Abstract
This chapter aims to illustrate how cultural elements influence Justice and Development Party’s political discourse in Turkey, the driving force of its politicians’ speech. The JDP government raises concerns on undercutting inclusive institutions and undermining democratic values, but still remains the most influential actor in Turkish politics. This study focuses on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s public speeches, populist and constructed through the center-periphery dichotomy, and it emphasizes respect for authority, modernization, nationalism, religion and secularism, as Turkey’s prominent cultural themes. To address the masses, the party revised its political-Islamist discourse that had reflected a subculture, to accord with mainstream cultural values –prioritizing development, integration with the world, and democracy. Government policies, including the ones that carry the risk of drifting the state towards authoritarianism, are introduced as liberating actions based on cultural values, and framed as manifestations and triumphs of the periphery’s masses.
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Notes
- 1.
The poem originally belonged to Cevat Örnek, “The Divine Army” (İlahi Ordu), drawing an analogy of warfare on protecting and defending Islam (Bardakçı, 2002).
- 2.
The Gülen organization was established by Fethullah Gülen, a cleric and cult leader in self-imposed U.S. exile since 1999. For years, the Gülen movement was promoted as a loose civil society organization, claiming to represent moderate Islam, support global dialogue between religions, and establish Turkish schools abroad. Gülenists had been an ally of the government until 2013. Constituting a global community, and in their words a service movement (hizmet hareketi), they established a large-scale network with numerous national and international business companies, TV channels, newspapers, NGOs, charity organizations and schools, run by Gülen followers. The organization gradually gained power by “infiltrating” state institutions, including the military and judiciary. Through the 2000s, the organization repeatedly attempted to destabilize the state and discredit the JDP (Kadem, 2017), eventually attempting to overthrow the government. The coup attempt failed as masses swamped the streets to stop it (Erdoğan made this connection in a TV live broadcast, calling the citizenry to stop the coup attempt). The government designated the organization as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization. The international community was blamed for backing the organization, as Gülen is a U.S. resident and has not been subjected to any legal investigation.
- 3.
However, in 2018 JDP established an electoral alliance with the National Movement Party. How the electoral alliance affected the JDP discourse on nationalism, will be investigated in a separate study.
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Ünan Göktan, A.D. (2021). The Role of Culture in Turkish Political Discourse: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and The Justice and Development Party. In: Feldman, O. (eds) When Politicians Talk. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3579-3_4
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