DEMOCRACY, THE RULE OF LAW AND AUTOCRATIZATION


  • Activism in the Face of Authoritarianism: Environmental Movements in Contemporary Turkey

  • The Genealogy of Turkish “Exceptional” State: The State of Emergency Policies, Constitutionalism and Citizenship in Turkey

  • The Politics of Legality of the Authoritarian Regime in Turkey

  • Analysis of Media Control as a Symptom of Democratic Backsliding in the AKP Era

  • Brutal Urban Policy for/of an Authoritarian Regime: Centralization of the Urban Governance and Struggles Against the State Hegemony

  • The End of the Peace Process and Turkey’s New Political Regime

    • DEMOCRACY, THE RULE OF LAW AND AUTOCRATIZATION


  • Activism in the Face of Authoritarianism: Environmental Movements in Contemporary Turkey

  • The Genealogy of Turkish “Exceptional” State: The State of Emergency Policies, Constitutionalism and Citizenship in Turkey

  • The Politics of Legality of the Authoritarian Regime in Turkey

  • Analysis of Media Control as a Symptom of Democratic Backsliding in the AKP Era

  • Brutal Urban Policy for/of an Authoritarian Regime: Centralization of the Urban Governance and Struggles Against the State Hegemony

  • The End of the Peace Process and Turkey’s New Political Regime

    • Activism in the Face of Authoritarianism: Environmental Movements in Contemporary Turkey


    Researcher
    Dr.Burcu Binbuğa

    Project description

    The last decades have witnessed the surge of authoritarian rules on the one hand and the simultaneous rise in popular mobilization and uprisings against democratic erosion in different parts of the world on the other. As opposed to previous forms of authoritarianism that repress the democratic institutions and civil society, authoritarian regimes in the contemporary era maintain democratic institutions, legitimacy based on the elections, and formal democratic procedures as a means to obtain political power while suppressing the opposition through the erosion of liberal democratic values including civil and political liberties and limiting the democratic space for the opponents. Against this new form of authoritarianism, the form of activism has also changed. Rather than focusing on creating a structural change within society, this new form of activism is geared towards the transformation of society by changing social relations, creating new subjectivities within the mobilization and actualizing the future dreams in the present. This research project aims to understand the "new form of activism" in the face of rising authoritarianism through examining environmental movements in contemporary Turkey.
    Duration

    2020-2022

    Funding

    Einstein Foundation Berlin Academic Freedom Program

    The Genealogy of Turkish “Exceptional” State: The State of Emergency Policies, Constitutionalism and Citizenship in Turkey


    Researcher
    Dr. Zafer Yılmaz

    Project description

    Almost half of the political life has been experienced under the state of emergency and martial law policies in the Turkish Republic. However, there are only few studies, searching the political and legal reasons behind such a continuity. This research aims to fill this gap by focusing on the impacts of state of emergency and martial law policies on the constitutionalism and legal and constitutional foundations of citizenship in Turkey from 1960 coup to 2019. In that context, it aims to shed light on how these policies have been affecting the separation of powers, the legal and constitutional foundation of citizenship, and finally constitutionalism in a broader sense in the Turkish context. By employing archival research and frame analysis, the research aims to uncover the mindset of law and policymakers and to reveal deeply rooted legal and the political mechanisms, which strengthen the everlasting appeal to the state of emergency policies and martial law declarations to govern the so-called political and social “crises” of Turkish politics. The central hypothesis of the research is that the main sources of the dominance of the executive prerogative principle and emergency policies can be found in the institution of political society and citizenship regime rather than in the civil-military relationship. To expose these legal and political sources, I will analyze decisions and public declarations of governments and military on the state of emergency and martial law, related parliamentary meetings, parliamentary commissions, and decisions of the Turkish Constitutional Court on the subject after 1960 coup in addition to secondary data analysis.
    Duration

    2020-2021

    Funding

    Einstein Foundation Berlin Academic Freedom Program

    The Politics of Legality of the Authoritarian Regime in Turkey


    Researcher
    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeynep Kıvılcım

    Project description

    The project aims to study the function and operation of law both as an instrument of persecution and as a tool for resistance within the authoritarian liberal regime in Turkey. It will critically discuss the politics of legality and the role of the judiciary in the dynamics of the authoritarian liberal regime in Turkey. It studies the functional role of courts and judicial actors in the production and maintenance of the authoritarian liberal regime and will also discuss the possibilities to make use of law, both substantially and instrumentally, for resisting the establishment of the authoritarian rule by law.
    Duration

    2019–2021

    Funding

    Einstein Foundation Berlin Academic Freedom Program

    Publications related to the project:

    “The Politics of Legality of the Authoritarian Liberal Regime in Turkey”, in Regime Change in Turkey. Neoliberal Authoritarianism, Islamism, and Populism, edited by Ezgi Pınar, Errol Babacan, Melehat Kutun, Zafer Yılmaz, Routledge, 2021

    "Authoritarian Legality and Survival of Migrants and Refugees in Turkey", New Perspectives on Turkey Special Issue, “Vulnerabilities, Resilience: Survival and Coping Strategies of Migrants and Refugees in Turkey”, forthcoming 2023

    Presentations related to the project:

    “Authoritarian politics of legality in the field of migration”, ISA Forum (Virtual): Challenges of 21st Century: Democracy, Environment, Inequalities, Intersectionality, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 23-28 February 2021.

    “Academic Freedom and Neo-liberal Authoritarianism in Turkey”, Threats to Academic Freedom – Historical and Contemporary Perspective, Workshop Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 21-22 October 2020.

    "Enduring Effects of the State of Emergency Measures in Turkey", Lecture at Leiden University Law School (Virtual), 23 June 2020.

    “The Politics of Legality of the Authoritarian Liberal Regime in Turkey”, Conference on ‘Rights and Equality in Contemporary Turkey’, Humboldt University, Berlin, 13-15 November 2019.

    Analysis of Media Control as a Symptom of Democratic Backsliding in the AKP Era


    Researcher
    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gülçin Balamir Coşkun

    Project description

    Turkey started to experience a democratic backsliding with an unprecedented acceleration after 2007 elections. This democratic backsliding has been latent and silent in some domains while it has been more visible and fast in others. Media is one of the domains where the democratic breakdown started with latent interventions, but continued by an open and harsh ruining. The AKP government oppressed firstly all main stream media channels where some opponent voices could be heard. Then, they provided a full control on them by the way of direct leverage over media ownership. In this framework, this project aims to analyse the role of media control to hamper opposition forces to challenge AKP’s dominance. This research is designed as a multi-method study that will employ legal documents’ review, discourse analysis and in-depth interview with a group of journalists.
    Duration

    October 2018–April 2021

    Funding

    Einstein Foundation Berlin Academic Freedom Program

    Publications related to the project:

    Coşkun, G.B. (2020) Media capture strategies in new authoritarian states: the case of Turkey. Publizistik 65, 637–654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-020-00600-9

    Coşkun, G.B. & Kölemen, A. (2020) Illiberal Democracy or Electoral Autocracy: The Case of Turkey. In Democracy at Risk: The Emergence of Illiberalism (Boris Vormann and Michael Weinman (eds.)), London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429347368

    Coşkun, G.B. (2021). Turkey's New Internet Law and Its Effects on Freedom of Media. https://www.resetdoc.org/

    Brutal Urban Policy for/of an Authoritarian Regime: Centralization of the Urban Governance and Struggles Against the State Hegemony


    Researcher
    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba İnal-Çekiç

    Project description

    Evidences from many countries suggest that neoliberal urban restructuring often involves new forms of authoritarianism based on the selective limitation of citizenship rights. However, while urban citizens’ means of influencing urban politics are diminishing, we are also witnessing the emergence of stronger urban movements. Turkey is one of those countries that provide good examples in terms of authoritarian urbanization and urban resistance movements. Resistance against authoritarian urbanization and their re-claiming urban land strategies in the public sphere is the subject of the research. The aim is to describe the shift in the urban restructuring in Turkey and to introduce the urban resistance movements in a repressive environment and solidarity amongst the organizations that wage struggles against the neo-liberal and authoritarian urban change.
    Duration

    2019–2021

    Funding

    Einstein Foundation Berlin Academic Freedom Program

    The End of the Peace Process and Turkey’s New Political Regime


    Researcher
    Assoc. Prof. Ayşegül Kars Kaynar

    Project description

    The project examines transformation of parliamentary democracy in Turkey between June 2015 and April 2017. It pays particular attention to how legitimacy principle of the regime shifted away from majoritarianism, and argues that the state of emergency regime since July 2016 is a consequence, rather than the cause of this transformation.
    Duration

    2019–2020

    Funding

    Einstein Foundation Berlin Academic Freedom Program

    RESEARCH PROJECTS

    OUR RECENT
    PUBLICATIONS

    PUBLICATIONS