- This event has passed.
Myth and Rhetoric of the Turkish Model: Changing notions of marginality in Turkey
30 May, 2014 @ 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
with Anita Sengupta, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, India
The Turkish Model or the Turkish Developmental Alternative was promoted in the Central Asian Republics immediately following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Model emphasised the ideal of a ”secular, democratic, liberal society”as a model for the post- Soviet Turkic world and in the process encouraged a”Turkic” rhetoric that emphasized connection between the two regions based on acommon ancestry. While Turkey was presented as ‘’the’’ model of development fora vast region there was also the emergence of a critique of this ‘’modern’’ model from within the state itself particularly in terms of how the Turkish state continued to exclude certain groups from its definition of who constitutes its “relevant’’citizen. Gezi Park and subsequent events within Turkey have brought into questionthe democratic credentials of the state. This presentation questions the myth andrhetoric of a model that emerges in the face of transitions and recedes asalternatives emerge from within.
