Turkish Politics and Society

Course syllabus for Turkish Politics and Society

Contact: tugce.oklay@lacatholille.fr

Introduction

This course aims to enable the students to understand and analyse the main themes and issues in modern Turkey. The focus will be on diversities and vicissitudes of political life, institutions and processes from the end of Ottoman era to the 2000s. The course content will be explored through readings and class discussions about the democratisation process, presence of the military in Turkish politics and society, challenges for the civil society, how human rights issues are held by the state and in people's mind, being a woman or a LGBTI+ person in today's Turkey, how the religion is perceived and experienced in society and the relations with the EU.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, participants will be able to

— develop essential research and writing skills by reading and analysing assigned texts.

— discuss Turkish politics and history from a comparative perspective.

— recognize economic and social cleavages within Turkey.

— assess Turkish politics from a historical perspective.

— develop the ability to write critically about Turkish society and economy.

— evaluate the Turkish state and the ruling elite from a sociohistorical perspective.

Grading requirements

20% Participation

Participants will be expected to attend all seminars and complete all readings on time. The teacher will be preparing a set of questions based on the readings and present them to the group. A question can be up to 4-5 lines and aim at provoking discussion.

40% Weekly quiz

Every week before the discussion in the class, you will be asked three simple questions on the reading of the week which will take only 10 to 15 minutes to reply.

40% Final exam

The final exam will be remote and details will be explained in the class.

Here is a table showing the Turkish alphabet and how it is pronounced in English : http://mylanguages.org/turkish_alphabet.php

Week 1. 20/01/2023 Political Context During the 19th Century to the Proclamation of the Republic of Turkey

Reading: Ahmad, Feroz. "The Young Turk Revolution." Journal of Contemporary History, vol.3, no. 3, 1968, pp. 19-36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/259696.

Week 2. 27/01/2023Â Economics and Society from the 1930s to the 1980s

Reading: Oktem, Kerem. "The Nation's Imprint: Demographic Engineering and the Change of Toponymes in Republican Turkey."European Journal of Turkish Studies [Online], 7 | 2008, accessed on 15 September 2019. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ejts/2243.

Week 3. 03/02/2023 Kemalist Reforms

Reading: White, Jenny B. "State Feminism, Modernization, and the Turkish Republican Woman." NWSA Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, Gender and Modernism between the Wars, 1918-1939 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 145-159. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4317014.

Week 4. 10/02/2023 Politics and Army

Reading: Karpat, Kemal H. "Military Interventions: Army-Civilian Relations in Turkey Before and After 1980."In M. Heper and A. Evin (eds.) State, Democracy and the Military in Turkey in the 1980s, (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1988), pp. 137-58.

Week 5. 24/02/2023 Nationality, Citizenship, Migration and Minorities

Readings:

- Yegen, Mesut. "The Kurdish Question in Turkish State Discourse."Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 34, no. 4, 1999, pp. 555-568. URL: www.jstor.org/stable/261251.

- Akgunduz, Ahmet. "Migration to and from Turkey, 1783-1960: Types, numbers and ethno‐religious dimensions."Journal of Eth