The Role of Postmodern Military Coup of 1997 on Transformation of Turkish Islamist Movement

INTRODUCTION

Since the early days of the Turkish Republic, Islamist parties and groups positioned themselves against the values and institutions of the secular republic. Their stance against the secular state also defined their position against the west and modernization. For Islamists, the Kemalist state was in cooperation with the West and all the decisions made by the secular state against religion were inspired by the West. According to them, all the attempts to modernize and westernize the state specifically were aimed at undermining Islamic values.

The struggle between state and Islamists, initiated by the reforms to create a modern nation state, such as the abolition of the Caliphate, the abolition of Islamic schools, the abolishment of sharia law, the introduction of Latin script, the removal of state religion from the constitution, deepened after `the transition to multi-party period. This struggle shaped the mindset of Islamist political parties until mid-1990s. During this period of time, Islamic parties defined themselves as “anti-western” and rejected political culture and values of the West. Therefore, their political discourse always attacked to liberalism, democracy, secularism and the European Union since they were the products of the Western world.

However, the liberalization of the Turkey after 1980 in economic and political realms and the developments in global political order transformed the political nature of Turkish Islamist movement and Islamist parties have turned to a liberal and democrat wing in Turkish political life.

In this paper, I will focus on the dynamics of the transformation of Islamist groups and argue that the military intervention on February 1997 became a turning point for the Islamis...

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