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The Turkish Model at Crossroads

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Myth and Rhetoric of the Turkish Model

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Abstract

Chapter 6 looks at the reemergence of the model in the wake of the events in the Middle East in early 2011. The chapter examines how in the light of the search for alternatives the Turkish Model is once again projected as viable for the states that are now looking for alternatives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Brunwasser cites Hugh Pope, Turkey/Cyprus director at the International Crisis Group, as pointing to the projection of Turkey as a model. See also Oktem (2011).

  2. 2.

    Karaveli and Cornell (2011) where they cite Tariq Ramadan (the grandson of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood).

  3. 3.

    Comment made by Namik Tan at a panel discussion at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, cited in Trend (2011).

  4. 4.

    More recently, however, there are reports that Turkey has established contacts with the Libyan opposition. The main concern is that Libya should not become a second Iraq.

  5. 5.

    In fact even prior to the Arab Spring, Turkey’s position as an initiator of reforms was debated in writings like (Sever (2007); Gul (2004).

  6. 6.

    The Ergenekon affair involves investigations against a group of people who were accused of alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the AKP government and includes hundreds of senior military officials, journalists, and academics.

  7. 7.

    There have been commentators who have also argued that the new situation is a new stage of the model where the weakness of the political opposition has been compensated by public mobilization in Turkey. What is optimistic is the ability of the civil society to challenge the government without organized political parties. See Balci (2013c).

  8. 8.

    Turkey’s position in the EU makes up a significant volume of the debates on the future of Turkey. See, for instance, Kunilholm (2003).

  9. 9.

    The AKP required 367 seats to pass the constitutional amendment on its own. With more thant 330 seats it would be possible for the AKP to make the changes with a public referendum. With less than 330 seats it is now bound to seek consensus among other parties in the parliament.

  10. 10.

    There are alternative interpretations of this that claim that the phrase prioritized a personal identification with “Turkishness” rather than an ethnic or racial scrutiny of individual citizens. See Taspinar (2005).

  11. 11.

    See, for instance, Yegen (2009), where he cites from meetings of the Grand National Assembly and minutes of Parliament in the early years of the inception of the Republic to show that the Kurds were perceived as a particular ethnic community with group rights.

  12. 12.

    For instance, Articles 26 and 28 of the Constitution prohibited the expression and dissemination/publication of thought in any language prohibited by law, and Law 2932 that followed a year later reiterated that the mother tongue of Turkish citizens is Turkish, and it is prohibited to use, as a mother tongue, any other language. For details see Taspinar (2005).

  13. 13.

    Law 2932 was passed in 1983 declaring the mother tongue of Turkish citizens to be Turkish, thereby prohibiting the use of Kurdish language.

  14. 14.

    Excerpts from the Document of Mutual Understanding, cited in Ergil (2000).

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  1. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Anita Sengupta

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Sengupta, A. (2014). The Turkish Model at Crossroads. In: Myth and Rhetoric of the Turkish Model. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1765-7_6

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