No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-234). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (doctoral)--Aix-en-Provence Üniversitesi. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 793-838).

Thesis (doctoral)--Aix-en-Provence Üniversitesi. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 793-838).

This thesis aims to examine Kemalism perception of METU students. Author intends to display how METU students imagine and think Kemalism. Thesis first examines the ideological journey of Kemalism to indicate the main notions of Kemalism to the reader and by doing so, explains the intellectual ground of the statements which were used in the survey of thesis. The way how Kemalism was constructed, the stages that Kemalism passed through the past, the connections of Kemalism with other ideologies, the formation and standing of current Kemalism and the arguments of Kemalism against globalization, European Union, Kurdish issue and Islamism will all be analyzed.

The thesis evaluates the importance of the Kemalist movement to the Republic of Turkey both during its earlytwentieth-century establishment and today, as Turkey pursues its overall goal, modernization, and its more specific goal, membership in the European Union. The thesis assesses Kemalism's original effect on the state-building process before and after the War of Independence; its continuing effect on Turkey's modernization process; and its potential to effect Turkey's acceptance into the European Union. The thesis argues that the Kemalist social and political ideology is still the best choice for Turkey and thus must be revitalized. Despite the many intervening powers interested in the Ottoman territories after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, the so-called "sick man of Europe," emerged as a newly established republic. Led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey adopted Western norms to create a new society and nation-state. Kemalism, an essentially continuous, systematic process of national renovation, modernization, and renewal, has one overriding goal: to raise Turkish society, politics, education, and institutions to the level of Western civilizations. To accomplish this, Turkey's nongovernment organizations must act, in keeping with Kemalism, to turn the country into "one big school." The military, as designated by the constitution, is the "protector" of Kemalism and has the power, under certain conditions, to intervene in the political arena. In Kemalism, the dominant religion, Islam, is a private matter, a matter of one's "conscience." The thesis concludes that a resurrection of purist Kemalist teaching is the best way to help Turkey exploit its stretegic position as a "bridge between the West and the East, between Europe and the East" to gain full membership in the E.U. and achieve its national goals.

Based upon anthropological fieldwork and contemporary literature as well as an analysis of media reports and statements by government officials such as current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this thesis explores the interrelations between political discourses, lifestyle, and identity construction in contemporary Turkey. In the thesis, it is depicted how certain lifestyle choices are legally limited or (drawing on moral, religious, and nationalist discourses) labeled as 'bad' or 'wrong' by the current AKP government and certain parts of society. The informants interviewed for this thesis, mostly well-educated, young Turkish urbanites, feel like these restrictions of lifestyle choices limit their possibilities to freely construct and express their identities, which leads to feelings of resentment, unhappiness, and discomfort. By analyzing political developments in the 20th and 21st century, it is furthermore illustrated that authoritarianism has been a substantial part of the Turkish state project ever since the founding of the Turkish Republic. The current political events and conflicts about lifestyle and identity construction, it is argued, have to be understood in this context rather than depicting them as based upon a strict dividing line between 'secular' and 'religious' parts of society, as it is often depicted in Western media.

Kurdish political identity, their quest for recognition has been an everlasting issue in the Turkish politics since the establishment of Turkish Republic (1923). When the Republic was building by the Republican elite during the single-party regime, the Turkish identity and Mustafa Kemal’s principles became constituent elements of Republican agenda which was ideologically aimed to be a modern nation-state that showed no tolerance to those who stayed out of its scope (i.e Kurds). The frames of Turkish identity were firstly secularism, and secondly nationalism which required one language, one identity and territorial integrity. These frames which were copied from Jacobin French nationalism regulated the Turkification process and shaped the assimilationist policies towards non-Turkish ethnic groups. This paper examines the outlines of both Turkish politics and Kurdish resistance. While providing political consequences of reluctant policies toward Kurds and the Turkish perspective of Kurds as threats towards mainstream Turkish identity, the study also touches upon the ideological transition of Kurdish movement that appeared within the Justice and Development Party (AKP) reign. The evolution of Kurdish politics eventually utilized Kurds to emancipate from being a perception of threat to Turkish nationalism and finally offers a possible solution to the conflict.

Subject of the master thesis is analysis of the current role of Turkey in the region and the potential of becoming a regional power. Thesis is structured into four chapters. In the first chapter the definition of regional power is outlined. Second chapter analysis the current position of Turkey in the world, while comparing it to other acknowledged regional power. The third part focuses on analysis of Turkey's position in various regions. The last chapter is an analysis of the regional influence on Turkey's internal development and open issues connected with defined region.

This thesis is about foreign policy analysis and what it could learn from an examination of Turkey's Outside Turks policy. More specifically, the thesis explores the implications of the post-Kemalist changes in Turkey on Outside Turks communities in the case of Kosovar Turks and offers a norm-based analysis of the constitutive relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy formation and conduct. Throughout the thesis, accordingly, the domestic norms guiding the way Turkey approaches Outside Turks, the conduct of domestic norms-guided Outside Turks policy and, finally, the implications of such policy for the Kosovar Turks are explored. Based on this, the study establishes firstly that the traditional policy of transforming the religiously defined Turkish speaking Muslim communities in the surrounding countries to nationally thinking and acting ethnic Turkish communities has changed after 1980s, but particularly during the Justice and Development Party rule. The aspiration shifted towards imagining Outside Turks in cultural and religious lines, other than in purely ethnic sense. Thus invoking and safeguarding the practice of Muslim identity, history and culture became a priority concern in the Outside Turks policy agenda. The thesis secondly establishes that this shift in approach has been generated by four post-Kemalist norms, namely Ottomania, de-ethnicized nationhood, Turkish Islam, and Islamic Internationalism. These post-Kemalist norms have manifested themselves as practices of transforming the ethnically mobilized and behaving Turkish community in Kosovo as religiously and historico-culturally thinking and acting community. The thesis thirdly establishes that the post-Kemalist approach to the Outside Turk community in Kosovo has been constitutive for the community. Accordingly, Turkey’s anti-nationalist practices and activities of restoring inter-ethnic relations in Ottoman lines have partly relieved the relations between Turks and Albanians, facilitated the transcending of ethnicity as a bases for organizing relations, and increased the scope for collaboration between Muslim communities in the country. However, such post-Kemalist policies could not deconstruct the dominant nationalist framings, it has rather been counter-productive. Therefore, due to the post-Kemalist approach, the ethnic Turkish identity has been sharpened, Ottomans have been ethnicized as a Turkish emperorship, the nationalism gained a reactionary character, and people now believe that their ethnic survival is jeopardized by Turkey’s anti-nationalism or ‘anti-Turkism’ as the community calls it. This in return has led the community to further embrace Kemalist frames and discourses to resist Turkey’s post-Kemalist approach and norms. The thesis, consequently, introduced a norm-based foreign policy analysis model for examining the overseas implications and influences of domestic norms and norm changes.