A New Concept of Republican Türkiye

Abstract

In the political life of modern Türkiye, in the 20^th and at the beginning of the 21^st century, the issue of creating and then changing the new state administration was on the agenda; in the scientific literature, it was called the concepts of Kemalism and Erdoğanism. The term ‘Erdoğanism’ first appeared after Erdoğan’s victory in the general elections in 2011 and gained more recognition on the world stage due to active foreign policy ideals based on neo-Ottomanism. When comparing Kemalism and Erdoğanism, it was revealed that these two political doctrines share some common features, but there are also significant differences between them. There are similarities between them in terms of authoritarianism, the neopatrimonial system and populism, as well as in the issue of nationalist rhetoric. The fundamental differences between them are expressed mainly in the replacement of secularism, which is characteristic of Kemalism, by Islamism. At the same time, the principle of Westernization of Kemalism was replaced by the policy of separating Erdoğanism from the West and opposing it, which had a significant impact on the formation of a new political course for the country.

In this paper, we consider the analysis of Kemalism and Erdoğanism in a continuous chain, which make it possible to visualize both the historical aspect of the issue and its modern reality. In the present research, we draw a clear line on the problems that actively appeared in the relationship between them.

The analysis of the two main political doctrines of modern Türkiye – Kemalism and Erdoğanism – and the examination of the above-mentioned issues using the method of critical analysis allowed us to clearly understand the key issues and historical aspects of the problem.