From the morality of living to the morality of sying: hunger strikes in Turkish prisons

Political hunger strikes have been part of the debates on human rights in many countries around the world. This paper explores the preconditions for and motives behind hunger strikes in Turkey by conceiving the hunger strikers as a part of citizenship politics through which strikers not only express their views against certain common issues, but also declare total opposition to an unjust condition within their political community. The paper focuses on the question of why some such “citizens” choose to participate in hunger strikes, which appears as an individual commitment to achieve a certain common objective. In doing so, the meaning of the experiences of hunger strikers and their universal right to live are elaborated in relation to their political and moral views. Hunger strikes are suggested to be seen as voluntary fasting, undertaken as a means of civil disobedience against an injustice within the context of citizenship. As examples of non-violent political acts, hunger strikes are not only part of citizenship politics but also expressions of commitment to achieving one’s goals through non-aggressive means for the common good of all citizens. Moreover, they can also be considered examples of martyrdom/heroism because hunger strikers altruistically risk their life for a public cause. As a particular altruistic act, hunger strikes can also be viewed as an effective form of communication directed toward fellow citizens. Moreover, they are expressions of self-determination for having control over and for one’s own life conditions. Finally, hunger strikes can be conceptualized as a struggle for transforming the configuration of structures and practices of citizenship about which one is passionately concerned. In this context, hunger strikes seem to be struggles for recognition in a relationship between two subjects, in which one subordinates the other

Dialogism and democracy

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This thesis examines the notion of democracy not as a straightforward political process for decision-making, but as a type of dialogue. One of the main reasons for choosing this particular approach is to reveal the conditions of genuine democratic politics. A politics built on the image of people who can express themselves without fear and are free of obligation of sameness. Therefore, this thesis excavates the assumptions and complex relations of values by virtue of which democracy can be produced, reproduced and validated. It approaches Bakhtin’s idea of dialogue as an important but neglected concept in democratic studies and explores what dialogue is for Bakhtin, showing how his general theory of language and meaning not only implicates particular concepts of democracy such as addresser/ruler and addressee/ruled, but also reveals the conditions of freedom that is necessary to produce the momentum towards the enabling practices of political life. With respect to these, it discusses how Bakhtin’s idea of dialogue anticipates normative concerns that are central to contemporary democratic theory: Is it possible to establish a balance between unity and diversity or between the universal and the particular in a way that promotes recognition of differences as an instrument of democratic rule? Or, is it possible to prevent the inevitable tension between constituting a regulatory framework for political participation (which inevitably posits some fixity and exclusion) and celebrating heteroglossia? In order to address these issues, this thesis considers politics not only as a united body, but also a heteroglossic and multivoiced body.Koçan, GürcanPh.D

Citizen Alevi in Turkey: beyond confirmation and denial

Critics of the current national citizenship models argue that, although it rests on claims to be inclusionary and universal, it can never eliminate exclusionary and particularistic practices when challenged by those identities excluded from the historical trajectory of "nation building." Turkish citizenship has been a form of anomalous amalgamation since its conception. On the one hand, the state insisted on the pre-emptive exclusion of religion and various communal cultural identities from politics, while, on other hand, it promoted a particular religious identity primarily as a means of promoting cultural and social solidarity among its citizens. Contemporary Alevi movements, representing the interests of a large minority in Turkey, provide a new source of energy for the revision of concepts of citizenship. Alevis have suffered from prejudice, and their culture has been arrested and excluded from the nation building process. They were not able to integrate into the form of national identity based on the "secular" principles that the republican state has provided as a means of promoting solidarity among citizens. What Alevis seek is a revised citizenship model in terms of a system of rights assuring the condition of neutrality among culturally diverse individuals

Corruption and democracy in Turkey

In this paper we explore the reasons for corruption occurrence and to some extent political, economic, and moral consequences of it on the potency of democracy in Turkey. The paper has three parts. In the first part, we briefly review major theories of corruption in the literature. Here we argue that perception and occurrence of corruption are path-dependent and hence theorizing about corruption in relation to a particular space and time requires taking into consideration formal and informal institutional frameworks of this context (Lederman 2005). In the second part, by considering the peculiarities of the Turkish social formation, we briefly review some of the major findings of the growing literature on corruption in recent years and how corruption occurring at different levels impact on the effectiveness of democratic governance (Doig and Theobald 1990 and Moreno 2002). In concluding, we provide a concise assessment of some of the leading consequences of corruption in Turkey for the growth and vigor of democratic institutions and practices

Rejuvenating citizenship in the context of diversity

In this paper, we take up notions of "citizenship", "democracy", "political community" and "social movements" within the context of diversity. We emphasize that people are moral beings, and for citizens who are members of a political community, their membership articulates their moral values as they appeal to unity in terms of the common good or interest. To this background we reconstruct social movements, first and foremost, as friendship groupings, and then as political forces for expanding the span of citizenship