Construction of new Turkey: Turkish identity in transition: From kemalist hyper-modernism to religious conservatism

Abstract

Justice and Development Party (JDP), as the sole incumbent force for the last decade and a half, has proven to be an influential political actor with its power and capability to shape-shift the domestic and foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey. Within this context, this work analyses the transformation of the Turkish society through a constructivist perspective in the context of a «transformational shift» from the «traditional» experienced throughout the JDP tenure. JDP’s «new» policy orientation is scrutinized through a constructivist lens to examine the entrenched «clash of identities» between the Islamists and the secularists in Turkish politics. © Peter Lang GmbH.