What is it about?
This chapter examines state-military-society relations under Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice and Development Party) government in Turkey. It examines the authoritarian transformation of the state apparatus under the AKP in relation to class and capital relations under dynamics of late development. It focuses on the relationship between the AKP and the Gulen congregation, and the so-called e-memorandum in 2007 and the subsequent Ergenekon and Sledgehammer trials beginning in 2008 and 2010.
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Photo by Mehmet Can Özgümüş on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This chapter is important to challenge the dominant liberal-conservative narrative that the AKP government was the representative of 'democratic civilian conservative' government positioned against the 'tutelary secular' military. It is also important to demonstrate how the state apparatus is transformed into an authoritarian state in accordance with class relations. This challenges the dominant narrative that the state can undertake above-class interests.
Perspectives
This publication offers a critical, consistent, and coherent understanding of state-military-society relations in Turkey by adopting a critical political economy perspective. In this regard, it contributes to the literature on civil-military relations in Turkey as well as military interventions in the Global South where countries are characterised by late development.
Gonenc Uysal
Lancaster University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi and the “New Era in Civil–Military Relations”, February 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004692190_007.
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