ISTANBUL MEDIPOL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Issues in Turkish Politics Spring 2022-2023

Instructor: Assist. Prof. Duygu Öztürk duyguozturk@medipol.edu.tr

Class time: Tuesday 11:00-13:30 Online

Course Description: This course aims to provide a deeper understanding of main issues in
contemporary Turkish politics. It is not a history course. Instead, it is a theoretical and
conceptual analysis of key political issues in Turkish politics. Issues such as Islam and
Politics, Kemalism, Kurdish Issue, Alevi Issue, Women in Turkey, Civil-Military Relations
will be under focus. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze, evaluate and
understand the background of issues, the relationship between factors behind the issues of
contemporary Turkish politics.

Course Requirements: This is an elective course for fourth year PSIR students. However,
any student who is interested can take the course. The course is organized like a seminar
course. Thus, instead of lecturing of weekly assigned subjects, the reading materials will be
discussed with students’ active participation. Class attendance is important. Students are
expected to participate classes by reading the assigned materials.

Reflection Papers (6*5 %=30%): Students will write reflection papers on the weekly
assigned readings. The reflections must be prepared and sent via email
(duyguozturk@medipol.edu.tr) before discussion of those reading materials. NO late
submission is accepted! There is NO make up for these reflections.

Three of them must be submitted before the midterm examination, three of them is to be
submitted between midterm and the final examination.

Class discussions (5%): Class discussions include critical analysis of the assigned materials.
The course aims to improve the analysis capacities of students regarding fundamental subjects
and issues of Turkish politics. Reading weekly assigned materials is essential.

There will be one midterm: 25 %

Final examination: 40 %

Course Plan & Readings:

Week 1: Introduction (21 February)
Introduction
Recommended: Zürcher, Erik J. 2004. “The Third Republic: Turkey since 1980,” In
Turkey: A Modern History. (London, New York: I. B. Tauris), pp. 292-329. (online available)

Week 2: Some Approaches to Turkish Political Development (28 February)

1
 Mardin, Şerif. 1973. “Center-Periphery Relations: A Key to Turkish
Politics?” Daedaulus 102(1): 169-190.  
Heper, Metin. 1992. “The Strong State as a Problem for the Consolidation of
Democracy: Turkey and Germany Compared,” Comparative Political Studies 25(2): 169-194.

Week 3: Kemalism (7 March)

Mateesscu, Dragoş C. 2006. “Kemalism in the Era of Totalitarianism: A Conceptual
Analysis,” Turkish Politics  7(2): 225-241. 
Heper, Metin. 2012. “Kemalism/Ataturkism,” in The Routledge Handbook of Modern
Turkey, eds. Metin Heper and Sabri Sayarı. New York: Routledge.

Week 4: Political Parties, Ideology, and Elections in Turkey (14 March)

Aydogan, Abdullah and Jonathan B. Slapin. 2013. “Left-Right Reversed: Parties and
Ideology in Modern Turkey,” Party Politics 21(4): 1-11.
Secor, A. J. 2001. “Ideologies in Crisis: Political Cleavages and Electoral Politics in
Turkey in the 1990s,” Political Geography (20): 539-560.

Week 5: Secularism, Islam, and Politics I (21 March)

Keyman, E Fuat. 2016. “Modernity, Secularism and Islam: The Case of Turkey,”
Theory, Culture & Society (24)2: 215-234.
Tank, Pınar. 2005. “Political Islam in Turkey: A State of Controlled Secularity,”
Turkish Studies 6(1): 3-19.

Week 6: Secularism, Islam, and Politics II: The Case of Justice and Development Party
(JDP) (28 March)
Dağı, İhsan. 2006. “The Justice and Development Party: Identity, Politics and
Discourse of Human Rights in the Search for Security and Legitimacy,” in The Emergence of
a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, H. Yavuz (ed.), Salt Lake City: Utah University
Press, 88-106.
Kalacıoğlu, Ersin. 2010. “Justice and Development Party at the Helm: Resurgence of
Islam or the Restitution of the Right-of-Center Predominant Party?” Turkish Studies 11(1):
29-44.

Week 7: MIDTERM (4 April)

Week 8: Civil Military Relations in the Third Republic (11 April)

Demirel, Tanel. 2005. “Lessons of Military Regimes and Democracy: The Turkish
Case in a Comparative Perspective,” Armed Forces and Society 31(2): 245-271.
Haugom, Lars. 2019. “The Turkish Armed Forces and Civil-Military Relations in
Turkey after 15 July 2016 Coup Attempt,” Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies 2(1): 1-8.

Week 9: Kurdish Issue: Background (18 April)

Yavuz, M. Hakan. 2001. “Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in
Turkey,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 7(3): 1-24.

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 Yeğen, Mesut. 2009. “Prospective-Turks” or “Pseudo-Citizens:” Kurds in Turkey,”
Middle East Journal 63(4): 597-615.

Week 10: Kurdish Issue: Contemporary Developments (25 April)

Çiçek, Cuma. 2011. “Elimination or Integration of pro-Kurdish Politics: Limits of the

AKP’s Democratic Initiative,” Turkish Studies 12(1): 15-26.

Karakoç, Ekrem and Zeki Sarıgil. 2020. “Why Religious People Support Ethnic
Insurgency? Kurds, Religion and Support for the PKK,” Politics and Religion 13(2):245-272.

Week 11: Alevi Issue (2 May)

Erman, Tahire and Emrah Göker. 2000. “Alevi Politics in Contemporary Turkey,”
Middle Eastern Studies 36(4): 99-118.
Soner, Bayram Ali and Sule Toktas. 2011. “Alevis and Alevism in the Changing
Context of Turkish Politics: The Justice and Development Party’s Alevi Opening,” Turkish
Studies 12(3): 419-434.

Week 12: Democratization and Europeanization (9 May)

Özbudun, Ergun. 2007. “Democratization Reforms in Turkey 1993-2004,” Turkish
Studies 8(2): 179-196.
Avcı, Gamze. 2011. “The Justice and Development Party and the EU: Political Civil
Pragmatism in a Changing Environment,” South European Society and Politics 16(3): 409-
421

Week 13: Is Democracy Backsliding? (16 May)

Tansel, Cemal Burak. 2018. “Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Democratic Backsliding
in Turkey: Beyond the Narratives of Progress,” South European Society and Politics 23(2):
197-217.
Esen, Berk and Sebnem Gumuscu. 2017. “Turkey: How the Coup Failed?” Journal of
Democracy 28(1): 59-73.

Week 14: Wrap up (23 May)

Week 15: FINAL EXAMINATION