Changing Turkey in a Changing World

Ozan Örmeci is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Bilkent University (Turkey) and his thesis title is “Portrait of a Turkish Social Democrat: İsmail Cem“. He is currently associate member of Usak University and he has published on the history of leftism in Turkey and Turkish political history from Ittihat Terakki to Justice and Development Party.

Changing Turkey: Congratulations for your new book! Could you tell us a bit about your recent publications?

Ozan Örmeci: I have recently published a book called “Solda Teoriler ve Tarihsel Tartışmalar (Theories and Historical Discussions in the Left)” which basically explains different Marxist and social democratic models and tries to discuss some controversial ideas in Turkish left as well as neo-liberal deviances that have become popular in the recent years. I also wrote an article about globalization and its effects on the nation-state on the bulletin of Political Psychology Association.

Changing Turkey: What are the potential limitations of the existing analyses on Turkish politics and society, in your opinion? Could you suggest any gaps in the literature or any potential pitfalls?

Ozan Örmeci: As far as I am concerned, Turkish studies have always been conducted in an ideological manner and scientific objective realities have been ignored or at least distorted for political purposes both in the West and in Turkey. In that sense, during the Cold War conditions pro-military modernist theses were on fashion whereas nowadays articles and books rejecting post-modernist, liberal and moderate Islamic approach could not be published or heard in the Western public. There are serious gaps and pitfalls in studies about Turkish Politics including the lack of democratic culture in religious brotherhoods and tribal communities (especially in the south-eastern part of the country) and their negative effect on the procedural electoral democracy by destroying individual freedoms. Another important gap to be considered is international capital’s efforts to shape and change Turkey’s secular and unitary structure and Western liberal intelligentsia’s role in that mission.

Changing Turkey: What is the best manuscript you’ve read on Turkish politics and society so far? Could you suggest our readers any Turkey-focused research you’ve found valuable?

Ozan Örmeci: Although Bernard Lewis has been despised by Islamist circles in the recent decades, his writings are extremely important in understanding Ottoman-Turkish polity. Prof. Metin Heper’s “State Tradition in Turkey” poses a well-balanced look to Turkish exceptionalism considering its statist tradition of transcendentalism. İsmail Cem’s writings about Turkish left and social democracy and his explanation of democracy as a lifestyle and culture rather than solely as electoral procedures are very important in understanding Turkey’s current change of axis though the country seems to have been democratized in recent years. Professor Halil İnalcık and Professor Stanford Shaw’s books are extremely powerful in explaining the Ottoman state structure. Faroz Ahmad, Şerif Mardin, Sina Akşin and Kemal Karpat are other important historians which have been inspiring in my studies.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author/s who retain the copyright.