The constitutive role of loss in understanding Kemalism and Islamism in contemporary Turkey: A comparative look at Republic Protests and Palestine Demonstrations

Abstract

In the last decade, Turkey has witnessed widely attended demonstrations organized by Kemalist and Islamist NGOs and political parties. The questions regarding why these demonstrations are organized, and what they tell us about Turkey, both politically and socially, have been themes left yet unexplored in the academia. In order to come up with answers to these questions, this thesis compares two of these demonstrations – the Republic Protest and the Palestine Demonstration, which took place at Çağlayan Square, Istanbul, on 29 April 2007 and 4 January 2010 respectively. Previous studies conducted on Kemalism and Islamism show us that in Turkey, the binary opposition between Kemalism and Islamism is deconstructing and a hybrid power, as in the form of the Justice and Development Party, is rising. Furthermore, these studies point out to how, in response to the hybrid, Kemalist and Islamist actors are waging a battle that they are gradually losing. Hence, it is argued that Kemalism and Islamism, as homogenous ideologies, are dissolving. However, what I find more important in these responses, and hypothesize in this thesis is that, in these demonstrations, what is lost also becomes constitutive of these actors; loss is the motivating force behind Kemalist and Islamist responses and acts as the raison d’etre (reason for being) for these actors. Loss, both material and symbolic, becomes an element through which these actors define themselves, reassert their identities and legitimize their existence. Responses to material loss, as in lives (Muslims killed in Gaza), the Presidential Palace, parliamentary power or a sacred heritage correspond to the symbolic loss of power, utopias, and belief in the assumptive Kemalist and Islamist worlds. Loss is traumatic; it invalidates the very existence of these actors and devours their world of meaning. It is also constitutive; it builds a new and nostalgic platform where the old memories trapped within the “essence” are brought up, reenacted and recontextualized within the contemporary. Therefore, I conclude that in order to understand what Kemalism and Islamism means in contemporary Turkey, and what the words, Kemalist and Islamist, denote, the symbolic meaning of loss needs further analysis. With its focus on Kemalist and Islamist performances, this thesis aims to provide a facet of such analysis.