Filiz Başkan

İzmir University of Economics · Political Science and International Relations

In competitive authoritarian regimes, forming a pre-electoral coalition (PEC) provides a mean for opposition parties to defeat the incumbent party. In Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party initiated a PEC by forming the People’s Alliance with two other parties. Like the opposition in other competitive authoritarian regimes, Turkey’s oppo...

This article deals with the relation between recent manifestations of arabesk music (nostalgic arabesk albums by popular figures and Serkan Kaya, a new singer of arabesk) and the transformation of Turkey’s sociocultural climate during the 2010s. Drawing from concepts of nostalgia and neoliberal consumerism, it examines how contemporary arabesk musi...

This study reports on an international project in which students taking the course Contemporary Issues in Turkish Politics in spring 2011 and fall 2011 at two institutions of higher education, ‘Gettysburg College’ in the United States and ‘Izmir University of Economics’ in Turkey, worked together in virtual learning environments to complete various...

Supporters of the Fethullah Gülen community, an informal institution with an influential role in Turkish political life, have formed an international chain of schools and student dormitories, and a communications web that includes newspapers, journals, television and radio channels, as well as other companies and finance institutions. Although the...

The 2015 parliamentary elections in Turkey marked an important turning point as the outcome ended the 12 years of single-party government by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Apart from the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), two other opposition parties, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the People’s Democratic...

Although academic studies on the positions of political parties in European Union member states concerning European integration have increased since the end of 1990s, there is a lack of systematic and comprehensive research on this topic in Turkey. This article examines the positions on European integration of Turkish political parties competing in...

The parliamentary elections in Turkey were held on 12 June 2011. The elections marked an important turning point as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) became the winner for the third time and with a higher vote, 49.9 per cent. The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the ethnically oriented Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), increased their votes...

During the post‐1980 period, the rise of the Justice and Development Party to power in 2002, increasing visibility of Islamic symbols like the use of the headscarf in the cultural field and the growth of Islamic businesses and markets in the economic field, have all caused anxiety among secular groups in Turkey, concerned that it will lose its econ...

Political party competition constitutes an important component of democratic consolidation. In this respect, party dissolutions are generally regarded as impeding consolidation of democracies. This study addresses the relationship between party dissolutions and democratic consolidation, and offers an analysis of recent dissolutions of religiously a...

In discussions on globalization, it has been generally proposed that globalization, by removing boundaries, constitutes a threat to the survival of nation-states, the backbone of nationalism. The aim of this study is to answer the question of how a nationalist party articulates the notion of globalization into its discourse to shed light on its pla...

This chapter aims to examine the development of Asya Finans as an example of Islamic banking. Asya Finans is an Islamic bank in two respects: first, it avoids interest-based transactions and relies instead on profit-sharing; and second, it is affiliated to the Islamic Fethullah Gülen Community. The chapter addresses the following questions: 1) what...