How do Turkish political parties interpret anti-Semitic conspiracy rhetoric?

What is it about?

This paper analyses the political influence of conspiracy theories by drawing on semi-structured interviews with the representatives of four major political parties from the Turkish parliament. The findings indicate that right-wing political parties problematize the secret character of the Dönme community and use the conspiracy theories to express their own ontological insecurities. Left-wing and liberal parties conversely dissociate themselves from the conspiratorial rhetoric. The research concludes that the political parties reject or accept the conspiracy theories rationally and in alignment with their own ontological insecurities; by doing so, they pragmatically confirm their individual ideological perspective.

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Why is it important?

This is the first study that empirically investigates how mainstream political parties deal with conspiratorial rhetoric.

Perspectives