Wed, Mar. 12: Contesting Democratization in Turkey: The Gülen Movement, AK Party and their Discontents
Neelanjan Sircar
Berna Turam
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Hampshire College
Discussant: Alfred Stepan
Columbia University, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government,
Columbia University
Director of Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion
This talk is based on the working paper "Contesting Democratization in
Turkey: The Gülen Movement, AK Party and their Discontents."
Islamist forces have moderated widely through the Middle East.
However, the moderation of Islamic politics has not necessarily been
accompanied by parallel democratization processes in every country.
Turkey appears as a distinct case in this regard, as the
transformation of Islamic actors and the Turkish state have been
corresponding and concurrent processes. No matter how fragile and
illiberal, Turkish democracy have had provided basic platforms of
interaction between Islamic forces and the secular state. Through
decades of confrontation, Turkish Islamic actors have learned the
skills of "engagement" with the staunchest secular state of the Muslim
world. The engagements range from negotiation to basic consensus and
cooperation between Islam and the state. The paper reveals and
analyzes the emergence of the politics of engagement by the Gulen
movement in the late 1990s and the institutionalization of it by AK
party in the new millennium. I argue that these engagements have
transformed both Islam and the Turkish Republic, and contributed to
democratization. However, the successive victories of the AK party in
free and fair elections have also given rise to a secularist backlash.
By highlighting two paradoxical processes, the moderation of Islamic
forces and radicalization of secularist actors, the study invites a
rethinking of contestations over democratization.
Recent publications by Berna Turam (PhD, McGill University) include
Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement (Stanford
University Press, 2007).
Date: Wednesday, March 12
Time: 4:30 - 6:00 pm
Location: International Affairs Building, 802
This talk is a part of the speaker series entitled, "Transforming
Secularism, Democracy, and Nationalism in Turkey." To learn about
future events in the speaker series, please visit:
http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/cdtr/events/index.html
For more information, please contact Ahmet Kuru at ak2...@columbia.edu
"Transforming Secularism, Democracy, and Nationalism in Turkey" is
co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and
Religion (CDTR), Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
(ISERP), and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life
(IRCPL).