The 12 September 1980 coup was a 'milestone' the consequences of which have been shadowing the lives of peoples of Turkey for more than thirty years. On the one hand, the coup was instrumental in the profound economic, political and social transformation of the country while, on the other, it aimed at destroying any public opposition deemed likely to jeopardise the course of this transformation . The remembrance of the period as laden with experiences of profound transformation alongside experiences of atrocity, violence, suffering and oppression constitutes the very focus of this study. In this study, I examined the memory of the coup which was experienced discrepantly by individuals and different political groups. The discrepant nature of coup experience was the result of the coup's segregation of the society into political poles representing the 'guilty', the politically 'inconvenient' and others. The shared political identities within political groups - left-wing, right-wing and non-politically affiliated - which played a constitutive role in generating different collective frames informing coup memory in the present performed the decisive role in identifying the respondents of this study. This study tackles a series of relationalities between memory and the set of guiding concepts - identity, temporality, representation(s), power and politics that designate the possibilities of contestation among memories and so forth - that are introduced - and inherent in - processes of memory construction. Although the main focus of the study is not on generation and generational memory per se, the use of generation as a category of analyses generated some useful questions regarding the historical location of the respondents, its relation to social change and, more importantly, the function of the segmentation within the generation in boundary building and identity construction processes.

This research examines the historical evolution of the Kurdish people's movement for achieving cultural rights and political representation in Turkey. The main focus is on the period between 2000 and 2015. It draws upon nationalism and social movement theories to analyze how these dynamics feed each other directly. While the Kurdish nationalist movement has been the basis for the Kurdish social movement, the social movement has served to perpetuate the national cause. The Kurds constitute the largest ethnic minority in Turkey. However, their political and cultural identity has not been constitutionally recognized. For the last three decades, the Kurds deemed as their only option the creation of an independent Kurdish state that would break away from Turkey. From 2000 onwards, there has been a gradual shift in their objectives. Kurdish identity claims began to evolve towards a willingness to work within the existing political system, albeit calling for significant change including a re-evaluation of the Turkish constitution and decentralization of power across Turkey. Based on empirical evidence collected through fieldwork, including in-depth interviews with activists, ordinary citizens, members of civil society organizations and political parties as well as participant observation in legal gatherings and general strikes, this research demonstrates how Kurdish activists – as organized political actors with resources and a collective identity – ascribed to mainstream social movement practices, particularly in the period post-2000. It advances the novel argument that they capitalized on the shifting political opportunities deriving from Turkey's EU candidacy in 1999, the curtailment of military power in 2007, and the inspirational impact of the regional upheavals in 2011. To further explore these dynamics within Turkish society as a whole, this study reveals the emergence of a total social movement between 2013 and 2015. Formulated by Alain Touraine, a total social movement is a historic project where social actors determine the general orientation of their society, which in this study consisted of the combination of civil society activity, a democracy-advocating movement and the expression of Kurdish identity.

Turkey has undergone large-scale transformations over the past 30 years, changing it from a Kemalist Republic to a country ruled by a moderately Islamic party – the Justice and Development Party (AKP). I study how Islamic business associations (BAs) have gained political influence over dominant secular BAs in Turkey – a key process of these transformations. Existing literature treats voluntary BAs either as purely economic institutions, or focuses on political elites’ strategic policy and power interests in explaining BAs’ political influence. There is inadequate guidance on when BAs turn into political actors, and how they engage in mobilisation and broader intra-state power struggles. Especially the role of ideology and religion has been neglected, which is relevant for several transition countries’ business politics. This inadequacy can be addressed by developing a social movement framework. Following a grounded theory approach, I conducted a comparative analysis of secular and Islamic BAs’ networks structures (1993–2012), collective action frames, organisational structures and patterns of resource-exchange across changing institutional contexts. Findings are based on 51 semi-structured interviews in Gaziantep’s textile cluster in Turkey and additional archival material. I argue that Islamic BAs gained political influence because they applied typical social movement tactics that are adapted to the cultural and political environment. Conditions of politico-religious contention combined with gradual economic liberalisation have encouraged marginalised businesspeople to apply Islam in a non-contentious and market-based way. By integrating with civil society at the grassroots level, and gaining the support of political elites, Islamic BAs have complemented economic activities with resonant framing. These tactics grounded in Islam have increased Islamic BAs political influence by creating a new pious and legitimate business elite. These findings contribute to the literature by extending the types of institutional incentives, tactics and actors that businesspeople rely on to engage in contentious politics to include ideological factors.