Security, secularism and gender: the Turkish military’s security discourse in relation to political Islam

Abstract

This article examines the sexual and corporeal constructions of risk within the security discourses of the Turkish military in response to the rise of political Islam and Islamist identities in Turkey. I look at the Turkish military as the self-proclaimed guardian of the secular Republic, which, until recently, has actively configured political Islam as a risk to national security and ingrained such risk onto the body of the headscarved woman. My analysis covers a time frame from 1980s to late 2000s when the military issued memorandums and public statements against the rise of political Islam and pursued a belligerent campaign to erase ‘Islamist’ identities both from civilian politics and its own structure. The military implemented security regulations and dress codes to detect the ‘Islamist’ military personnel who are most conspicuously identified with the dress style of the women in their families. I explore these security regulations through women’s everyday and personal experiences in relation to their dress, headscarf style and comportment in military spaces and try to understand how ‘Islamism’ is constructed as a security threat in sexually and corporeally specific ways. I demonstrate how secularism is constructed, and needs to be protected, on the basis of a particular regime of gender and sexuality at the merger of traditional gender norms and secular Western modernity.

Seguridad, secularismo y género: el discurso de seguridad de las fuerzas armadas turcas en relación con el islam político

Este artículo estudia las construcciones sexuales y corpóreas del riesgo dentro de los discursos de seguridad de las fuerzas armadas turcas en respuesta al aumento del islam político y las identidades islamistas en Turquía. Analizo las fuerzas armadas turcas como un autodenominado guardián de la República secular, el cual, hasta hace poco, ha configurado activamente al islam político como una amenaza para la seguridad nacional y adherido esta amenaza al cuerpo de la mujer con la cabeza cubierta. Mi análisis cubre un período de tiempo desde los años 80 hasta fines de los 2000 cuando las fuerzas armadas emitieron memorandos y declaraciones públicas contra el ascenso del islam político y llevaron a cabo una campaña beligerante para eliminar las identidades “islamistas” tanto de la política civil como de sus propias estructuras. Las fuerzas armadas implementaron regulaciones de seguridad y códigos de vestimenta para detectar al personal militar “islamista” que se identifica más claramente por el estilo de vestimenta de las mujeres en sus familias. Exploro estas regulaciones de seguridad a través de las experiencias cotidianas y personales de las mujeres en relación con su vestir, el estilo de cubrirse la cabeza y su conducta en los espacios militares e intento comprender cómo el “islamismo” es sexual y corpóreamente construido como una amenaza a la seguridad de formas específicas. Demuestro cómo el secularismo se construye, y necesita ser protegido, sobre la base de un régimen particular de género y sexualidad en la fusión de normas de género tradicionales y la modernidad occidental secular.

安全、现世主义与性别：土耳其军队关于政治伊斯兰的安全论述

本文检视在回应土耳其国内兴起的政治伊斯兰与伊斯兰身份认同中，土耳其军队的安全论述，在性及身体上的风险建构。我将土耳其军队视为自我宣称的现世共和国的守护者，直到晚近为止，土耳其军队一向积极地将政治伊斯兰塑造成国族安全的威胁，并将此般威胁烙印在戴头巾的女性身体上。我的分析，涵盖自 1980 年代至 2000 年代末期的时间框架，该时期是土耳其军队发佈备忘录及公共声明，反对政治伊斯兰的兴起，并以敌对的方式，诉求同时从公民政治与自身结构中，消灭“伊斯兰主义”的身份认同。军队执行安全规范及衣着规定，以侦测因家中女性穿着而被高度怀疑的“伊斯兰主义”军队人员。我透过与女性衣着、头巾形式和在军队空间中的举止有关的女性每日及个人经验， 探讨上述的安全规范，并试图理解“伊斯兰主义”如何以特定的性与身体的方式，被理解为安全威胁。我将展现，在传统性别常规与现世西方现代性的合併中，现世主义如何在特定的性别和性倾向制度基础上进行建构、且需受到保护。

Keywords:

• risk
• headscarf
• secularism
• Turkish military
• political Islam
• security

Palabras claves:

• riesgo
• pañuelo para cubrir la cabeza
• secularismo
• fuerzas armadas turcas
• islam político
• seguridad

关键词::

• 危险
• 头巾
• 现世主义
• 土耳其军队
• 政治伊斯兰
• 安全

Acknowledgements

Alison Bain and Linda Peake provided invaluable guidance for this article and the research involved. Also Jennifer Hyndman and Michael Nijhawan gave insightful comments in different version of this paper and throughout the research process. I also thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their feedback and Barbara Marie Toews for her help in copyediting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. The lack of military’s political authority is most recently marked by amendment the military’s task definition on 27 June 2013, which reduced originally defined the military’s task and responsibilities to ‘protection only against external’ threats and put it under strict control of the parliament (“TSK’nın 35. Maddesi Deği¸ti – 30 Temmuz 2013” 2014). The former task definition: ‘[T]o protect and safeguard the Turkish mainland and the Turkish Republic as designated by the Constitution’ was considered the legal pretext to legal interventions and the control the military held over the AKP. This transformation can be considered as a sequel to institutional transformations in military’s status that started early 2000s with EU integration policies (Ünlü Bilgiç 2009), as well as the legal court cases such as Sledgehammer and Ergenekon, which have significantly challenged the military’s authority (Bakiner 2013). Even though the research process has been effected by the loss of power and authority that the military has been experiencing since then, in this research I particularly focused on a time period when the military was effectively exercising security regulations in its own spaces on religious identities.

^2. It can be observed that even the novel and complex forms of politics such as the 2013 Istanbul Gezi uprisings (Altinordu 2013) continue to gravitate toward an Islamist/secularist divide on and through the headscarved woman’s body. Such observation was made on the welcoming surprise over headscarved women’s participation in the protests (Camdereli 2013), as well as alleged attacks on headscarved women by the so-called secularist protestors (‘Video Casts Doubt over Alleged Attack on Headscarved Woman’ 2014) during the protests.

^3. Since the beginning of 2010s, the AKP government has introduced various legislations regarding abortion and methods of delivery (Tremblay 2014), which recently extended into debates over co-education and mixed dormitories and private housing for male and female university students (Uzun 2014).

^4. Secularizing reforms in Turkey started with abolishment of Islamic leadership and sharia law were abolished in 1924, followed by religious schools and organizations were closed in 1928 via introduction of a secular national education system (Zürcher 2004). Adoption of Western time and metric measurements, the Latin alphabet, monogamous modern marriages under the purview of civil law constitute examples to the reforms (Azak 2010).

^5. This research draws on a strand of post-structuralists critiques of secularism that is pioneered by Asad (1993, 2003) and Connolly (1995, 1999). These scholars set the groundwork for problematizing the very centrality of the secular/religious dichotomy to our understandings of politics and secularism through historical analysis of genealogies and discourses (Mahmood 2005; Hirschkind 2006; Agrama 2010).

^6. Ottoman Fez was perceived as the symbol of previous religious regime and was abandoned in 1924.

^7. Pro-Islamist political parties can be noted to start with the Democratic Party (1950), which was closed down with the coup, d’état in 1960. However, it was with National Outlook Party (1970–1972) that political Islam in Turkey had its own political representation. After NOP, several pro-Islamist parties were opened and closed due to alleged violation of the principle of secularism: National Salvation Party (1972–1981), the Welfare Party (1983–1998) and the Virtue Party (1997–2001), Felicity Party (2001–) and Justice and Development Party (2001–) (Tank 2005, 7).

^8. Besides emergence of new class of Islamist capitalist entrepreneurs (the case of MUSIAD, see (Insel 2003; Keyman 2013), the emergence of the veiling fashion industry, the establishment of cafés and restaurants serving only non-alcoholic beverages, and everyday spaces such as segregated beaches (Komecoglu 2006; Seckinelgin 2006) mark the rise if Islamism in Turkey.

^9. Previously, the military was largely inactive because due to its alignment with the status quo and Republican elite. In 1960, 1971 and 1980, the military conducted three major interventions, all of which had significant impacts on the role of the military in the political affairs of the nation-state (Sakallioğlu 1996, 1997).

^10. A crucial medium of its political infiltrations is The National Security Council, established in 1960. With NSC, the military could ‘convey’ opinions to the council of ministers, regarding domestic and international issues (Sakallioglu 1997; Ünlü Bilgiç 2009).

^11. I assigned pseudonyms for each participant, yet I indicate the age and relevant information on their husbands’ occupation category.

^12. The total number of personnel working under this institution reaches the number of 677,285 when 7276 reserve officers and 393,530 privates as well as 52,667 civil workers are taken into consideration (‘TSK Personel Sayısını Açıkladı – TRT Türk Haberler’ 2014).

^13. Religious order.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hulya Arik

Hulya Arik is a PhD candidate at the Geography Department at York University, Toronto, Canada. She is also a sessional instructor at the department of Human Geography at University of Toronto Scarborough. Her research focuses on constructions of the female body and sexuality at the intersections of security, secularism and political Islam within the context of the Turkish Military.