Ayhan Kaya and Ayşe Tecmen (2019). "The Use of the Past in Populist Political Discourse: Justice and Development Party Rule in Turkey," in Chiara de Cesari and Ayhan Kaya (eds.). European Memory in Populism: Representations of Self and Other. London: Routledge.

This chapter investigates the use of the past in Turkey’s Justice and Development Party’s (JDP) political discourse. We explore how the JDP utilises culture, heritage, the past and memory to culturalise social, economic and political issues. This case-specific exploration of the JDP’s culture and heritage discourse will shed light on similar mechanisms used across Europe. Through a discourse analysis of the official texts produced by the JDP, the speeches of the party leaders and government officials, we explore how neoliberal policies have shaped the formulation of a ‘past’ drawing on religion and religious differences through an emphasis on Turkey’s Ottoman past and its Muslim characteristics. This has become a strategic instrument for the JDP in its selective revival of Ottoman past to govern the memories of its constituents through Islam, Ottomanism and neo-Ottomanism.