ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 outlines the establishment and rise of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) in the aftermath of a deep financial crisis hitting Turkey in 2001. It portrays the JDP as a conservative right-wing populist party efficiently using imperial heritage, religion, and myths in mobilizing masses. As a political party established and prospering in a period of time when the civilizational discourse has flourished on a global scale in the 2000s, it has profited from the Huntingtonian ‘clash of civilizations’ paradigm. Investing in the culturalist, religious and civilizational discourses, the JDP has also contributed to the reinforcement of the civilizational paradigm, which has in return legitimized the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the rest of the world. The Chapter discusses the JDP’s gradual turn from a pro-European to a Eurosceptic party, displaying neo-Ottomanist, Islamist, occidentalist, and authoritarian undertones. The Chapter illustrates that the Party maintained a populist, Manichean, Islamist, and neo-Ottomanist set of discourses, strategies, and policies to consolidate its rule. Referring to the interviews conducted in Istanbul, the Chapter reveals that the supporters of the party have a very strong belief that the Ottoman history and Islam were omitted in the national curricula designed by the Kemalist republican state. Creating a revanchist populist style, the party has ideologically instrumentalized Ottoman heritage. However, some of the interlocutors’ testimonies have indicated that they are sceptical of Ottoman heritage’s ideological use.
