Traces of the Islamist Socio-Cultural Transformation in Post-Kemalist Türkiye: An Evaluation on the Students of Theology Faculty

It is critical to consider how the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been able to rule in Türkiye since 2002 despite occasional informal coalitions. One of the most core intellectual packages of the party has been so-called post-Kemalism, which is idealized as a multicultural, participatory, and deliberative model of politics in which the rule of law and democratic political channels function by combating military and bureaucratic tutelage of the old Kemalist order. Nevertheless, the AKP has been revealed as one of the most oppressive governments in Turkish political history. Along with the increasing waves of authoritarianism, the combination of Islamism and neoliberalism has launched significant transformations in the social and cultural areas. To materialize the idea of creating a religious and vindictive new generation proto-type, the education system was restructured to emphasize religious values, and the number of theology faculties was notably raised. This research discusses whether the process of change and transformation created by the AKP government with an Islamist perspective has been successful in the eyes of the students of the faculties of theology. Centering the interviews with the undergraduate theology students, it examines how these students evaluate the policies, discourses, and practices of the AKP government's post-Kemalist politics on social and cultural areas. The operational definitions of this research include social patronage networks and clientelism, negative and accusatory discourses against women, the promotion of conservative family values, the increase of Quran courses as well as theology faculties, and devaluation of the Kemalist symbols which represent the founding principles of the Republic.