and Heper. My argument is that their accounts consist of limitations in registering different instances of the closure of the political as a problem of democracy. Furthermore, they displace politics with their conceptions of politics and dichotomous thinking.
Open Access
The impact of strong state tradition on the early republican reforms of secularization in Turkey (1923-1938)
(2005) Taş, Hakkı
This thesis aims at identifying the implications of strong state tradition from the Ottoman Empire to the Early Republic within the case of the secularization process. It relies on the theory that the Turkish nation-state has inherited from its predecessor a strong state tradition, in which the state is more than the sum of sectional interests within the society. In the Ottoman-Turkish polity, the state enjoyed a supreme position, which resulted in a pragmatic view toward social institutions like religion. In addition, elitism appeared through the conception of state as the sole agent for total development. Atatürk maintained the same mentality parallel to the Turkish state tradition: he had a pragmatic approach to religion along with the conception of the supreme state. He also continued the elitist top-down modernization launched by the Ottoman reformers. This thesis argues that in Turkish practice, it is the state that prevails.
Open Access
Making sense of the postsecular
(SAGE Publications, 2018) Parmaksız, U.
This article critically examines the postsecular literature with the aim of dispelling the scepticism about the concept’s theoretical import, critical power and analytical utility. It first presents an overview of the literature identifying two major fields, social theology and politics, within which three major critical leitmotifs are developed: (1) disenchantment and the loss of community; (2) the impossibility of absolute secularity; and (3) the exclusion of religion from the public sphere. In the second section, the shortcomings of problematizations (1) and (2) are highlighted, originating from social theology, and it is argued that they have limited critical potential as they intend to renaturalize the religious. Instead, it is asserted that the concept has critical power when used within the context of a postreligious denaturalization of the secular. In the last section, the focus shifts to the analytical utility of the concept, and the article examines ‘postsecular society’ and ‘postsecularization’ in the light of the previous discussion.
Open Access
Secularization and international relations theory : the case of Turkey
(2001) Helicke, James C.
Traditional realist and structural neorealist approaches to international relations have largely made a "secularization assumption" by approaching states as static givens without looking at the ways in which states have become constructed as "secular." States' adoption of secularization differs according to domestic context and often creates tensions through the reconstruction of "religion." In the Turkish context, the construction of new politics and an apolitical religious sphere were central elements in the building of a Turkish nation state. This reconstruction, however, occurred at the particular expense of non-Muslims in the republic, whose religious difference became reconstructed as national difference. The purpose of this study is to suggest a constructivist framework for interpreting secularization, to trace its development in the Turkish state, and to ascertain its implications for non-Muslims in the republic.