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Flexible Nation: The Turkish Nation under the Justice and Development Party’s Rule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2021

Gizem Kaftan Open the ORCID record for Gizem Kaftan [Opens in a new window]
Gizem Kaftan*
Affiliation:
Boston University, MA, USA
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Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article explains how the Turkish nation’s composition has changed under Justice and Development Party rule. Turkish nationalism and Turkish national identity have dramatically changed since 2010, when the Kurdish Opening process was started by former prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Syrian refugee crisis and the influx of Syrian refugees into Turkey created another change in Turkish national identity. Increasing religiosity in Turkey and the use of Islam by the Justice and Development Party created a flexible nation, where all Sunni Muslims can be considered members even though they are not ethnically Turkish. The author uses primary sources, such as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s speeches since 2010, to show how his discourse became more embracing of non-Turkish Muslim groups and created a dynastic understanding of nationalism based on religion rather than the idea of an ethnically homogenous, secular Turkish nation.

Keywords

nationalismTurkeyJustice and Development Partynational identity
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 50 , Issue 6 , November 2022 , pp. 1232 - 1244
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Nationalities

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