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Begin New Search Topic Religion Political Geography Middle East Content Type Special Report Publishing Institution Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)

1. Reflections on Turkey: Islamic Middle Classes at a Glance

Author:
Etyen Mahçupyan
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This report focuses on the rising prosperity of the Islamic middle class since 2002 and the diversification of the religiosity concept within a pluralist structure in Turkey. Written by TESEV consultant Etyen Mahcupyan in February 2014, this report explains the importance of the rising middle class and the new generation of Anatolian entrepreneurs for the political and sociological transformation of Turkey. The findings of the surveys and focus groups are evaluated under four categories: 1) Political Institutions and Rights, 2) Family, Women, Sexuality, 3) Group Affiliations, Individualism, Tolerance, 4) Openions about Market Economy, Class Differences and Western World.
Topic:
Islam, Religion, Women, Economy, Political structure, Class, Family, and Sexuality
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

2. “Modernity does not Tolerate Superstition” the Religious and Seculars in the Democratization Process

Author:
Onur Bayramoğlu
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
The claim that change is a one-way process is quite outdated. We have begun to realize that integration across the world does not necessarily require becoming like the West, but rather implies a process of mutual adaptation. This realization enhances efforts to obtain an “insider’s view” of societies’ problems. Turkey is a country that has been modernizing for almost three centuries and attempting to integrate with its surroundings by going through such an adaptation. Major changes have occurred from the economy to judicial, educational and social rights. However, a range of issues from the lack of religious freedom to the Kurdish problem, latent inclination towards violence, and the practice of utilitarian political analysis also shows that with certain issues the traditional public opinion resurfaces without going through any change. Therefore, we have an inevitable question before us: how can it be that, despite all the effort towards modernization and the dynamics of change, we fail to solve some of our problems and continue to live with them? Although one is justified in criticizing the state for its failure to solve these problems, can only the state be held accountable? Or does the society, either consciously or implicitly, support the state’s resistance to problem-solving? These questions led TESEV to conduct a series of studies, which focus on issues such as secularism, religiosity, nationalism, family, the state, and rights. Through these studies TESEV attempted to unveil the mentality and the way in which Turkish people perceive themselves and their surroundings, as well as their references and the value systems implied by these references. We tried to grasp how the mentality change works, what kinds of breakpoints it creates, and how the conflicts created by these breakpoints are rationalized. We hope that the resulting assessments will not only create an effective reference in defining and conceiving the chaotic change dynamics of contemporary Turkey, but also serve to initiate new, more expansive and in-depth studies.
Topic:
Democratization, Religion, State, and Society
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

3. Religion, Society and Politics in Changing Turkey

Author:
Ali Carkoglu and Binnaz Toprak
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
During the period from 1999 to 2004, Turkey’s path toward European Union accession promoted important advances in the consolidation of democracy and respect for human rights. Turkey’s long-standing democratization problems -- such as the treatment of minorities, the lack of democratic oversight of the security sector, and the failure to resolve the Kurdish question, the Armenian question and the headscarf issue -- have come to surface and been widely discussed. Yet pro-status quo groups, including political parties, some “civil society” organizations, and governmental institutions have harshly reacted to the public discussion of these issues. Since 2004, the momentum of the democratization process has slowed down, and 2007 brought to the Turkish agenda a critical debate over presidential elections. According to the prostatus quo, elitist groups the chair of the presidency is representation of the modern Turkish republic, and the government party’s candidate will not have the capability of representing the Turkish Republic with a first lady with headscarf. Since May 2007, the discussions over the presidential relations and the candidacy of a deputy from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have dominated the political agenda in Turkey. While the tension is represented as between religious people and secularism, in fact, this tension is more accurately one between the possibility of departing from the status quo, through democratization efforts, and thus confronting the deep-rooted democratization problems of Turkey. While all the discussions seem to be on the axis of religiosity and secularism, during the general election process, most of the opposition parties claimed that Turkey was under threat from internal and external enemies – whether Shari’a, Kurds, Armenians trying to divide and weaken it, or foreign powers like the EU and USA seeking Turkey’s economic subordination – and that the AKP was to blame. The opposition parties also blamed the AKP for the presidential election crisis, due to the fact that the AKP had not sought a consensus candidate. At this moment, the results of the elections show that approximately one-half of the country supports the AKP government and the majority of the people are opposed to any military intervention in the country’s democratic life. Although the prospective presidency of Mr. Gül should be evaluated through the lens of citizenship and even though Mr. Gül meets the requirements for being President, his candidacy has still been discussed in terms of the capacity of a man whose wife wears a headscarf -- which is seen as a symbol of the so-called “threat to the secular regime” -- to represent Turkey. Because the aforementioned agenda is very related to the problematic nature of Religion-State-Society Relations in Turkey, TESEV’s Democratization Program has been working on the issue since 1999. The project on Religion-StateSociety relations, through research, publication, outreach, and advocacy, aims to contribute to the understanding of the changing dynamics between religion, state, and society in today’s world and specifically in the Turkish context. In addition, the project aspires to create dialogue and to increase mutual understanding between groups in Turkish society who have increasingly become polarized around the issues of secularism and religiosity. Religion, Society and Politics in a Changing Turkey, by Ali Çarkoğlu and Binnaz Toprak, is an output of a survey of 1492 votingage individuals that was carried out in rural and urban areas between May 6th and June 11th 2006. The survey report observes and compares the changing nature of Turkish people’s attitudes towards issues such as religion, democracy, terrorism and minorities. The Turkish-language edition of the study was received with high interest by the public and the media in November 2006. The study provoked an engaging debate as it was published during the controversy around the fact that presidential candidate Abdullah Gül’s wife wears a headscarf. TESEV hopes that the English version of the report will contribute to the debates over Turkey’s practice of Islam, people’s preferences to identify themselves, understanding of democracy and multi-culturalism in Turkey, and the political and sociological stance towards the headscarf controversy.
Topic:
Politics, Religion, State, and Society
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East