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Abstract
The current article delineates the qualified nature of citizenship in the Turkish Republic. Its primary argument is that the content of citizenship in Turkey has been shaped and reshaped since its establishment by a continuous struggle for social and political hegemony. Throughout this struggle the incumbent regimes, Kemalist, populist, and Islamist, subjected the full range of citizenship rights to conceived – internal and external, real and imagined – security threats, which further legitimized restrictions on Turkish citizenship. The recent downturn in Turkish citizenship, which started in 2011 and peaked following the failed coup attempt in summer 2016 and the referendum of April 2017, should be understood in relation to the contemporary turmoil in the Middle East which confronted the Turkish state with a plethora of security challenges and justified further infringement of citizenship rights in Turkish society.
Notes
1. Cumhuriyet, 17 October 1930.
2. Cumhuriyet Encyclopedia, 20, 22, 25 November 1925.
3. Cumhuriyet, 7 January 1929.
4. Volume considerations do not allow an elaborate account of the reasons behind Turkey’s democratic opening. This change was influenced by several personal (Akşin Citation2007, 234), organizational (Penner-Angrist Citation2005), socioeconomic (Waldner, Citation1999, 56–59), and external factors (Zürcher Citation2005, 243–245).
5. In Milliyet alone there were more than 20 reported cases of raids and arrests of orders' followers between 1952 and 1959. Given the harsh restrictions on the press during the second half of the 1950 the real number was probably much higher.
6. Milliyet, 21 July 1953.
7. The DP leadership was later tried by a special court on a small Island in the Marmara Sea, in what is known as the Yassiada Trials. Many DP leaders were sentenced to long-term imprisonment and the top leadership, including PM Menderes and President Bayar, were sentenced to death. While Bayar was excused due to advanced age, Menderes and two others (Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan) were executed.
8. Milliyet, 13 November 1990.
9. Milliyet, 1 February 2004.
10. Interview with Burhan Kayatürk, AKP Deputy in the GNA from Ankara, 15 May 2009.