Multiple Facets of Authoritarianism in Turkey

Abstract

Only about 10 years ago Turkey was shown by international press as the “star of Islam.” In many well established, widely circulating respectable publications such as The Economist, Turkey was exemplified as being one of the rare countries where democracy was reconciled with Islam. Turkey was a candidate country to EU, there was strong progress in limiting military tutelage, improvement in human rights and significant economic development. All of these positive advances were associated with Justice and Development Party government that came to power in 2002. The Islamist roots of the party was undermined, and its appeal to the large sections of electorate was praised. Turkey has been ruled by the same party in the last 15 years. The European media now presents Turkey as an authoritarian country, where the president is portrayed as an autocrat. Rule of law is undermined. In 6 months, over 150.000 government employees were dismissed from office without trial and compensation. This includes thousands of university professors. There is a strong oppression of opposition, including minorities, civil society organizations and the media. In this panel we want to discuss this wave of authoritarianism in Turkey. This authoritarianism is built on multiple factors and is reflected on multiple facets of social, economic and cultural life besides significant political developments. We shall analyze how this is reflected into gender relations and gender policies, how the neoliberal landscape is shaping power structures, and how business circles are interacting with these neo-conservative policies. All of the papers in the proposed panel will be based on different research projects conducted in the last couple of years.