Turkish society is frequently accused of having amnesia. It has been said that there is no social memory in Turkey before Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded modern Turkey after World War I. Indeed, in 1923, the newly founded Turkish Republic committed to a modernist future by erasing the memory of its Ottoman past. Now, almost eighty years after the establishment of the republic, the grandchildren of the founders have a different relationship with history. New generations make every effort to remember, record, and reconcile earlier periods. The multiple, personalized representations of the past that they have recovered allow contemporary Turkish citizens to create alternative identities for themselves and their communities. Unlike its futuristic and homogenizing character at the turn of the twentieth century, Turkish nationalism today uses memory to generate varied narratives for the nation and its minority groups. Contributors to this volume come from such diverse disciplines as anthropology, comparative literature, and sociology, but they share a common understanding of contemporary Turkey and how its different representations of the past have become metaphors through which individuals and groups define their cultural identity and political position. They explore the ways people challenge, reaffirm, or transform the concepts of history, nation, homeland, and “Republic” through acts of memory, effectively demonstrating that memory can be both the basis of cultural reproduction and a form of resistance.

Textbook providing a thorough assessment of the political, social and economic processes which led to the formation of a new Turkey; socio-economic change is emphasised throughout.

The Politics of Modern Turkey is a new four-volume Major Work from Routledge. The first volume of the collection ('Historical Heritage of Politics in Modern Turkey') brings together key research to provide a historical contextualization of modern Turkish political experience. This volume traces the sizeable literature that uses historical sociology as its basis to underline the continuities and breakdowns in key political areas of the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Republican era, especially with reference to cultural, institutional, and elite politics perspectives covering the Ottoman and the single-party period (1923–50). The Tanzimat reforms as they relate to the Republican regime's ground-breaking changes of the early 1930s are emphasized, as is the process of transition to a multi-party democracy after the Second World War. The volume also gathers a number of essays on the nature of ideological currents influential in contemporary Turkish politics, taking in Kemalist, Islamist conservative, and nationalist orientations, as well as Turkish versions of liberalism. The second volume of the collection ('Political Institutions and Processes') presents the best research which depicts and evaluates constitutional changes, ending with recent amendments aimed at fulfilling the Copenhagen political criteria for EU membership. Volume II also includes vital material highlighting the character and functioning of the executive branch, the bureaucracy, and parliament. Seminal essays describing and analysing the 1960 and 1980 coups and the 1971 coup-by-memorandum, as well as the so-called 'postmodern' coup of 1997. Other topics covered include: the nature of public policymaking and the operation of patronage networks; the party system and electoral laws; social mobilization and trends in political participation; interest and pressure-group activity; and the political role of the military. The material gathered in Volume III ('Modern Turkey's Foreign Policy') addresses the historical development of foreign policymaking institutions, and the policymaking system. A historical section explores foreign policy under Kemal Atatürk and Ismet Inönü, through to the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. Regionally, the following areas are covered: Turkey's broad geo-strategic situation; Turkish–American relations; Turkey and the European Union; Turkey's relations with the Middle Eastern countries; Greek–Turkish relations and the Cyprus problem; and Turkey's relations with the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet republics in Transcaucasia and central Asia, and Russia. The final volume of the collection ('Major Issues and Themes in Contemporary Turkish Politics') is focused on a number of issues that have gained increasing salience over the last two decades. Topics include: democratization, and the politics of the EU membership process; identity issues, especially religiosity and the rising salience of pro-Islamist movements; ethnicity and the politics of the Kurdish minority; women in Turkish politics; political–economic interactions; and political performance and governance. With an introduction newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Politics of Modern Turkey is an essential collection destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

One of the most significant yet least known periods of modern Turkish history is that of Turkey's second president, İsmet İnönü. Following the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1938, Turkish politicians and intellectuals struggled to redefine Kemalist notions of modernity and democracy, Islam and secularization, the role of the state, and Turkey's place in the world. The Politics of Turkish Democracy examines İnönü's presidency (1938–1950), which developed amid the crises of World War II and the Cold War, global economic and political transformation, and economic and social change within Turkey. John M. VanderLippe analyzes the political discourse of the era and argues that İnönü was a pivotal figure who played the decisive role in Turkey's transition to a multi-party political system.

The study of politics in Turkey : new horizons and perennial pitfalls / Güneş Murat Tezcür -- Democratization theories and Turkey / Ekrem Karakoç -- Ruling ideologies in modern Turkey / Kerem Öktem -- Constitutionalism in Turkey / Aslı Ü. Bâli -- Civil-military relations and the demise of Turkish democracy / Nil S. Satana and Burak Bilgehan Özpek -- Capturing secularism in Turkey : the ease of comparison / Murat Akan -- The political economy of Turkey since the end of World War II / Şevket Pamuk -- Neoliberal politics in Turkey / Sinan Erensü and Yahya M. Madra -- The politics of welfare in Turkey / Erdem Yörük -- The political economy of environmental policymaking in Turkey : a vicious cycle / Fikret Adaman, Bengi Akbulut, and Murat Arsel -- The politics of energy in Turkey : running engines on geopolitical, discursive, and coercive power / Begüm Özkaynak, Ethemcan Turhan, and Cem İskender Aydın -- The contemporary politics of health in Turkey : diverse actors, competing frames, and uneven policies / Volkan Yılmaz -- Populism in Turkey : historical and contemporary patterns / Yüksel Taşkın -- Old and new polarizations and failed democratizations in Turkey / Murat Somer -- Economic voting during the AKP era in Turkey / S. Erdem Aytaç -- Party organizations in Turkey and their consequences for democracy / Melis G. Laebens -- The evolution of conventional political participation in Turkey / Ersin Kalaycıoğlu -- Symbolic politics and contention in the Turkish Republic / Senem Aslan -- Islamist activism in Turkey / Menderes Çınar -- The Kurdish movement in Turkey : understanding everyday perceptions and experiences / Dilan Okcuoglu -- The Transnational Mobilization of the Alevis of Turkey : from invisibility to the struggle for equality / Ceren Lord -- Politics of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey : limits and prospects of populism / Fatih Resul Kılınç and Şule Toktaş -- A theoretical account of Turkish foreign policy under the AKP / Tarık Oğuzlu -- US-Turkey relations since WWII : from alliance to transactionalism / Serhat Güvenç and Soli Özel -- Turkey and Europe : historical asynchronicities and perceptual asymmetries / Hakan Yılmaz -- Turkey's foreign policy in the Middle East : an identity perspective / Lisel Hintz -- Turkey and Russia : historical patterns and contemporary trends in bilateral relations / Evren Balta and Mitat Çelikpala -- Citizenship and protest behavior in Turkey / Ayhan Kaya -- Gender politics and the struggle for equality in Turkey / Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat -- Human rights organizations in Turkey / Başak Çalı -- Truth, justice, and commemoration initiatives in Turkey / Onur Bakiner -- The politics of media in Turkey : chronicle of a stillborn media system / Sarphan Uzunoğlu -- The AKP's rhetoric of rule in Turkey : political melodramas of conspiracy from "ergenekon" to "mastermind" / Erdağ Göknar -- The transformation of political cinema in Turkey since the 1960s : a change of discourse / Zeynep Çetin-Erus and M. Elif Demoğlu -- Political music in Turkey : the birth and diversification of dissident and conformist music (1920-2000) / Mustafa Avcı.

Exposing the strategy of Turkey's ruling elite to obtain cultural hegemony, this book examines the AKP's efforts to rewrite Turkish public memory by promoting its ideas through TV series, movies, propaganda videos, school curricula and material culture in urban public spaces.