My dissertation analyzes the architectural voice of the Islamic bourgeoisie by evaluating contemporary government-funded urban renewal projects in Turkey. This topic also discusses the counter voices' response to the urban renewal programs which sparked the Gezi Park protests of summer 2013. My dissertation explores how the AK Party is framing Ottoman history and remaking the Turkish urban landscape by urban development projects. I spell out specific ways in which Erdogan uses cultural capital of the Ottoman past to frame Erdoganian Neo-Ottomanism. My work investigates the AK Party's Islamic form of neoliberalism with Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital. Specifically I look at the application of Istanbul as the European Capital of Culture (ECoC), an urban renewal project by the AK Party in the Ankara neighborhood of Hamamonu, and the protests at Istanbul's Gezi Park and Ankara's Ulucanlar prison complex.

This thesis examines Turkey&rsquo / s Balkan policy in the Post-Cold War Era with regard to changing parameters in this region. Every crisis and conflicts in the Balkans affects not only Turkey but also all international actors. For this reason, it is argued that external dynamics rather than internal ones largely affected the change in Turkish foreign policy. It is pointed out that the policy maintained by Turkey during the wars and crisis in the Balkans, was harmonious with its power and capacity in international arena. After Bosnian War and Kosovo crisis the European Union (EU) policy towards the Balkans gained impetus. Turkey attempts to participate in both North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the EU initiatives in the Balkans for the sake of balancing Greece. Besides, Turkey encouraged and took an active role in the process of the Balkan countries to NATO and the EU for the sake of following the regulations being made for Turkish minority. Then, this thesis argues that the neo-Ottomanist ideas lost its significance as the process of EU&rsquo / s incorporation of the Balkans gains impetus.

This study examined the relationship between the Turkish Islamic movements and the present government of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AK Party). Since the AK Party came to power in 2002 it implemented unparalleled political reforms and pursued to improve Turkey’s relations with the EU. Opponents argued that because of the dominance of the secular military in Turkish politics, the AK Party is forced to secretly advance its Islamic agenda using the language and symbolism of democracy and human rights. This study argued that the ideas of the AK Party show similarities with the “Ottomanist” thought of the late Ottoman era. With special reference to the preservation of the Ottoman State, Ottomanism in an eclectic way was able to incorporate Islamic principles like freedom, justice and consultation into the political arena which was increasingly dominated by the secular European concepts. Literature on Islam and politics in Turkey, however, disregards the Ottoman roots of freedom and pluralism and tends to reduce the relationship between religion and state into exclusively confrontational struggles. This conceptualization of the political process relies on particular non-Turkish Muslim experiences which do not necessarily represent Islam’s venture in Turkey. Contrary to the prevailing scholarship, Islamic movements in Turkey, namely, Naqshbandi, National View and Nur, which are discussed in detail in this study, are not monolithic. They all uphold the same creedal tenets of Islam but they have sharp differences in terms of how they conceptualize the role of religious agency in politics. I argue that this diversity is a result of three distinct methodologies of Islamic religious life which are the Tariqah (Tarikat), Shariah (Şeriat), and Haqiqah (Hakikat). The differences between these three approaches represent a typological hierarchy in the formation of the Muslim/believer as an agent of Islamic identity. Through these different if not conflicting modes, the AK Party reconnected itself with Turkey’s Ottoman heritage in a post-Ottoman, secular setting and was able to develop an eclectic political identity of Neo-Ottomanism that is evident in the flexibility if not inconsistency of its domestic and foreign policy preferences.

Cette thèse met en perspective l’influence qu’exerce l’héritage ottoman sur les relations entre la Turquie et les pays régionaux et insiste sur l’importance de cet aspect dans l’analyse de la politique étrangère turque. Les acteurs politiques à forte référence religieuse ont toujours porté un discours glorifiant le passé ottoman. Ils ont développé une relecture romantique de l’histoire ottomane qui, d’un côté, a toujours été en décalage avec les recherches universitaires et le discours officiel en Turquie, et de l’autre, diamétralement opposée à la rhétorique dominante dans les autres anciens territoires ottomans partagés entre une vingtaine de pays. Ce travail de recherche montre que les gouvernements AKP, qui ont des origines idéologiques remontant à ces acteurs, se sont appuyés essentiellement sur la perception nationaliste et religieuse de l’histoire pour développer un discours de réhabilitation de l’héritage ottoman dans leur politique étrangère depuis 2002. / This dissertation puts into perspective the influence of the Ottoman heritage on relations between Turkey and regional countries and shows the importance of this aspect in the analysis of Turkish foreign policy. Political actors with strong religious views have always been different from other in the political space due to their discourse glorifying the Ottoman past. They have developed a romantic vision of Ottoman history which, on the one hand, has always been out of academic research and official discourse in Turkey, and on the other, diametrically opposed to the dominant rhetoric in the other ancient Ottoman territories shared between some twenty countries. This research shows that AKP governments, which have ideological origins going back to these actors, have relied primarily on the nationalist and religious perception of history to develop a discourse on the rehabilitation of the Ottoman heritage in their foreign policies since 2002.

Neo-Ottomanism in Turkish Foreign Policy and Changes during the Erdoğan era Author: Vladimír Hurych Abstract In November 2002, the new emerging Justice and Development Party (AKP) experienced a landmark electoral victory that significantly rewrote the prevailing domestic and foreign policy identity. The Islam-based AKP and its leaders Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Abdullah Gül and Ahmet Davutoğlu initiated a massive transformation of the Turkish society imposing economic market-oriented reforms and emphasizing the role of democratic institutions and the potential EU membership. AKP establishment also adopted a new foreign policy identity - the neo-Ottomanism. The concept has a background in 1990's strategy of former President Turgut Özal who emphasized the historical, cultural and religious heritage of the Ottoman Empire. Based on domestic changing identity, AKP's neo-Ottomanism served as an ideological tool how to transform its foreign policy identity with using the Islamic narrative and soft power tools. The thesis analyses how the new establishment of 2000's redefined the role of Turkey regarding its geopolitical position in the Middle East. Turkey has been emphasizing its strategic role as a regional power on the crossroads of many cultures and geopolitical interests. The question is how and whether the AKP...

The thesis examines the aspects of neo-Ottomanism in Turkish foreign policies toward three Balkan countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo -, focusing on the developments of the last decade. Turkey has become quite active in the Balkans and in these countries in the last few years, however, this activism is not without any antecendents. These areas were the core European territories of the Ottoman Empire and after the dissolution of this entity, Turkey still attached special importance to these countries, albeit during the Cold War relations were cooler. On the other hand, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, the rise of the AK Party to government position and Ahmet Davutoglu becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs in Turkey, the Balkans started to receive particular "limelight" in Turkish foreign policy. New ideas, expressions, approaches were incorporated into the forming self-confident and assertive foreign policy of Turkey. However, this new policy, referred to as neo- Ottomanism in many cases, infered criticisms too, from the West and from local politicians in the Balkans too. The thesis aims to remake and remodel this expression by highlighting other, more positive elements of it. Turkey's political, economic, cultural and military relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and...

The overall purpose of this thesis is three folded; to analyze Turkey's constantly changing influence since the 1990s in the Western Balkans, consider the failed 2016 coup attempt in Turkey and the anti-Gülenist campaign by Erdogan in the region (with Kosovo as the focus), and to delve into the international and local media discourse surrounding the deportations of suspected Gülenist from Kosovo with the help of Turkish intelligence on March 29, 2018. Employing a mixed methodology approach, the author evaluated existing sources in an attempt to answer the research question; "In what ways has the 2016 Coup d'état attempt in Turkey resonated in the Western Balkans, and how did the local and international media discourse portray the 2018 Gülenists extraditions from Kosovo to Turkey?" The research holds that while the media discourse displayed Kosovo and Turkey's actions as being in violation of numerous international laws, the issue was quickly swept away from the spotlight. Since 2012 (the beginning of the Erdogan-Gülen rift) and especially following the 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey, Erdogan has been emboldened by his growing personal relationships with key Balkan politicians. This has led to continued demands (thus far met with little success) that Western Balkan states arrest and deport...