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Abstract
This study examines the relationship between religion and politics in current Turkish society, particularly since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) consolidated its power over state institutions and replaced the Kemalist establishment in the early 2010s. It argues that the AKP has re-instrumentalized the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and used its mosques to enact a performance of nationalism, deviating from a Kemalist, laicist-national identity towards a more encompassing, Ottomanist, religious one. After discussing the unique understanding of laicism in Turkey and the transformation of Diyanet as a state apparatus, content and discourse analyses are used to examine the texts of 1,200 Friday khutbas, weekly prayers that are ordinarily prepared and distributed nationwide by Diyanet. These indicate how citizens perform their nation simply by participating in gatherings, composing the congregation, listening to imams, and being exposed to the reminders of their (re-)identified nationality. The content analysis of Friday khutbas over three distinct periods—1927, 1997–2010, and 2011–2018—illustrates that, as political power shifts over time, the repetition of certain banal reminders used in the khutbas has resulted in different performances of the nation and that, under the rule of the AKP, a new performance has already begun.
Disclosure statement
There is no conflict of interest in publishing this article.
Acknowledgments
I owe special thanks to all of my peers and students who have generously taken part in the process of data-collection for this article.
Notes
1 Görmez quoted in Öztürk, “Turkey’s Diyanet,” 632.
2 The limitations of this study do not allow us to go through the discussions about the convoluted meanings and implications of the concept of ‘nation’ in the AKP parlance. We rather accept the ambiguity of this concept, that it is significantly Islamic but somehow also ethnic, empire-inspiring and even transnational. See Dönmez and Yalman, Nation-Building.
3 Sullivan, Geography Speaks, 7.
4 Alexander, Performance of Politics, 286.
5 Alexander, “Cultural Pragmatics,” 29.
6 Fox and Miller-Idriss, “Everyday,” 537.
7 Woronov, “Performing,” 655.
8 Alexander, “Cultural Pragmatics,” 33.
9 Billig, Banal Nationalism, 6.
10 Eligür, Mobilization of Political Islam, 243–275.
11 Şimşek, “Semiology of AKP.”
12 Kaya, “Islamisation of Turkey.”
13 Hintz, Identity, 100–126.
14 Sturm, “Religion As,” 302.
15 Özek, Türkiye’de, 45.
16 Gözaydın, “Management,” 11.
17 Davison, “Turkey,” 341.
18 Anderson, “Kemalism,” 6.
19 Lewis, “Islamic Revival,” 39.
20 Margulies and Yıldızoğlu, “Uses.”
21 Cizre-Sakallıoğlu, “Parameters,” 237.
22 Article 1, Act No. 633 quoted in Gözaydın, “Management,” 13.
23 Margulies and Yıldızoğlu, “Uses.”
24 Smith, “Civic,” 460.
25 Öztürk and Sözeri, “Diyanet,” 629.
26 Article 136, 1982 Turkish Constitution, https://global.tbmm.gov.tr/docs/constitution_en.pdf.
27 Lapidus, History, 509.
28 Gözaydın, Diyanet, 221–222.
29 Kara, Cumhuriyet, 114; 165–166.
30 Kenar, “Bargaining,” 151–155.
31 Bardakoğlu, “Moderate,” 372.
32 Erdoğan quoted in Yavuz, Secularism, 159.
33 See Yılmaz and Bashirov, “The AKP.”; Sarfati, “Turkey’s Slide.”
34 Saleem, State, 179.
35 The numbers in the figure are gathered from General Directorate of Budget and Fiscal Control, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Finance, http://www.bumko.gov.tr/EN,2680/budget-figures-since-1924.html.
36 Tepe, “Contesting,” 178.
37 Öztürk, “Turkey’s Diyanet,” 632.
38 Cornell, “Rise.”
39 Borthwick, “Islamic Sermon,” 301.
40 Sullivan, Geography Speaks, 19.
41 Alexander, “Cultural Pragmatics,” 75.
42 Usta, Atatürk, 9.
43 Sunier and Landman, Diyanet, 51-3.
44 Tepe, “Contesting,” 182.
45 DHGM, “Liberty and Responsibility,” 24 March 2014. The texts of khutbas between January 2015 and December 2018 are accessible via official website of General Directorate of Religious Services (DHGM), Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, https://www2.diyanet.gov.tr/DinHizmetleriGenelMudurlugu/Sayfalar/HutbelerListesi-Ingilizce.aspx. The earlier material is not available online. For the purposes of this study, the texts of khutbas between 1996 and 2000 and between 2001 and 2015 are obtained as hardcopies from the Polatlı (Ankara) District Mufti Office and Antalya Provincial Mufti Office, respectively.
46 DHGM, “Islam Rejects Racism of Any Kind,” 05 June 2015.
47 DHGM, “A Dagger in the Back of Brotherhood Backbiting,” 15 December 2017.
48 DHGM, “Now Is the Time to Heal the Wounds,” 05 February 2016.
49 DHGM, “The Test of Our Faith and Humanity – The Refugees,” 07 July 2017.
50 DHGM, “Let’s Stand Together and Build Our Future,” 22 July 2016.
51 DHGM, “The Worst Type of Mischief Is to Exploit the Sacred Values of Islam,” 29 July 2016.
52 DHGM, “The Glorious Resistance That Salas Bore Witness: 15 Temmuz,” 14 July 2017.
53 Özer, “Türkiye’de.”
54 Billig, Banal Nationalism, 8.
55 Börekçi quoted in Usta, Atatürk, 22.
56 Ibid., 32–33.
57 Ibid., 37.
58 Ibid., 76.
59 Gürpınar and Kenar, “Nation,” 68.
60 Saçmalı, “Compliance,” 68.
61 See Kenar, “Bargaining,” 159–165.
62 Goodman, “Performing a ‘new’ nation,” 184.
63 DHGM, “The Glorious Resistance That Salas Bore Witness: 15 Temmuz,” 14 July 2017 (emphasis mine).
64 DHGM, “Turn to Your Lord Alone With Hope,” 31 March 2017.
65 DHGM, “Our Ending Sorrow: Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa,” 21 July 2017.
66 DHGM, “The Spirit of Unity and Solidarity,” 26 January 2018.
67 DHGM, “The Hejira: A Holy Journey,” 22 September 2017.
68 DHGM, “Now Is the Time to Heal the Wounds,” 05 February 2016.
69 Borthwick, “Islamic Sermon,” 306.
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Hakan Övünç Ongur
Hakan Övünç Ongur, is Associate Professor of Political Thought. He is the author of Consumer Society, Neurotic Culture and Fight Club (2011, Istanbul: Ayrıntı Publishing) and Minorities of Europeanization: The New Others of European Social Identity (2014, Lanham: Lexington Press). He also has published several articles and book chapters about his research interests.