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Post-truth and Anti-science in Turkey: Putting It into Perspective

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Neo-Ottoman Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey

Part of the book series: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe ((MOMEIDSEE))

Abstract

The main goal of this chapter is to understand right-wing populism and troll-science discourses on gender under the public normative order of the current AKP (Justice and Development Party) government. For this I focus on articles published in KADEM Kadın Arasṃtırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Women’s Studies), a pro-government, peer-reviewed so-called academic journal that publishes research on gender and women’s studies. The assumption here is that, the right-wing populist ideologies introduced under the New Turkey has created alternative troll-science discourses within academia, supporting the anti-gender development in Turkey. I show how such troll-science that spread fake information are connoted with religious arguments, such as creationism, and emotionally loaded ideologies that facilitate their easy acceptance in certain circles: in this specific case, ideologically conservative ones.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://kadem.org.tr/kadem-hakkinda/. Accessed on 4.11.2019.

  2. 2.

    https://www.nature.com/news/2009/090310/full/news.2009.150.html Accessed on 4.11.2019.

  3. 3.

    https://ahvalnews.com/gender-equality/turkeys-educational-authorities-cancel-gender-equality-programmes Accessed on 4.11.2019.

  4. 4.

    https://www.newsweek.com/women-and-men-are-not-equal-says-turkish-president-286681. Accessed on 20.04.2020.

  5. 5.

    https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/erdogan-en-az-uc-cocuk-dogurun-8401981. Accessed on 20.04.2020.

  6. 6.

    https://www.milliyet.com.tr/siyaset/evlilik-konusunda-cok-secici-olmayin-1913996. Accessed on 20.04.2020.

  7. 7.

    In Europe this is achieved through attacks on gender research and gender studies programmes within universities. The Central European University in Hungary, where Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban banned the gender studies programme, provides a telling example.

  8. 8.

    http://kadem.org.tr/kadem-hakkinda/. Accessed on 4.11.2019.

  9. 9.

    KADEM mission statement.

  10. 10.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/24/turkeys-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-women-not-equal-men. Accessed on 12.05.2021.

  11. 11.

    Guardian (2014). Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “Women not equal to men”. Available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/24/turkeys-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-women-not-equal-men. Accessed on 12.05.2021.

  12. 12.

    https://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Ambiguous-Debatable-Regarding-Questions/dp/1559220503. Accessed on 08.11.2019.

  13. 13.

    NTV (2009) Erdoğan: İş işten geçmeden en az 3 çocuk [Erdoğan: Before it is too late at least 3 Children]. Available online at, http://www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/erdogan-is-isten-gecmeden-en-az-3-cocuk,ZEQhCeWHVkS06lEDhd72Ng. Accessed 7 June 2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

    Hande Eslen-Ziya

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  1. Hande Eslen-Ziya
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Correspondence to Hande Eslen-Ziya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Catharina Raudvere

  2. Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Petek Onur

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Eslen-Ziya, H. (2023). Post-truth and Anti-science in Turkey: Putting It into Perspective. In: Raudvere, C., Onur, P. (eds) Neo-Ottoman Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08023-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08023-4_9

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