Auf dem Weg in eine ‚andere Republik’
Towards ‘Another Republic’

Continuity and Ruptures in the Republic of Turkey

Summary/Abstract: The Turkish Republic experienced several major disruptions in its history, such as the Major military coups in 1960 and 1980, that would have allowed for seeking a more segmented periodization in the way of speaking of a second (or even a third) republic. Yet, the perceptionof continuity in the history of modern Turkey was so dominant that the concept of one Turkish Republic has always prevailed, domestically and outside Turkey. The article argues that we may characterize present-day Turkey as a second republic. On the one hand, many long-term structural characteristics of the Turkish Republic are missing today: The grip of the military on Turkish politics, so dominant since 1960, has vanished; Kemalism, the dominant ideology since the 1920s, has evaporated as has the Kemalist elite that determined Turkey’s trajectory for so many decades. On the other hand, the long period of the AKP’s rulesince 2002, particularly the state of emergency imposed after the aborted coup in July 2016(extended several times since) and the referendum in April 2017 that gave the state presidency overwhelming powers have changed Turkey’s political system and culture in such a fundamental way that we must seek a new understanding and periodization of modern Turkish history.Therefore, the term ‘second republic’ is proposed here.

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