Türkiye'de Sembolik Siyasetin Duygusal Tezahürleri: Yeni Osmanlıcı Anlatının Duygu Haznesi

Abstract

This thesis focuses on reading Turkey’s current politics with regard to emotions. My main argument is that during the AKP’s reign which we witness for the last fifteen years, the power elites constantly addressed, called for and mobilized collective emotions of the masses. Thus, this study aims to focus on a political narrative, a social phenomenon and a reservoir of emotions, which is Neo-Ottomanism, to have an insight of the AKP’s political experience in the light of theoretical discussions on politics of emotions and symbolic politics. The political narrative of Neo-Ottomanism has gone beyond the political discourse and disseminated to the social and everyday life practices, thus it has constantly been reproduced by the social actors. Behind this tendency, there lie various emotional dynamics which give way to create an imaginary bond between the past, the present and the future while at the same time serve to produce a national state of mood. Therefore, this thesis argues that the political narrative of Neo-Ottomanism, has determined Turkey’s ethos and pathos in the 2000’s by unveiling, transforming and mobilizing the historical desires, passions, rages of the masses. For the purpose, I aim to focus on three main symbolic politics resorts, each of which serves as “rich” emotional components of Neo-Ottomanist national identity formation: leader, space and myth. In each resort, I aim to put forth the symbolic political nature of them as well as serving as symbols to call for and mobilize the mood which Neo-Ottomanist narrative addresses.