Rachel Kahan
8 April 2009
Comparative Politics of the Middle East
Research Paper Proposal
Topic: Why do the Turkish military and judicial establishments allow the AKP
government to stand when they have thrown out all the other Islamic-tinged
governments since the 1990s?
Outline
I.
Historical Background
a. Brief history of secularism and its definition in Turkey
b. Overview of the post-1950 history of Islamic political parties in Turkey
– their platforms, actions, and closure/current status
i. The National Order Party and the National Salvation Party
ii. The Welfare Party, the Virtue Party, and the Felicity Party
iii. The AK Party
II.
Direct military intervention against Islamic-oriented governments since
1990
a. 1997 intervention against the national Welfare Party government
b. Ergenekon – the alleged 2009 coup plot
III.
Judicial intervention against Islamic-oriented political parties and politicians
since 1990
a. 1998 national ban on the Welfare Party
b. 1998 conviction of Erdogan for Islamist sympathies while mayor of
Istanbul
c. 2001 ban on the Virtue Party
d. 2008 case against the AK Party government
IV.
Analysis and Conclusion
Preliminary Bibliography
 Akinci, Ugur. “The Welfare Party's Municipal Track Record: Evaluating Islamist
Municipal Activism in Turkey.” Middle East Journal, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Winter,
1999), pp. 75-94.
 Ayata, Sencer. “Patronage, Party, and State: The Politicization of Islam in
Turkey.” Middle East Journal, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Winter, 1996), pp. 40-56.
 Cooper, Malcolm. “The Legacy of Ataturk: Turkish Political Structures and PolicyMaking.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-),
Vol. 78, No. 1 (Jan., 2002), pp. 115-128.
 Eligür, Banu. “The Changing Face of Turkish Politics: Turkey’s July 2007
Parliamentary Elections.” Crown Center For Middle East Studies – Middle East
Brief, Vol. 22, Nov. 2007.
 Göle, Nilüfer. “Secularism and Islamism in Turkey: The Making of Elites and
Counter-Elites.” Middle East Journal, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Winter, 1997), pp. 46-58.
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Göle, Nilüfer. “La laïcité, l’espace public et le défi islamiste en Turquie",
Confluences Méditerranée, Paris, 2000.
Göle, Nilüfer. "La laïcité républicaine et l'islam public", Pouvoirs, n°115, 2005,
p.73-86.
Heper, Metin. “Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Toward a Reconciliation?” Middle
East Journal, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Winter, 1997), pp. 32-45.
Insel, Ahmet. “The AKP and Normalizing Democracy in Turkey.” The South
Atlantic Quarterly 102.2/3 (2003) 293-308.
Kamrava, Mehran. “Pseudo-Democratic Politics and Populist Possibilities: The Rise
and Demise of Turkey's Refah Party.” British Journal of Middle Eastern
Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Nov., 1998), pp. 275-301.
Kaplan, Sam. “Din-u Devlet All over Again? The Politics of Military Secularism and
Religious Militarism in Turkey following the 1980 Coup.” International Journal
of Middle East Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 2002), pp. 113-127.
Karabelias, Gerassimos. “The Evolution of Civil-Military Relations in Post-War
Turkey, 1980-95.” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4, Seventy-Five Years
of the Turkish Republic (Oct., 1999), pp. 130-151.
Rouleau, Eric. Turkey's Dream of Democracy
Kogacioglu, Dicle. “Progress, Unity, and Democracy: Dissolving Political Parties in
Turkey.” Law & Society Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Sep., 2004), pp. 433-462.
Öniş, Zi̇ya. “The Political Economy of Islamic Resurgence in Turkey: The Rise of
the Welfare Party in Perspective.” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Sep.,
1997), pp. 743-766.
Sakallioglu, Umit Cizre. “Parameters and Strategies of Islam-State Interaction in
Republican Turkey.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 28, No.
2 (May, 1996), pp. 231-251.
Sakallioğlu, Umit Cizre. “The Anatomy of the Turkish Military's Political
Autonomy.” Comparative Politics, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Jan., 1997), pp. 151-166.
Shambayati, Hootan. “A Tale of Two Mayors: Courts and Politics in Iran and
Turkey.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2 (May,
2004), pp. 253-275.
Silverstein, Brian. “Islam and Modernity in Turkey: Power, Tradition and
Historicity in the European Provinces of the Muslim World.” Anthropological
Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Summer, 2003), pp. 497-517.
White, Jenny. Islamist Mobilization in Turkey. Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 2002.
Yavuz, M. Hakan. Islamic political identity in Turkey. Oxford ; New York : Oxford
University Press, 2003.
Yavuz, M. Hakan. “Political Islam and the Welfare (Refah) Party in Turkey.”
Comparative Politics, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Oct., 1997), pp. 63-82.
Yavuz, M. Hakan. “The Case of Turkey.” Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 3, On
Secularism & Religion (Summer, 2003), pp. 59-61.
Yilmaz, Ihsan. “Secular Law and the Emergence of Unofficial Turkish Islamic
Law.” Middle East Journal, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Winter, 2002), pp. 113-131.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mtholyoke/docDetail.action?docID=10178011
http://www.cfr.org/publication/15952/newsweek.html
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11848317
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11849246
http://www.setav.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=814&Itemid=5
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2008 Council of Europe Briefing on Turkey – expresses displeasure at idea that AKP
might be banned by judiciary
Reuters article from April 09 on AKP’s credibility in Ergenekon probe