Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of culture and politics in Turkey. Conspiracism is an important phenomenon in understanding Turkish politics. [1] This is explained by a desire to "make up for lost Ottoman grandeur", [1] the humiliation of perceiving Turkey as part of "the malfunctioning half" of the world, [2] and a "low level of media literacy among the Turkish population." [3]
Turkish author and journalist Mustafa Akyol describes the reason for the prevalence of conspiracy theorizing in Turkey as "it makes us feel important. If the world is conspiring against us, we must be really special. It is, I believe, the way we Turks make up for our lost Ottoman grandeur." [1] Turkish economist Selim Koru has pointed to the humiliation of perceiving Turkey as part of the "malfunctioning [half]" of the world. [2]
Turkish consumers are the second-most media illiterate when compared to countries in Europe, leaving them especially vulnerable to fake news, a 2018 report released by the Soros Open Society Institute said. A combination of low education levels, low reading scores, low media freedom and low societal trust went into making the score, which saw Turkey being placed above only North Macedonia. [3] According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018, Turkey with some distance is the country with most made-up news reports in the world. [4]
A distinct feature of conspiracy theorizing in Turkey is that at the alleged command and control end of an alleged conspiracy scheme is usually narrated to be governments because the worldview taught in the Turkish education system is massively focused on the state. [5]
Doğan Gürpınar, a scholar whose areas of study include nationalism, historiography, and ideologies in Turkey, argues that conspiracism's power to shape intellectual discourse and ideological standpoints and to represent the state tradition is "unique to Turkey". [6]
The Turkish Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces consist of the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The Chief of the General Staff is the Commander of the Armed Forces. In wartime, the Chief of the General Staff acts as the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of the President, who represents the Supreme Military Command of the TAF on behalf of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Coordinating the military relations of the TAF with other NATO member states and friendly states is the responsibility of the General Staff.
The Treaty of Lausanne is a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially resolved the conflict that had initially arisen between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied French Republic, British Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, and the Kingdom of Romania since the outset of World War I. The original text of the treaty is in English and French. It emerged as a second attempt at peace after the failed and unratified Treaty of Sèvres, which had sought to partition Ottoman territories. The earlier treaty, signed in 1920, was later rejected by the Turkish National Movement which actively opposed its terms. As a result of Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, Turkish forces recaptured İzmir, and the Armistice of Mudanya was signed in October 1922. This armistice provided for the exchange of Greek-Turkish populations and allowed unrestricted civilian, non-military passage through the Turkish Straits.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, also known as Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until the Surname Law of 1934, was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism (Atatürkism).
Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek was a Turkish poet, novelist, playwright, Islamist ideologue, and conspiracy theorist. He is also known simply by his initials NFK. He was noticed by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, who later became his teacher.
Halil Berktay is a Turkish historian at Ibn Haldun University and was columnist for the daily Taraf.
The Dönme were a group of Sabbatean crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who coercively converted outwardly to Islam, but retained their Jewish faith and Kabbalistic beliefs in secret. The movement was centered mainly in Thessaloniki. It originated during and soon after the era of Sabbatai Zevi, a 17th-century Sephardic Jewish Rabbi and Kabbalist who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah and eventually feigned conversion to Islam under threat of death from the Sultan Mehmed IV. After Zevi's forced conversion to Islam, a number of Sabbatean Jews purportedly converted to Islam and became the Dönme. Some Sabbateans lived on into 21st-century Turkey as descendants of the Dönme.
In Turkey, secularism or laicism was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, democratic, secular state, aligned with Kemalism.
Mehmet Cavit Bey, Mehmed Cavid Bey or Mehmed Djavid Bey was a Dönme–Ottoman economist, newspaper editor and leading politician during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. As a Young Turk and a member of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) had positions in government after the constitution was re-established. In the beginning of the Republican period, he was controversially executed for his alleged involvement in an assassination attempt against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Antisemitism in Turkey refers to acts of hostility against Jews in the Republic of Turkey, as well as the promotion of antisemitic views and beliefs in Turkey.
The Sèvres syndrome refers to a popular belief in Turkey that dangerous internal and external enemies, especially the West, are "conspiring to weaken and carve up the Turkish Republic". The term originates from the Treaty of Sèvres of the 1920s, which partitioned the Ottoman Empire among Armenia, Greece, Britain, France, and Italy, leaving a small unaffected area around Ankara under Turkish rule; however, it was never implemented since it was left unratified by the Ottoman Parliament and due to Turkish victory on all fronts during the subsequent Turkish War of Independence. Turkish historian Taner Akçam describes this attitude as an ongoing perception that "there are forces which continually seek to disperse and destroy us, and it is necessary to defend the state against this danger".
Bangladesh–Turkey relations are the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Turkey. Both countries are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Turkey has an embassy in Dhaka and Bangladesh has one in Ankara and a consulate in Istanbul.
Kadir Mısıroğlu was a Turkish writer, publisher and conspiracy theorist. He was known for his staunch opposition to the early Kemalist regime of Turkey and advocating the restoration of the caliphate. Mısıroğlu's claims include that Joseph Stalin ordered his army to read the Quran on the sands against the Nazis, William Shakespeare being a secret Muslim, and that Karl Marx's Das Kapital was dictated by Jinn. He penned over 50 books, which include non-fiction, fiction, and poems. His works have been criticised for their approach, awareness and bias.
Conservatism in Turkey is a national variant of conservatism throughout Turkey reflected in the agendas of many of the country's political parties, most notably the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which describes its prevailing ideology as conservative democracy. Elements of Turkish conservatism are also reflected in most parties situated on the political right, including the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). In Turkey, it is often referred to as Türk tipi muhafazakârlık.
Erdoğanism refers to the political ideals and agenda of Turkish president and former prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who became prime minister in 2003 and served until his election to the Presidency in 2014. With support significantly derived from charismatic authority, Erdoğanism has been described as the "strongest phenomenon in Turkey since Kemalism" and used to enjoy broad support throughout the country until the 2018 Turkish economic crisis which caused a significant decline in Erdoğan's popularity. Its ideological roots originate from Turkish conservatism and its most predominant political adherent is the governing Justice and Development Party, a party that Erdoğan himself founded in 2001.
The public image of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan concerns the image of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, current President of Turkey, among residents of Turkey and worldwide.
Kemalist historiography is a narrative of history mainly based on a six-day speech delivered by Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] in 1927, promoted by the political ideology of Kemalism, and influenced by Atatürk's cult of personality. It asserts that the Republic of Turkey represented a clean break with the Ottoman Empire, and that the Republican People's Party did not succeed the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).
Mehmed Şevket Eygi was a Turkish journalist, writer, columnist, conspiracy theorist, and Holocaust denier. Ideologically an Islamist and anti-communist, his columns led to Bloody Sunday in 1969. He was imprisoned for many years, including for demagoguery in 2002 and 2006.
Ulusalism is a secularist, left-wing neo-nationalist ideology in Turkey that is influenced by Kemalism. Until the late 20th century, the word had been used as an equivalent of nationalism. In the mid-1990s, it transformed into a ideology led by left-wing nationalists, such as Attila İlhan, Mümtaz Soysal, and Doğu Perinçek.
Kurdish–Turkish relations covers the historical relations between Kurds and Turks.
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