The end of the Cold War altered the basic material and ideational context which Turkish policy ma... more The end of the Cold War altered the basic material and ideational context which Turkish policy makers were accustomed to for more than forty years. In the Cold War setting, to a large extent Turkey could rely on the United States to deal with its security questions, while maintaining critical economic and trade relations with Western Europe. The West considered Turkey as a significant buffer zone bordering the Soviet Union and took the task of its protection into their hands. Turkey followed an active diplomacy in the Middle East and elsewhere, while maintaining its position in the Western alliance system. In the case of Cyprus alone, Ankara demostrated its willingness willing to confront its Western allies.
Turkey’s politics of identity is rooted in the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the process of n... more Turkey’s politics of identity is rooted in the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the process of nation-building by the Turkish Republic, which emerged out of the destruction of the empire. In response to the disintegration, Ottoman intellectuals sought solutions in three ideological perspectives: liberalism based on a common Ottoman citizenship, Islamism based on Muslim solidarity, and Turkish nationalism. When none of these solutions worked to save the empire from collapsing, Turkish intellectual and political elites, and, most importantly, military officers, who experienced the decline in the most vivid manner, concluded that the only solution for maintaining national sovereignty was through a new nation-building process. Through this process a new Turkish nation would be formed, which would essentially be Muslim but secular at the same time. However, this formula, which became the eventual state ideology of the Republic, led to domestic identity conflicts between the secularist elites and the conservative social actors that opposed radical secularization policies, on the one hand, and between the nationalist state and the resisting ethno-religious groups, namely, Sunni and Alevi Kurds, on the other. Hence the two immediate domestic threats that the secularist Republican elites felt necessary to counter were conservative Islam and Kurdish ethnic nationalism. Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s were crushed, but conservative Muslims chose to express their resentment by turning to the electoral ballot box to bring the conservative liberal parties to power and managed to end the Kemalist one-party regime in 1950.
In June 1945, four leading members of the liberal wing within the Republican People’s Party, form... more In June 1945, four leading members of the liberal wing within the Republican People’s Party, former prime minister Celal Bayar, Adnan Menderes, Fuad Koprulu, and Refik Koraltan, gave an ultimatum to the CHP parliamentary group, asking for immediate implementation of democratic procedures in party and governmental affairs. Menderes and Koprulu then published fiercely critical articles in Vatan, a daily close to the liberal group. When the CHP authority expelled Menderes and Koprulu, Bayar resigned from the party. The group then formed the Demokrat Parti (DP) in January 1946. While many CHP leaders came from former military backgrounds, leaders of the new party were civilians. Bayar came from the CUP background but later emerged as the leader of CHP’s liberal wing and Menderes was a prominent landowner in Aydin province in western Turkey. Both Bayar and Menderes fought in the War of National Independence as civilian militia leaders. Koprulu was a prominent professor of history, and Zorlu was a career diplomat. Outside this core leadership, the new party’s support was based on a coalition, comprised of the landowners, the urban mercantile class, and the small peasantry, countering the CHP’s military-bureaucratic elites and intelligentsia.1
The Ottoman decline and the occupation of Turkey following the First World War led to a massive n... more The Ottoman decline and the occupation of Turkey following the First World War led to a massive national independence struggle to liberate the territories that were defined by Misak-i Milli (the National Pact), decided in the Erzurum and Sivas conferences in 1919 and endorsed by the last Ottoman parliament in February 1920. This declaration led to the occupation of Istanbul by the British and Italian troops and the establishment of a new parliament in Ankara. Following the War of National Independence under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed as an independent state in 1923. However, Misak-i Milli was not achieved fully as Mosul had remained out of the borders.
National identity emerges within a historical context. In Turkey, the origins of modern identity ... more National identity emerges within a historical context. In Turkey, the origins of modern identity debates can be traced back to the last one hundred years of Ottoman Empire. These were the years of decline and collapse of the Ottoman power. Starting in the eighteenth century, to prevent further disintegration of the empire, alternative, contesting responses to the challenge of finding a common bond for social cohesion among the ethnically diverse population of the empire were developed. As the influence of the perspectives of these diverse groups has carried over to their counterparts in modern Turkey, an analysis of their emergence and interaction will be informative to examine current identity discourses in Turkey. Despite the passage of time, Turkey appears to be unable to address its challenge of finding a national identity that would successfully embrace the diversity of its population. The roots of this question can be found in the history of transition from a collapsed empire to a new nation-state.
The period of unstable coalition governments ushered in by the military intervention of the Febru... more The period of unstable coalition governments ushered in by the military intervention of the February 28 process came to an end with the general elections held in November 2002. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), formed in 2001, swept the elections to form the first majority government since 1991 when the Turgut Ozal era ended. The elections were quite a shock for the ruling parties: Prime Minister Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party entered the elections as the strongest in the parliament and emerged as the fifth, and none of the parties that had formed the ruling coalition could pass the 10 percent electoral threshold and thus enter the parliament. Only two opposition parties, the newly-formed AKP and the CHP, were able to do so. Having obtained 34.28 percent of the votes in its first election experience, the AKP won a clear mandate to form a majority government, and the ardently secularist CHP became the main opposition party. This was the first single-party electoral outcome since Turgut Ozal and signaled the dramatic collapse of the militarization period characterized by shaky coalition governments. In a way, the February 28 process, initiated to “refashion Turkey’s political landscape along Kemalist lines,”1drastically altered the course of Turkish political history by unintentionally paving the way for the rise of the AKP to a dominant political position.
... towards Hamas's liaison with Turkey in order to avoid pushing Hamas to Iran&#x27... more ... towards Hamas's liaison with Turkey in order to avoid pushing Hamas to Iran's ranks.7 Ross Wilson, who was appointed ... abandonment of a panel during the 2009 Davos Summit, in which he was accompanied by Israeli President Shimon Peres, Secretary General of the ...
The 20 years from the 1960 coup to the 1980 coup are perhaps the most ideologically vibrant and t... more The 20 years from the 1960 coup to the 1980 coup are perhaps the most ideologically vibrant and the most politically unstable period in modern Turkish political history, with the exception of the period between October 1965 and March 1971, when relative stability was brought into the system through the Justice Party (AP: Adalet Partisi) majority government. The 1960 coup was the primary reason for this, ushering in a tradition of military interventions. The CHP’s one-party regime (1923–1950) and the DP’s single-party majority governments (1950–1960) were characterized by strong governments and weak oppositions. During these years, the input of the public opinion was nearly absent on foreign policy decisions. However, the socioeconomic and educational transformation achieved in the 1950s empowered social forces and the 1961 constitution paved the way for a diverse ideological representation in politics. An ironic legacy of the 1960 coup was that it brought about a more pluralistic representation in the system. Post-1960 elections were conducted on the principle of nearly perfect proportional representation with no electoral threshold, allowing smaller and radical ideological parties to enter the parliament and make their voices heard. The result was increased presence of smaller ideological parties in the parliament.
Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Mar 1, 2004
... Stuart Hall, 'Introduction: Who Needs “Identity”?,' in Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, e... more ... Stuart Hall, 'Introduction: Who Needs “Identity”?,' in Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, eds., Questions of ... On the contrary, any European entity such as the football club of Real Madrid is ... about Sükür after he acknowledged his sympathies for Gülen on the CNN Turk television channel ...
Th is paper examines the impact of contested national identity on Turkish and Japanese foreign po... more Th is paper examines the impact of contested national identity on Turkish and Japanese foreign policies. Applying a modifi ed constructivist theoretical framework, it seeks to explore the ways in which the national identities of Turkey and Japan are constructed, internalized and in turn externalized through their foreign policies. In examining the case of Turkey and Japan, the paper problematizes national identity as a contested space characterized by a clash of opposing sub-national identities with distinct readings of national interests and security. Hence foreign policy decisions emerge in the context of this contestation among opposing national identities.
What is Wahhabism? What is its relationship with the Saudi state? Does it play a part in Islamist... more What is Wahhabism? What is its relationship with the Saudi state? Does it play a part in Islamist terrorist threats? These are among the complex questions tackled in Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia. Moving from the historical, social, and political contexts in which ...
I n April and May of 2007, millions of Turks held anti-government demonstrations in the cities of... more I n April and May of 2007, millions of Turks held anti-government demonstrations in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Organized by secularist organizations and parties, these were perhaps the largest gatherings of people in the history of these towns. The international media pointed out that the demonstrators were motivated by fear that their secular way of life was under threat from political Islam, which now ruled the country through the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi: AK Party) and was poised to elect Turkey’s first Islamist president. The major slogans in the demonstrations were about foreign policy. Indeed, one might have assumed they were protesting against Turkey’s alleged turn toward an Islamic foreign policy. Yet many demonstrators quite vocally expressed opposition to both Turkey’s entry into the European Union (EU) and its relations with the United States, marching under huge banners that read “neither the EU, nor the ABSTRACT
Contested National Identity and Foreign Policy: In Search for Theory Historical Emergence of Turk... more Contested National Identity and Foreign Policy: In Search for Theory Historical Emergence of Turkey's Contested National Identity Identity and Turkish Foreign Policy during the Cold War The Quest for Turkish National Identity after the Cold War Turkish Foreign Policy under the AK Party: The Central Power Discourse
The end of the Cold War altered the basic material and ideational context which Turkish policy ma... more The end of the Cold War altered the basic material and ideational context which Turkish policy makers were accustomed to for more than forty years. In the Cold War setting, to a large extent Turkey could rely on the United States to deal with its security questions, while maintaining critical economic and trade relations with Western Europe. The West considered Turkey as a significant buffer zone bordering the Soviet Union and took the task of its protection into their hands. Turkey followed an active diplomacy in the Middle East and elsewhere, while maintaining its position in the Western alliance system. In the case of Cyprus alone, Ankara demostrated its willingness willing to confront its Western allies.
Turkey’s politics of identity is rooted in the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the process of n... more Turkey’s politics of identity is rooted in the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the process of nation-building by the Turkish Republic, which emerged out of the destruction of the empire. In response to the disintegration, Ottoman intellectuals sought solutions in three ideological perspectives: liberalism based on a common Ottoman citizenship, Islamism based on Muslim solidarity, and Turkish nationalism. When none of these solutions worked to save the empire from collapsing, Turkish intellectual and political elites, and, most importantly, military officers, who experienced the decline in the most vivid manner, concluded that the only solution for maintaining national sovereignty was through a new nation-building process. Through this process a new Turkish nation would be formed, which would essentially be Muslim but secular at the same time. However, this formula, which became the eventual state ideology of the Republic, led to domestic identity conflicts between the secularist elites and the conservative social actors that opposed radical secularization policies, on the one hand, and between the nationalist state and the resisting ethno-religious groups, namely, Sunni and Alevi Kurds, on the other. Hence the two immediate domestic threats that the secularist Republican elites felt necessary to counter were conservative Islam and Kurdish ethnic nationalism. Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s were crushed, but conservative Muslims chose to express their resentment by turning to the electoral ballot box to bring the conservative liberal parties to power and managed to end the Kemalist one-party regime in 1950.
In June 1945, four leading members of the liberal wing within the Republican People’s Party, form... more In June 1945, four leading members of the liberal wing within the Republican People’s Party, former prime minister Celal Bayar, Adnan Menderes, Fuad Koprulu, and Refik Koraltan, gave an ultimatum to the CHP parliamentary group, asking for immediate implementation of democratic procedures in party and governmental affairs. Menderes and Koprulu then published fiercely critical articles in Vatan, a daily close to the liberal group. When the CHP authority expelled Menderes and Koprulu, Bayar resigned from the party. The group then formed the Demokrat Parti (DP) in January 1946. While many CHP leaders came from former military backgrounds, leaders of the new party were civilians. Bayar came from the CUP background but later emerged as the leader of CHP’s liberal wing and Menderes was a prominent landowner in Aydin province in western Turkey. Both Bayar and Menderes fought in the War of National Independence as civilian militia leaders. Koprulu was a prominent professor of history, and Zorlu was a career diplomat. Outside this core leadership, the new party’s support was based on a coalition, comprised of the landowners, the urban mercantile class, and the small peasantry, countering the CHP’s military-bureaucratic elites and intelligentsia.1
The Ottoman decline and the occupation of Turkey following the First World War led to a massive n... more The Ottoman decline and the occupation of Turkey following the First World War led to a massive national independence struggle to liberate the territories that were defined by Misak-i Milli (the National Pact), decided in the Erzurum and Sivas conferences in 1919 and endorsed by the last Ottoman parliament in February 1920. This declaration led to the occupation of Istanbul by the British and Italian troops and the establishment of a new parliament in Ankara. Following the War of National Independence under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed as an independent state in 1923. However, Misak-i Milli was not achieved fully as Mosul had remained out of the borders.
National identity emerges within a historical context. In Turkey, the origins of modern identity ... more National identity emerges within a historical context. In Turkey, the origins of modern identity debates can be traced back to the last one hundred years of Ottoman Empire. These were the years of decline and collapse of the Ottoman power. Starting in the eighteenth century, to prevent further disintegration of the empire, alternative, contesting responses to the challenge of finding a common bond for social cohesion among the ethnically diverse population of the empire were developed. As the influence of the perspectives of these diverse groups has carried over to their counterparts in modern Turkey, an analysis of their emergence and interaction will be informative to examine current identity discourses in Turkey. Despite the passage of time, Turkey appears to be unable to address its challenge of finding a national identity that would successfully embrace the diversity of its population. The roots of this question can be found in the history of transition from a collapsed empire to a new nation-state.
The period of unstable coalition governments ushered in by the military intervention of the Febru... more The period of unstable coalition governments ushered in by the military intervention of the February 28 process came to an end with the general elections held in November 2002. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), formed in 2001, swept the elections to form the first majority government since 1991 when the Turgut Ozal era ended. The elections were quite a shock for the ruling parties: Prime Minister Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party entered the elections as the strongest in the parliament and emerged as the fifth, and none of the parties that had formed the ruling coalition could pass the 10 percent electoral threshold and thus enter the parliament. Only two opposition parties, the newly-formed AKP and the CHP, were able to do so. Having obtained 34.28 percent of the votes in its first election experience, the AKP won a clear mandate to form a majority government, and the ardently secularist CHP became the main opposition party. This was the first single-party electoral outcome since Turgut Ozal and signaled the dramatic collapse of the militarization period characterized by shaky coalition governments. In a way, the February 28 process, initiated to “refashion Turkey’s political landscape along Kemalist lines,”1drastically altered the course of Turkish political history by unintentionally paving the way for the rise of the AKP to a dominant political position.
... towards Hamas's liaison with Turkey in order to avoid pushing Hamas to Iran&#x27... more ... towards Hamas's liaison with Turkey in order to avoid pushing Hamas to Iran's ranks.7 Ross Wilson, who was appointed ... abandonment of a panel during the 2009 Davos Summit, in which he was accompanied by Israeli President Shimon Peres, Secretary General of the ...
The 20 years from the 1960 coup to the 1980 coup are perhaps the most ideologically vibrant and t... more The 20 years from the 1960 coup to the 1980 coup are perhaps the most ideologically vibrant and the most politically unstable period in modern Turkish political history, with the exception of the period between October 1965 and March 1971, when relative stability was brought into the system through the Justice Party (AP: Adalet Partisi) majority government. The 1960 coup was the primary reason for this, ushering in a tradition of military interventions. The CHP’s one-party regime (1923–1950) and the DP’s single-party majority governments (1950–1960) were characterized by strong governments and weak oppositions. During these years, the input of the public opinion was nearly absent on foreign policy decisions. However, the socioeconomic and educational transformation achieved in the 1950s empowered social forces and the 1961 constitution paved the way for a diverse ideological representation in politics. An ironic legacy of the 1960 coup was that it brought about a more pluralistic representation in the system. Post-1960 elections were conducted on the principle of nearly perfect proportional representation with no electoral threshold, allowing smaller and radical ideological parties to enter the parliament and make their voices heard. The result was increased presence of smaller ideological parties in the parliament.
Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Mar 1, 2004
... Stuart Hall, 'Introduction: Who Needs “Identity”?,' in Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, e... more ... Stuart Hall, 'Introduction: Who Needs “Identity”?,' in Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, eds., Questions of ... On the contrary, any European entity such as the football club of Real Madrid is ... about Sükür after he acknowledged his sympathies for Gülen on the CNN Turk television channel ...
Th is paper examines the impact of contested national identity on Turkish and Japanese foreign po... more Th is paper examines the impact of contested national identity on Turkish and Japanese foreign policies. Applying a modifi ed constructivist theoretical framework, it seeks to explore the ways in which the national identities of Turkey and Japan are constructed, internalized and in turn externalized through their foreign policies. In examining the case of Turkey and Japan, the paper problematizes national identity as a contested space characterized by a clash of opposing sub-national identities with distinct readings of national interests and security. Hence foreign policy decisions emerge in the context of this contestation among opposing national identities.
What is Wahhabism? What is its relationship with the Saudi state? Does it play a part in Islamist... more What is Wahhabism? What is its relationship with the Saudi state? Does it play a part in Islamist terrorist threats? These are among the complex questions tackled in Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia. Moving from the historical, social, and political contexts in which ...
I n April and May of 2007, millions of Turks held anti-government demonstrations in the cities of... more I n April and May of 2007, millions of Turks held anti-government demonstrations in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Organized by secularist organizations and parties, these were perhaps the largest gatherings of people in the history of these towns. The international media pointed out that the demonstrators were motivated by fear that their secular way of life was under threat from political Islam, which now ruled the country through the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi: AK Party) and was poised to elect Turkey’s first Islamist president. The major slogans in the demonstrations were about foreign policy. Indeed, one might have assumed they were protesting against Turkey’s alleged turn toward an Islamic foreign policy. Yet many demonstrators quite vocally expressed opposition to both Turkey’s entry into the European Union (EU) and its relations with the United States, marching under huge banners that read “neither the EU, nor the ABSTRACT
Contested National Identity and Foreign Policy: In Search for Theory Historical Emergence of Turk... more Contested National Identity and Foreign Policy: In Search for Theory Historical Emergence of Turkey's Contested National Identity Identity and Turkish Foreign Policy during the Cold War The Quest for Turkish National Identity after the Cold War Turkish Foreign Policy under the AK Party: The Central Power Discourse
Uploads
Papers by Hasan Kosebalaban