Performing ‘New Turkey’: Sacralised Politics and Authoritarian Governance

Despite the tremendous scholarly interest in Turkey’s recent political scene, the Justice and De-velopment Party (AKP)’s ideological and political attitude towards religion is an unsettled de-bate. The AKP’s authoritarianism at home and sectarian foreign policy have compelled the scholarly community to reconsider the earlier assumptions derived from the ‘post-Islamism’ ar-gument. Although the recent studies implicitly or explicitly imply a relationship between the AKP’s authoritarianism and the so-called Islamisation, they fail to outline the exact nature of this relationship, i.e. whether ‘Islamisation’ is a result or a cause of the authoritarian turn. Drawing upon Gentile’s ‘sacralised politics’ and ‘political religion’ concepts, and the theories of cultural pragmatics and social performance, this study offers an alternative view on the changing dynam-ics of the AKP’s stance on religion, state and governance. It argues that rather than being an at-tempt of Islamisation or religionisation per se for ideological or purely utilitarian purposes, the increasing usage of the language and imagery of Islam by the AKP is a systematic attempt to in-fuse nominally secular notions -nation/people, democracy, state, national interest etc.- with sa-cred, religious and moral meanings. Besides the high-level political discourse, performance and policies, the study analyses how sacralised notions are circulated/reproduced by pro-government civil society in the public sphere. It particularly outlines the creation of (i) a missionary claim to governance, (ii) a charismatic leadership as the saviour, (iii) the nation as a moral community, (iv) rituals and performance. In the analysis section, the study argues that the societal ‘appeal’ of increasing authoritarianism and the AKP’s massive capacity of mobilising people lies in its abil-ity in offering a redemptive claim to its followers. Sacralised politics creates novel and emotive forms of mobilisation and consent that transforms both politics and political participation into symbolic and performative action. The study is based on the analysis of public speeches by high-level government representatives, party documents, secondary sources as well as interviews with pro-government civil society representatives and direct and participant observation in civil socie-ty events and gatherings.