Papers by Ersin Kalaycioglu
Introduction: Change and Stability
It is not hard to notice the name of Turkey being mentioned frequently in the international media... more It is not hard to notice the name of Turkey being mentioned frequently in the international media and in most major daily newspapers in many parts of the world. Turkey was mentioned in the press and media in the recent years when she applied for full membership in the European Union in 1987, or when the Turkish troops took part in the Stability Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina that came to serve as a peace mission since 1996. Indeed, Turkish troops have been similarly serving in Macedonia to sustain the peace efforts there. Turkey participated in the military campaign of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against the Yugoslav army in Kosovo in 1999. Turkey was one of the first countries to condemn the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York City, Washington, DC. and Pennsylvania, and declare allegiance with the United States in the “war against terror.” Turkey took over from Britain the command of the 5,350-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan on June 20, 2002 for a period of six months, and again in January 2005. Soccer fans would also recall that the Turkish national team came only third to Brazil and Germany in the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea in 2002. Indeed, whenever the Iraqi crisis recurred from 1990 until 2003 Turkey’s name reappeared in the press and the media around the globe.
Conclusion: Making a Bridge Functional
The odyssey of the Turkish Republic started under extremely hard conditions of the 1920s. The Tur... more The odyssey of the Turkish Republic started under extremely hard conditions of the 1920s. The Turkish state was built through a war of liberation, fought on the remains of a society and country, the human and material resources of which had been decimated by a series of wars fought between 1912 and 1918. Anatolia had mostly been spared from being a battle zone in that period, except in the east, where large refugee movements had been undermining its frail economy and shallow resources before the War of Liberation. However, the War of Liberation turned almost all of Anatolia into a battle zone. The ethnic nationalist armies viciously attacked each other killing, destroying, plundering, and decimating the landscape to the best of their ability. Not only lives were lost, but also whole city blocks, towns, even cities, such as Van in the east, or Salihli in the west were wiped off the earth. When the Greek army pulled out of the western parts of Anatolia in 1922 the fertile plains of the Aegean region lay in waste. The soldiers of the Turkish cavalry that rode through the wasteland of west Anatolia to Izmir (Smyrna) almost suffocated with the terrible smell of burnt flesh of the Muslim inhabitants of the villages and towns from Afyon to the coast. The “scorched earth” policies of the defeated nationalist armies of Greece in the west and Armenia in the east almost depleted all agricultural resources of vast regions of Anatolia at the end of the War of Liberation.
The Third Republic (1980–)
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2005
The coup of September 12, 1980 was the last of the three coups that deeply influenced the substan... more The coup of September 12, 1980 was the last of the three coups that deeply influenced the substance and style of politics and governance in contemporary Turkey. Both the 1971 ultimatum and the 1980 institutional military coups were carried out by the military as “corrective measures” to remedy the ills of the coup of the young officers in 1960. The trial and sentencing to death of the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Rustu Erdelhun in 1961, and the purges of 4,500 officers in 1960–1961 left an indelible ominous mark in the minds of all officers who came to serve as the commanders of the Turkish military forces afterward1 providing a model of action for the military command to follow after the coup.
Turkish Popular Presidential Elections: Deepening Legitimacy Issues and Looming Regime Change
South European Society and Politics, Apr 3, 2015
This paper examines the politics of presidential elections in Turkey with particular reference to... more This paper examines the politics of presidential elections in Turkey with particular reference to the 10 August 2014 presidential elections. It starts by scrutinising the change in the presidential election system from parliamentary to direct popular vote. It then probes the implementation of the new election rules, candidate selection, and the conduct of the campaign, followed by analysis of the election results and their influence on the Turkish record of democratisation. The paper concludes that the move to a partisan president elected by popular vote entails democratic dangers if the new incumbent does not abide by his or her constitutional role and attempts to intervene in government policy.
Religiosity and protest behaviour: the case of Turkey in comparative perspective
Routledge eBooks, Sep 13, 2013
DergiPark (Istanbul University), Aug 17, 2015
Two elections and a political regime in crisis: Turkish politics at the crossroads
Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Sep 22, 2017
Abstract Turkey had its fourth National Assembly elections on 7 June 2015 in the twenty-first cen... more Abstract Turkey had its fourth National Assembly elections on 7 June 2015 in the twenty-first century and this time they resulted in a hung parliament. The efforts at establishing a coalition government failed and the country moved to a snap, ‘repeat’ election on 1 November 2015. This paper focuses on how the voters registered their party preferences almost 5 months apart in the same legislative general elections and why. Using the same sample and interviewing those who lived at the same addresses as those in the ISSP Citizenship survey conducted February to April 2015 and again in October 2015, a panel data-set was constructed. A theoretical framework for voting behaviour that uses party identification, political ideology, ethnic, religious, social class identities and perceptions of the performance of the economy of the respondents to understand what factors help to influence the party preferences of the same respondents 5 months apart. A multivariate (binary logistic regression) analysis of the pre-June and October 2015 data sets revealed that economic voting had been the predominant factor in the June elections, but security concerns also interacted with popular economic evaluations in the November 2015 elections to reinstall the AKP to power.
Public opinion and foreign affairs in the national elections of June 24, 2018 in Turkey
Routledge eBooks, Oct 26, 2021
Governance, Change, and Risk
The historical, geographic, and cultural characteristics of Turkey have shaped political, economi... more The historical, geographic, and cultural characteristics of Turkey have shaped political, economic, and social developments. Historical and cultural ties haunt and challenge Turkey. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the decomposition of a medieval, patrimonial empire reaching its climax with the legal collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, still reverberates. There is hardly a contemporary conflict, whether in the Balkans, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea basins, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East, that does not somehow involve, influence, and even threaten Turkey. Hence, governing Turkey first and foremost involves simultaneously managing multiple international, regional, and domestic challenges, which often interact and influence each other.
From Collapse to Liberation
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2005
The end of the nineteenth century was replete with dramatic developments in the domestic politica... more The end of the nineteenth century was replete with dramatic developments in the domestic political life of the Ottoman Empire. The modernizing reforms had run their course and culminated in the first constitution and the establishment of the first legislative institution, the Imperial Assembly (Meclis) of the Ottoman Empire by 1877. The term “Ottoman” in the text of the Constitution,1 yet it failed to make any difference on how the “Ottoman subjects” perceived their identity. Ottoman “citizenship” never seemed to be sufficient in providing an idea around which the myriads of religious communities (millets), ethnic groups, tribes and clans united, nor were democratization on firm ground. The Ottoman bicameral Meclis met in 1877 with the election of deputies from all over the Empire from Arabia to Serbia. However, the eruption of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, and the Constitution’s entrusting the Sultan Abdulhamit II with excessive powers, shortly after led to the suspension of the activities of the Meclis, when the deputies started to level criticisms of the Sultan’s handling of the Russo-Turkish war, until 1908.2
A new national legislative election system?
Routledge eBooks, Oct 26, 2021
Halk yönetimi: popülizm ve demokrasi
The Shaping of Party Preferences in Turkey: Coping with the Post-Cold War Era
New Perspectives on Turkey, 1999
An overview of general elections and the party system from the beginning of multi-party politics ... more An overview of general elections and the party system from the beginning of multi-party politics in Turkey would indicate a proclivity towards an increasing number of major parties coupled with fragmentation of the party system. The predominant party system of the 1950s favored stability over representativeness (see Table 1). The 1961 Constitution established new electoral rules and a liberal political regime, which provided for more opportunity for representativeness. The 1965 and 1969 elections produced party governments, with a proportional representation formula that wasted almost no votes; even those parties with the smallest number of followers won some seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) (see Table 1). For a while in the 1960s Turkey therefore appeared to have discovered the optimal ground of converging stable governments with consummate representativeness. The party governments of the 1960s, however, gave way to the unstable coalition governments of the 1970s, which coincided with a wave of terror and political instability. Coalition governments came to be equated with political instability and terror in the minds of not only the masses, but also the most powerful political forces in the country.
Founding the Republic and the Cultural Revolution (1923–1946)
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2005
The Republic of Turkey (Turkiye Cumhuriyeti) was established on October 29, 1923. The Treaty of L... more The Republic of Turkey (Turkiye Cumhuriyeti) was established on October 29, 1923. The Treaty of Lausanne (signed on July 24, 1923), designated the new government in Ankara as the legal and legitimate heir of the Ottoman Empire, for the latter had been abolished in 1922 and thus was not a party to the Treaty.1 The new Turkish government would rather sever its ties with the decrepit and by then abolished Empire. Indeed, most enterprises and policies designed by the Turkish government after 1923 were to serve that purpose.
Party identification and vote choice in Turkey
Routledge eBooks, Oct 26, 2021
Chapter 5 The 1983 Parliament in Turkey: Changes and Continuites
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 1988
The Turkish Grand National Assembly: A Brief Inquiry into the Politics of Representation in Turkey
BRILL eBooks, 1995
Donated by Klaus KreiserReprinted from in : Turkey: Political, Social and Economic Challenges in ... more Donated by Klaus KreiserReprinted from in : Turkey: Political, Social and Economic Challenges in the 1990s. (Leiden, New York, Koln: E.J. Brill, 1995)
The conundrum of coalition politics in Turkey
Turkish Studies, Jan 2, 2016
ABSTRACT Turkey has had a long track record of coalition governments, yet when the June 7, 2015 g... more ABSTRACT Turkey has had a long track record of coalition governments, yet when the June 7, 2015 general elections produced a hung parliament attempts at establishing a new coalition government failed. Why was this so? This paper argues that the non-compromising attitude of the AKP and the MHP, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the recalcitrance of the President, who perceived any government he had no firm control over as a threat to his political career, undermined any effort at establishing a coalition government. The terror campaign of the PKK and efforts by the AKP and the MHP to demonize the HDP as the party of terror also undermined the chances of the CHP to form a coalition that included the HDP. Hence, Turkey's chances of establishing a democratic government through compromise failed and the country went back to polarizing politics of competitive authoritarianism under the hegemony of the one-party government of the AKP.
6 Commercial Groups: Love-Hate Relationship with the State
De Gruyter eBooks, May 21, 2014
New Perspectives on Turkey, 2009
In a democracy it is through the process of voting that people find an opportunity to register th... more In a democracy it is through the process of voting that people find an opportunity to register their likes and dislikes of domestic and foreign policy decisions most effectively. In Turkey, the recent national elections on 22 July 2007 provided an opportunity to observe the nexus between voters' choices and foreign policy issues. Questions pertaining to problems facing the country and the campaign issues fail to give any clue as to whether people paid attention to foreign policy in making their choices among the political parties of the country. However, a closer examination of the factors determining the vote indicates that, although party identification and satisfaction with the performance of the economy and the expectations of the government in managing the economy played major roles, attitudes towards the European Union (EU), nationalism, and globalization closely followed in magnitude those two factors in determining the voters' party preferences across the left-right spectrum. While AKP supporters had the most favorable attitude towards the EU, MHP supporters appeared highly nationalistic, and CHP voters seemed most influenced by positive orientations to openness to the world.