Justice and Development Party's identity politics between multiculturalism and civilizational discourse

This study tries to elucidate civilizational discourse of Justice and Development Party in the context of its identity politics. It also tries to set forth and critically analyze the critiques and evaluations of different identity groups towards this way of identity politics. The aim of the study is to find what is new about the identity politics of Justice and Development Party comparatively to older political parties in Turkey. It also tries to find, in the face of these differences, what is the viewpoint of various identity groups who are concerned. In accordance of these aims, this study tries to evaluate the concept of civilization and civilizational discourse in terms of historical and sociological background. It also seeks to elucidate the relationship between nation-state and multiculturalism debates during globalization process with these civilizational discourses. On the other hand, it tries to find the lines of rise and advance of civilizational discourses in modern Turkey and its rediscovery in 1990s in the context of the transformation of Islamism. After such a background, we try to deal with the reproduction of civilizational discourse and its relevance regarding the identity politics in Turkey during Justice and Development Party period. Our method in doing this is qualitative method. We used documentation technique and examined official documents, discourses, party and government programs and other documents. In the second phase, we tried to observe the reflections of these discourses and identity politics in the field. Our research technique in doing this is the in-depth interview and documentation technique. In this context, we made in-depth interviews with the representatives of these groups concerned and surveyed their publications. According to the findings of the thesis, we found that different identity groups classified under six titles (Kurds, Alevis, non-muslims, Romanies, Turkish conservative nationalists and secularist nationalists) all thought that a serious transformation took place during Justice and Development Party period. It is found that they all thought that Justice and Development Party dismissed secularist nation-state's exclusionist citizenship and identity approach, and took big steps towards basic rights and liberties and identity-based cultural recognition rights. However, only secularist nationalists refuse the steps in identity politics of Justice and Development Party in toto among these groups and they proposed returning to the nationalist-secularist paradigm. In addition, some groups among Alevis thought that identity politics of Justice and Development Party is an assimilationist one. However, except secularist nationalists, all groups thought that the works done regarding identity politics is insufficient and government should take complementary steps towards final result.