ABSTRACT This thesis approaches the concept of citizenship from the angle of citizens by focusing on the citizenship perception of the citizens in Turkey. It has been aimed to measure citizenship perceptions in terms of the balance between both total rights and duties, and also in terms of civil, political and social elements of citizenship. Liberal and civic republican conceptions of citizenship have been employed as the ideal-standard models against which it is attempted to measure the citizenship perceptions, because it is consensually agreed that the Turkish notion of citizenship is based on a civic republican understanding which emphasizes duties over rights. For this purpose a scale for citizenship rights and another one for citizenship duties have been developed on the basis of a questionnaire. Additionally, in order to measure people&rsquo / s opinions concerning the possible effects of Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership on citizenship issues a scale of &ldquo / EU membership and citizenship&rdquo / has been developed. In addition to the questionnaire study which was applied to unionized workers, employers, bureaucrats and retired military officers, focus group meetings and interviews were conducted. The results of the scale study revealed that all occupational groups shared a republican perception of citizenship as far as the total right and duty items are considered. However, in terms of political and social elements of citizenship, occupational groups displayed different perceptions. In terms of political elements, while workers, employers and bureaucrats emphasized the political rights, with respect to social elements workers assigned more weight to social rights. The EU membership and citizenship scale results indicated that all occupational groups shared a pro-EU perspective with respect to its effects on citizenship.

In this thesis, I seek to answer the question of what constitutes a tenable form of sexual citizenship for lesbian-, bisexual- and gay citizens by deploying two models of citizenship which have permeated scholarly and public discourse: the “liberal” and the “republican” model. This is done in conjunction with critical engagement with two political philosophers, and their conceptualization of citizenship. They are (1) The capabilities approach by Martha Nussbaum and (2) cosmopolitan federalism as presented by Seyla Benhabib. This thesis uses three primary questions: (1) On what basis are members of the polity chosen? (2) On what basis are the members of the polity able to participate politically? (3) How does the conceptualized model of citizenship account for social- and civil rights pertaining to sexual difference? These questions furthermore establish the basis for the analysis of the models.  In order to assess the answers that the different model provide, this thesis utilizes two analytic variables articulated in terms of lack of rights and disenfranchisement which will throughout this thesis act as underpinnings. These variables are predicated on reflecting two mechanisms of exclusions of lesbigay citizens, the claim being that the rejoinders to them are used to assess and constitute to a tenable sexual citizenship.