Violence as a “dividing” and as a “unifying” factor
HAMİT BOZARSLAN
Through a series of research hypotheses, this article proposes that for many decades the society in Turkey has been, at once, a producer and container of highscale violence. Political, ethnic and linguistic violence does not only lead to divisions in the society; but it also offers to different strata of the society the possibility to imagine themselves in different camps with their specific sacralized symbols (historical narratives, cult of martyrs, flags...) and give birth to new, although fragmented, power structures. Throughout this process, some actors become “referential actors” for some segments of the society. The acquisition of such a status, however, requires, the capacity of using violence and legitimizing it by means of a discourse
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The role of clientelism in Turkish politics
This paper aims to explore the role of clientelism in Turkish politics. More specifically, it aims to explore how clientelism has served in the socialization of Turkish people by drawing from a diverse array of examples from Turkish political history. The paper starts out by arguing that the clientelist networks in Turkey have been shaped by traditional motives and thus initially helped the single party regime of the newly established Turkish Republic to connect with the masses through the brokerage of peripheral notables. The second emphasis of the essay is on the distribution of materials and services after the transition to the multiparty regime in 1946. It is during this period that clientelism eased the tension between social groups and helped the periphery to become a part of the political arena; thus contributing to the political stability in Turkey. The study then examines the effect of
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Insult as a form of political opposition: States of womanhood and feminine men in early Republican period humour
This study examines how cartoons were used as a propaganda tool between 1923 and 1960. In the modernisation of Turkey and the construction of the nation, gender roles were determined by the founding fathers. This distribution of roles was justified in the dominant discourse which was shaped by patriarchal culture. Ideal women and men of the Republic were one of the reference points of political satire. Because the values that determined the political domain were defined through manhood, opponents of the regime were identified with femininity and states of womanhood, and the founding fathers were identified with images of potent men. Therefore, to “accuse” the regime’s opponents of womanhood and femininity is a tradition of political satire in our humour culture. In the cartoons drawn between 1950 and 1960, Prime Minister Menderes was either portrayed as a woman or a strong man. Menderes’ body and characteristics were turned into the battlefield of the struggle for political power. While his opponents tried to show him as a woman or a man bearing feminine qualities, disgrace him in the eyes of the public and push him out of the political scene, his supporters were assiduous in portraying him as a strong and influential man. These differing interpretations led to displays of manhood, and it was not questioned why being a woman should be regarded as a “category of degradation” or “shame” in the patriarchal structure of the time.
Rancière’s attempt to rethink the political: Class struggle as the struggle of declassifying
The main purpose of this article, which focuses on Jacques Ranciére’s long-term attempt to rethink the political, is to examine the distinctive features of his conceptions of democracy, politics and equality that originated from this attempt, in their connection with his understanding of proletariat and class struggle. The departure point of the article is that although he shares some common grounds with the thinkers on the post-1968 left who seek an alternative to Marxism, he remains as a quite exceptional and an original thinker. By interpreting “class struggle from a political point of view” instead of interpreting it as “politics from the perspective of class struggle” he places “class struggle as the power of declassification” in the centre of his understanding of politics. Opposing those claiming to speak on behalf of the proletariat, and adopting the idea that the analysis of domination and exclusion has to be carried out in the exploited’s own words and actions, he undertook an extensive research into the archives of the proletarian emancipative “dreams.” We will try to show that he in fact always takes bearing of workers’ emancipation struggles and dreams with his position in relation to the meaning of class, class struggle and its forms of relations with the Marxist tradition as well as with his understanding of democracy and political subjectivisation that is developed from this position.
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Spatial expressions of neo-liberal urbanization: Gated communities in İstanbul
In the last two decades, a remarkable growth of gated communities has been observed in almost all metropolises around the world. Empirical studies have largely attributed the global proliferation of gated communities to changes in the middle and upper classes’ subjective experiences of contemporary urban life, among them increasing fear of crime and need for safety have been said to occupy the central place. While these studies have rightly emphasized the need to account for local meanings and functions of gated communities to explain their emergence, they have missed the global-local connections and the role of political economic actors in facilitating the spreading of this global urban form. This paper argues that the production and dissemination of gated communities are not solely local enterprises; they take place in a global context and are linked to transnational ideologies, discourses and networks. It situates the development of gated communities in İstanbul in the larger political economic context of neo-liberal globalization and analyzes the role of the state, developers, and transnational actors in transplant ing and translating this global urban form into the local context. It also presents a case study of Kemer Country, one of the leading gated communities in the city, to demonstrate in detail how this localization process has been done on the ground.
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A crucial moment in Turkish political life and labour history: The initiative for the Labourers Party of Turkey
The aim of this article is to answer fundamental questions about the initiative to form the Labourers Party of Turkey (TÇP), the foundation for which was prepared by Türk-İş labour confederation in 1962 but backtracked at the last minute. Though never having passed the level of an initiative, TÇP is important for both Turkish political life and labour history. Because it coincides with an interesting historical moment when Türk-İş, known as a representative of U.S.-style trade unionism in Turkey, seemed to be moving out of this orbit for the first time. This fact makes it necessary to question from various aspects how Türk-İş, which has adopted an “above parties” unionism as principle both before the TÇP initiative and afterwards, has decided to form a political party in 1962. Main questions that the article attempts to answer are which internal, external and objective reasons led Türk-İş to found a political party; the party’s model and discourse; what kind of reactions it received; why the foundation was abandoned; what kind of impacts it had in the labour movement and political life.
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The conception of Turkishness in formal nationalism in Turkey: An examination of the government agencies which operate on the basis and focus of
The discussions about the perception of the concept of “Turk,” and its contents and scope have an important place both in the Ottoman-Turkish political life and in the academic environment. Within the context of these discussions, I examine the perception of Turkishness at the official level. In order to analyze this perception, I examine certain government agencies which focus on activities directed at “Turks abroad” and the establishment of these which were started after the cold war period. Before doing this, I investigate the conceptions of Turkishness and “Turks abroad” in mainstream nationalist thought and in formal nationalism in the Ottoman times and the Republican era. which constitute the roots of the official conception of Turkishness. I then examine the political environment of the period after the Cold War which made it possible for Turkey to develop direct social and cultural relationships with “Turks abroad.” Consequently, I illustrate and explain the official conception of Turkishness which contradicts the constitutional description of the “Turk” that is constructed as a supra-identity for societies that have different political units. In addition, I indicate there is a continuity from mainstream nationalist thoughts and formal nationalism from the Ottoman times to the Republican era which provided the grounds for the opinions directed at “Turks abroad” with enthusiasm after the Cold War period. After-the-cold-war period also provided the political grounds for this perception to bee seen clearly on the official level and to reflect on the institutional area.
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Dellaloğlu’s reading of Walter Benjamin
This article discusses the perspective of Besim Dellaloğlu, a writer who contributed to many works on Walter Benjamin published in Turkey in various ways. There are two aims of this endeavor: the first is to reveal the disputed issues in Dellaloğlu’s works/introductory writings, while the second is to re-discover the positive facets of the critique as omnis determinato est negatio i.e. negation of a certain thing. Thereby, the main aim is to denounce the eclectic and pragmatic features of the growing literature of the “Benjamin Industry.” Dellaloğlu utilizes expressions like “inşallah,” “even if” and “perhaps” too many times to emphasize themes like disinterestedness, in-betweenness, clumsiness, independence, remoteness, inaptitude, density and confusion; this paper questions these expressions via reconsidering concepts like friendship, love and wisdom. Also, it aims to decipher the problematic endeavor which puts Benjamin in an auratic-complicated framework. Benjamin’s own works are considered to be the main references of this study. In doing so, the article underlines the benefits of approaching Benjamin both in general and concrete terms. Also, it discusses the advantages and mostly disadvantages of being faithful to the interpretations of interpreters. At the end, there will be a supplementary section on Adorno’s approach which is very critical in understanding Benjamin’s thought.
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Notes on China Miéville’s Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law
This article discusses and examines the potentials offered by China Miéville’s book for the theory of international law in general and for the Marxist approaches to law in particular. Miéville’s book critically examines existing theories of international law and provides the reader a starting point to develop an alternative Marxist approach on the basis of commodity form theory. While Miéville satisfactorily illuminates the reader on various deficiencies of bourgeois international law theory, his attempt falls into the same traps Pashukanis did before. Following China Miéville’s attempt to employ political economy to make better sense of the functions of international law in the world capitalist system, this article also aims to explore the possible contributions of the Marxist literature on international law to the book.
