Secularism and state policies toward religion represent one of the most important issues in Turkey aver since the establishment of the republic in 1923. This contribution briefly summarizes the interpretation of secularism a la turca under the Kemalist leadership and highlights the significant changes that have happened in this area under the AKP government of Prime Minister Recep Tayip Endogan after 2002. The AKP's attempts to introduce Islam-based morality into public space waswelcomed by various religious communities while diminished pressure from the state authorities allowed religiously oriented Turkish movements to act more freely. With the AKP's consolidation of power, the Hizmet movement of Fethullah Gülen finally forged a closer alliance with Ergodan's government and so became an important source of political and economic support both in Turkey and abroad. THe article also shows that the "moderate" secularism as experienced under the current government relaxed the pressure on vocational schools for imams and preachers and transformed the understanding of the state Sunni-Muslim "Church" organization (Diyanet) in the eyes of former hard-line Islamists. Secular circles, however, reject these developments and new trends as signs of continuous Islamization., Gabriel Pirický., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The "Occupy Gezi" protest movement which swept through Istambul and many other Turkish cities in the summer of 2013 started as an ecological protest to save one of the last green areas of Istanbul. After a brutal police crackdown on protesters and the Prime Minister's unbending stance, the protests spread to the rest of the country in support of the young people who were rebelling against the AKP's increasingly authoritarian style of rule and against the gradual Islamization of Turkish politics and society. This article focuses on the creativity of protesters who, through their use of social media such as Twitter, showed that revolutions need not be about throuwing stones and Molotov coctails, but can instead be about playing with words and undermining the ruling elite's insulting remarks with sarcasm and wit. This postmodern revolution took place in a public space which resembled an art scene where singers artists, students and others joined to create a carneval of civic disobedience based on passive resistence, solidarity and humor., Gabriela Özel Volfová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The article summarizes the development of the Turkish political cartoon from Ottoman period and focuses on political cartoons in the satirical magazine Penguen during the venets related to Gezi park in Istanbul this year. The goal of the article is to show the importance of the satirical press in Turkey, its role as a forum for oppositional opinions and as a conveyor of uncensored news. It also tires to answer the question of how much the tense political situation affects political cartoons., Petra Sedmíková., and Obsahuje bibliografii
In May and June 2013 Turkey witnessed one of the longest and biggest social unrests in its modern history. Protesters all around the country rebelled against the government's authoritarian tendencies and police violence, exemplified by the hars treatment of activists resisting the reshaping of Istanbul's favorite Taksim Square and the adjacent Gezi Park. This essay address the origins, development and outcomes of the Turkish "Occupy Gezi" movement. It seeks the roots of the movement on three interdependent levels centered around the uses and misuses of public space and the instrumentalization of civil society in the hegemonical political discourse. Accordingly, the demonstrations are analyzed as (1) a critique of neoliberal developmentarism in Turkey, reflected in the marketization/commodification of public space and the destruction of the envoronment; (2) as a critique of the majoritarian, non-inclusive concept of democracy that accompanies neoliberal economic policies in Turkey and has manifested itself in the attempt to appropriate public space and to gain effective control over "disloyal" elements of society; and (3) finally as a critique of state paternalism, its most palpable effect being the imposition of conservative values, the distaste for alternative life-styles and the construction of a homogeneous mass of "Turkish citizens" adhering to similar values. We argue that the alleged Islamism of the ruling AKP played only an accessory role in the outbreak and development of the protests. What was an ecological protest and outcry at non-participative urban transformation in the beginning turned into a widespread popular happening whose participants tried to create an alternative to the bureaucratic machinery of the neoliberal state and the increasingly authoritarian behavior of its representatives who are unresponsive and unsensitive to the frustrations of oppositional voices, non-religious classes and different life-styles., Petr Kučera., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Comparisons of the recent protests in Turkey to the Arab Spring are met with negative responses among representatives of the Turkish governmnet as well as those criticizing the govemment. The attitudes of political opponents emphasizing the difference between Turkey and the other Middle Eastern countries show the impact of Orientalism on Turkish identity as well as perceptions of Turkey's role as a model for (not only) Middle Eastern Muslim countries., Jitka Malečková., and Obsahuje bibliografii