This article explores contemporary synergies between statistics and social movements in Turkey. While scholars have focused their attention on what activists do with numbers, this article intends to study what numbers do to activists. Based on ethnographic research on organized atheism in Turkey conducted between 2018 and 2024, this article unravels the latent impact of this movement's interest in statistics on its adherents. Organized atheists traditionally use statistics to assert themselves in a country that denies their existence. Reflecting on old and new figures, they develop in the meantime contrasted appreciations of the value of their commitment.
Since the introduction of out-of-country voting in 2014, often portrayed as a mechanism of democratic inclusion, the number of Turkish citizens abroad has acquired new political significance, leading parties to invest more actively in the diasporic political field. By analyzing the opposition party repertoires, this article demonstrates how, by contrast to its democratic promise, diaspora voting has become a contested transnational political arena. The analysis reveals that Turkey's case illustrates a broader paradox of out-of-country voting dynamics: while bureaucratic control and electoral manipulation serve to reinforce autocratic governance, it also opens transnational arenas in which opposition actors enact everyday forms of democratic resilience and counter-mobilization.
This study examines whistleblowing awareness among Turkish public sector employees in healthcare, finance, and higher education. Based on semi-structured interviews with 18 participants and document analysis, the study shows that employees generally regard whistleblowing as an ethical and civic responsibility, yet hesitate to report misconduct due to institutional distrust, fear of retaliation, weak legal protections, and the cultural stigma of 'snitching.' The findings reveal a staged reporting logic: internal channels are preferred first, while external disclosure is considered when institutional remedies appear ineffective. The article argues for comprehensive whistleblower protection, credible reporting mechanisms, and cultural reframing in T & uuml;rkiye.
The Ottoman (Tanzimat) reforms reshaped sovereignty by eroding the divide between askeri (ruler) and reaya (ruled) and enabling participation in governance. The issue was incorporating non-Muslims into the institutions of a Sunni Islamic empire. Debates centered on which administrative, military, and political bodies they could enter and whether inclusion should be based on merit, quotas, or population ratios. This article analyzes the population nisbet kaidesi (ratio rule), promoted by the Great Powers, imposed after 1878, and extended empire-wide after 1895. Designed to limit social and religious conflict, the rule differed from other arrangements by restricting non-Muslims to lower-level positions and proportions.
This article examines Turkey's veto behavior in NATO through the lens of issue linkage. While Ankara has frequently raised the prospect of exercising its veto in key decisions, it has ultimately refrained from exercising it. The study argues that Turkey uses veto threats as a bargaining strategy, linking its consent to concessions in areas such as EU accession, defense cooperation, and counterterrorism. However, this strategy's effectiveness is limited by the dominance of U.S. strategic priorities within NATO and Turkey's enduring aspiration to remain part of the Western community. Based on case studies, the article finds that veto threats have produced mostly symbolic or partial gains rather than substantive outcomes.
This article examines how President Recep Tayyip Erdo & gbreve;an reconfigures the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atat & uuml;rk through commemorative discourse. Using Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), it demonstrates a dual strategy: delegitimizing the early Republican era as exclusionary and culturally alien while selectively reclaiming Atat & uuml;rk as a symbol of national sovereignty, continuity, and popular will. Rather than rejecting the founding figure, Erdo & gbreve;an incorporates him into the AK Party's ideological vision. Drawing on theoretical insights from collective memory and memory politics, the study traces how the founding legacy is selectively reinterpreted in contemporary struggles over political legitimation, offering a perspective on symbolic politics of contemporary T & uuml;rkiye.
This study examines the transformation of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from assertive to inclusive secularism through J & uuml;rgen Habermas's postsecular framework, using a two-layered model of postsecular pressures and adaptations. It explores how shifting structural and socio-political dynamics destabilized the party's traditional secular paradigm and assesses the extent of its normative recalibration. The analysis demonstrates that the resurgence of religion and the erosion of secular institutions generated sustained pressure for ideological reform. The CHP's response, therefore, was not merely strategic but a normative rearticulation of secularism through postsecular adaptations aimed at ensuring pluralism, tolerance, and social cohesion.
This article introduces the Turkish Foreign Policy Dataset (TFPD), a novel resource created using text-mining techniques aimed at contributing to a new emerging literature on the use of text as data in foreign policy and facilitating empirical research. The dataset includes over 5000 official documents providing a comprehensive foundation for studying policy developments and trends. After detailing the dataset's collection and preprocessing methods, we provide a description of its main components and conduct an exploratory analysis using text-as-data techniques. We conclude by discussing the dataset's potential applications for research in Turkey's foreign policy.
This article examines the political ascent of Ekrem & Idot;mamo & gbreve;lu, the mayor of Istanbul, whose electoral victories posed an unprecedented challenge to Recep Tayyip Erdo & gbreve;an's long-standing dominance. Drawing on Gramsci and the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, it conceptualizes hegemony as a contested project and analyzes & Idot;mamo & gbreve;lu's public discourse, symbolic practices, and campaign strategies as attempts to construct a counter-hegemonic bloc. The article argues that & Idot;mamo & gbreve;lu's success rests on selectively emulating Erdo & gbreve;an's populist playbook, while re-signifying key nodal points, such as 'the people' and 'justice,' thereby opening the way for a more pluralist yet still conservative-democratic political alternative.
