NCJ Number
225128
Date Published
2007
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper examines how and why the antigovernment movements in Turkey, such as the radical Islamists and the Kurdish separatists, which arose in approximately the same time period and geographic region, also simultaneously began to moderate their demands, backing off from their utopian ethnic or religious ideals while showing interest in a pluralist solution within pre-existing political and geographic boundaries.
Abstract
The ethnic and religious dissent movements of the periphery began to soften following the advent of increasing opportunities for the marginalized populations of Turkey through political and economic decentralization that resulted from a combination of domestic and international developments. The changes in the state-society relationship and redistribution of power began under the influence of political and economic liberalization in the 1980s and accelerated after the 1989 municipal elections in which the Islamists won control over local governments. This signaled the rise of Islamic/peripheral counter-elite in this period. As the Islamists gained significant power in local spheres, they had to broaden their larger and increasingly urban constituencies in order to win re-election. Over time, they found radicalism less attractive in the political arena, since it limited the size of their supportive constituencies. Thus, the expansion of Islamism led to a muting of previous Islamist demands for a radical fundamentalist Islamic state in order to win more support from an urban secular populace. The most dramatic change in the state-society relationships in Turkey and in Islamist and Kurdish movements, however, occurred as a result of Turkey’s relations with the European Union (EU). The Islamic and Kurdish parties viewed EU membership as a shift away from the centralized state toward the EU parliament, which they view as more accessible, effective, and accountable. 43 references